How to fix the WordPress white screen of death

The "white screen of death" is what people call it when a WordPress site loads a completely blank page. No error, no logo, nothing. Sometimes it is the whole site, sometimes only the admin area, sometimes a single page.

It looks dramatic, but the cause is nearly always ordinary: WordPress hit a PHP error and the server is set up not to show it. Your content is almost certainly still there. The job is to find which piece of code is failing and switch it off.

What causes the white screen

Four causes account for most cases:

• A plugin or theme conflict. Two plugins, or a plugin and your theme, try to do the same thing in incompatible ways. This often appears right after you install or update something.
• PHP running out of memory. A heavy page builder, a large import or a badly written plugin uses more memory than the server allows, and PHP stops.
• A failed update. An automatic update was interrupted halfway, leaving a plugin, theme or WordPress itself with a mix of old and new files.
• Damaged core files. Less common, but a failed upload, a disk problem on the server or malware can leave WordPress's own files broken.

Before you start, think about what changed last. An update that ran last night, a plugin you installed this morning or a host that upgraded PHP is usually the quickest route to the answer.

Step 1: Get into your site's files

With a white screen you can't rely on the WordPress dashboard, so you work on the files directly. There are two ways in:

1. Your host's file manager. Log in to your hosting account and look for "File Manager" in the control panel. You'll see a list of folders; WordPress usually lives in one called public_html or www, or a folder named after your domain. Inside it you should see wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes and a file called wp-config.php.
2. FTP or SFTP. Use a program such as FileZilla with the FTP details from your hosting account. You'll see the same folders in the right-hand panel once connected.

Before changing anything, download a copy of wp-config.php and, if your host offers it, take a backup from the control panel. It takes a minute and means every step below can be undone.

Step 2: Switch off every plugin at once

Plugins are the most common cause, and you can disable all of them in one move without the dashboard.

1. Open the wp-content folder. You'll see folders called plugins, themes and uploads.
2. Rename plugins to plugins-off.
3. Reload your site in a private browser window.

If the site comes back, a plugin is the cause. Rename the folder back to plugins. WordPress will show every plugin as deactivated. Go to Plugins in the dashboard and reactivate them one at a time, reloading the site after each. When the white screen returns, the last plugin you switched on is the culprit. Leave it off and look for an update, a replacement or a fix from its developer.

Renaming the folder doesn't delete anything. Plugin settings live in the database and are still there when the plugins come back.

Step 3: Switch to a default theme

If disabling plugins didn't help, test the theme.

1. Open wp-content/themes. You'll see a folder for each installed theme.
2. Check that a default theme such as twentytwentyfive is there. If not, download it from WordPress.org and upload the folder.
3. Rename your active theme's folder, for example from mytheme to mytheme-off. WordPress falls back to a default theme.

If the site loads, plain but working, the theme is the problem. Rename the folder back once you know, and don't make further changes to a custom theme unless you're comfortable with PHP. A theme built for you by a developer is a good moment to call that developer, or us.

Step 4: Turn on debugging to see the real error

A white screen hides the error message. WordPress can write it to a log file instead.

1. Open wp-config.php in the file manager's editor.
2. Find the line define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );. Replace it with these three lines:
   define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
3. Save, then reload the white page once.
4. Open wp-content/debug.log. Look for lines starting with "PHP Fatal error". The file path in that line names the plugin or theme at fault.

A line that mentions "Allowed memory size exhausted" means PHP ran out of memory. You can raise the limit by adding define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' ); above the line that says "That's all, stop editing!" in wp-config.php. If your host caps memory lower, the setting won't take effect and you'll need to ask them to raise it.

When you're done, set WP_DEBUG back to false and delete debug.log. Left in place, the log can show visitors details about your server.

Step 5: Repair WordPress core files

If the log points to files inside wp-admin or wp-includes, WordPress itself may be damaged, often by an interrupted update. Download the same version of WordPress from WordPress.org, then upload fresh copies of the wp-admin and wp-includes folders over the old ones. Never overwrite wp-content or wp-config.php: that is where your site lives.

Also check for a file called .maintenance in the main folder. An update that stopped halfway can leave it behind. Deleting it is safe.

Step 6: Restore from a backup

If you have a recent backup from before the problem started, restoring it is a reasonable last step. Most hosts keep daily backups you can restore from the control panel. Before you do, check the date: restoring last week's backup removes any orders, form entries or posts added since. And save a copy of the current broken state first, in case the backup turns out to have the same problem.

When to stop and call someone

Stop and get help if:

• The site takes payments, bookings or leads and every hour offline costs you money
• The debug log names a custom theme or code you don't understand
• You see files you didn't add, or the log mentions strange file names: the site may be hacked, which needs a different fix
• You've tried the steps above and the screen is still white

Our emergency WordPress repair is a flat $599, paid upfront. We take a full backup before touching anything, find the cause and fix it. Most fixes are done by the next morning. Order by 5pm Eastern and it's done by 9am Eastern.