Topics

  • The White Screen of Death
  • Internal Server Mistake
  • Error Establishing Database Connection
    • Incorrect wp-config.php Information
    • Problems with Your Web Host
    • Compromised Website
  • Failed Motorcar-Upgrade
  • Connection Timed Out
  • Maintenance Style Following Upgrade
  • Yous Make Changes and Nothing Happens
  • Pretty Permalinks 404 and Images not Working
  • Custom Mail service Type 404 Errors
  • Specific Error Messages
    • PHP Errors
      • Fatal Errors and Warnings
      • Parse errors
      • Apply of an undefined abiding
    • Database Errors
      • Mistake xiii – Cannot Create/Write to File
      • CREATE Command Denied to User
      • Error 28
      • Error 145
      • Unknown Column
    • Resource

If you are encountering a WordPress error message or white screen, don't panic. Someone has probable encountered the same message earlier and it tin easily be solved.

This page lists the almost common WordPress errors experienced past WordPress users, and provides a starting indicate for fixing them. At WordPress Back up, you will besides find links to more detailed pages or forums where a volunteer will be at that place to help.

The White Screen of Expiry

Both PHP errors and database errors can manifest as a white screen, a bare screen with no information, unremarkably known in the WordPress community as the WordPress White Screen of Expiry (WSOD).

Before resorting to drastic measures, there are a number of reasons for the WordPress white screen of death:

  • A Plugin is causing compatibility issues. If you tin can access the Assistants Screens effort deactivating all of your Plugins then reactivating them ane by one. If you are unable to access your Screens, log in to your website via FTP. Locate the binder wp-content/plugins and rename the Plugin binder plugins_old. This volition deactivate all of your Plugins. You can read more about manually deactivating your plugins in the Troubleshooting FAQ.
  • Your Theme may be causing the problem. This is peculiarly probable if you are experiencing the white screen of expiry after you have just activated a new Theme, or created a New Site in a WordPress Network. Log in to the WordPress Administration Screens and activate a default WordPress Theme (e.g. Twenty 20-One). If you are using WordPress 5.8 and below, please switch to 20 Twenty-One theme since the Twenty 20-Ii theme requires 5.ix and to a higher place. If you can't admission your Administration Screens, access your website via FTP and navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. Rename the binder for the active Theme.

The WP_DEBUG feature ofttimes provides additional information.

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Internal Server Mistake

Internal Server Error message

There can be a number of reasons for an Internal Server Error. Here are some matter you tin can exercise to solve it:

  • The nigh probable issue is a corrupted .htaccess file. Log in to your site root using FTP and rename your .htaccess file to .htaccess_old. Try loading your site to run across if this has solved your problem. If it works, brand sure to visit Settings > Permalinks and reset your permalinks. This will generate a new .htaccess file for y'all.
  • Try deactivating all of your Plugins to meet if information technology is a Plugin issue. If you are unable to access your WordPress Assistants Screens, deactivate your Plugins via FTP by post-obit these instructions.
  • Switch the Theme to a WordPress default Theme (e.g. Twenty 20-One) to eliminate any Theme-related problems. If yous are using WordPress 5.viii and below, please switch to Twenty Xx-One theme since the Xx Xx-Two theme requires v.ix and to a higher place.
  • Increment the PHP Retentivity limit
  • Endeavour re-uploading the wp-admin and wp-includes folders from a fresh install of WordPress.

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Error Establishing Database Connection

If you get a page featuring the message "Fault Establishing Database Connection," this ways that at that place is a problem with the connection to your database and at that place could be a number of reasons for this. The following are possible reasons and solutions.

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Wrong wp-config.php Information

"Mistake establishing a database connectedness" is usually caused by an error in your wp-config.php file. Access your site in your FTP customer. Open up wp-config.php and ensure that the following are correct:

  • Database name
  • Database username
  • Database countersign
  • Database host

Larn more virtually editing wp-config.php.

If you are sure your configuration is correct you could try resetting your MySQL password manually.

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Problems with Your Web Host

The next pace is to contact your spider web host. The following hosting issues may be causing the problem:

  • Your database has met its quota and has been close down.
  • The server is downwardly.

Contact your hosting provider to see if either of these issues is causing your trouble.

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Compromised Website

If you have checked wp-config.php for errors, and confirmed with your host for hosting issues, information technology is possible that your site has been hacked.

Scan your site with Sucuri SiteCheck to ensure that it hasn't been compromised. If it has you should cheque out My Site was Hacked.

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Failed Auto-Upgrade

There volition be situations when the WordPress auto-update feature fails. Symptoms include:

  • A blank white screen and no data.
  • A alert that the update failed.
  • A PHP fault bulletin.

The WordPress automatic upgrade feature may fail due to a glitch in the connection with the primary WordPress files, a trouble with your Internet connection during upgrade, or incorrect File Permissions

To update your WordPress site manually, encounter the Manual Update article.

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Connectedness Timed Out

The connexion timed out fault appears when your website is trying to do more than your server can manage. It is particularly common on shared hosting where your retentiveness limit is restricted. Here are some things you can try:

  • Deactivate all Plugins. If deactivating all the WordPress Plugins on your site resolves the upshot, reactivate them one-by-one to see which plugin is causing the problem. If you are unable to access your Administration Screens, read nearly how to manually deactivate your plugins.
  • Switch to a default WordPress Theme. If you lot are using WordPress 5.eight and below, delight switch to Twenty Twenty-One theme since the Twenty Twenty-2 theme requires five.ix and higher up. This should dominion out any Theme-related bug.
  • Increase your memory limit in wp-config.php. If you are on shared hosting you lot may have to enquire your hosting provider to increase your memory limit for you.
  • Increment the maximum execution time in your php.ini file. This is not a WordPress core file so if y'all are not sure how to edit information technology, contact your hosting provider to ask them to increase your maximum execution time. See below instructions for increasing maximum execution time.

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Maintenance Manner Following Upgrade

When WordPress updates, it automatically installs a .maintenance file. Following upgrade, y'all may receive a message that says "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Please check back in a infinitesimal." The maintenance file may not take been removed properly.

To remove this bulletin exercise the following:

  1. Log in to your website using your FTP programme
  2. Delete the .maintenance file, which will exist found in your site root.

Read more nearly the maintenance manner issue.

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You Make Changes and Naught Happens

If you are making changes to your website and you do not meet the changes in your browser, you may need to clear your browser cache. Your browser stores information about the websites that you visit. This makes it faster to load websites when y'all visit them because the browser simply has to reload information already stored on your computer, rather than downloading information technology again.

If you make a change to a website and the browser does non think it is significant, it volition simply load the data from your cache, and you won't see your changes. To gear up the trouble, simply empty your browser cache or close the tab and reopen the link.

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If y'all are experiencing 404 errors with pretty permalinks and a white screen when you upload images, mod_rewrite may not be enabled in Apache by default. Mod_rewrite is an extension module of the Apache web server software which allows for "rewriting" of URLs on-the-wing. It's what you demand to make pretty permalinks work.

WordPress Multisite networks usually experience this just it can also occur on shared hosting providers or after a site migration or server motion.

Reset your permalinks through Settings > Permalinks. If this does not work, you may accept to edit the .htaccess file manually.

# Brainstorm WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^alphabetize\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /alphabetize.php [50]
</IfModule>
# End WordPress

If y'all are not familiar with editing your .htaccess file, contact your hosting provider to inquire them to turn on mod_rewrite rules. There is more information on pretty permalinks in the WordPress Codex.

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Custom Post Blazon 404 Errors

You lot may experience problems with 404 errors and custom postal service types. Endeavour the post-obit steps:

  1. Make certain that none of your Custom Mail Types and single pages have the same name. If they do, rename the single folio, including the slug.
  2. Log in to your WordPress Administration Screens, navigate to Settings > Permalinks. Select the default permalinks. Save. Then reselect your preferred permalinks. This will flush the rewrite rules and should solve your problem.

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Specific Error Messages

At that place are a number of different errors that volition appear in your error logs. To access your mistake logs you volition demand to plough on debugging so locate your error log via FTP. The following data will help you to decipher some of the mutual error letters.

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PHP Errors

Below are some mutual PHP mistake letters.

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Fatal Errors and Warnings

If you receive a alarm that WordPress cannot modify header information and headers are already sent, it ordinarily means that you accept spaces or characters before the opening tags or subsequently the endmost tags. Read how to set the headers already sent error.

If y'all are experiencing this problem when yous take but installed WordPress y'all may accept introduced a syntax error into wp-config.php. These instructions will help you to fix the error.

Call to undefined function

An error reading call to undefined role could hateful that a WordPress Plugin is trying to find a file or data which isn't present or attainable in the code. Reasons for this include:

  • An mistake when trying to auto-install or auto-upgrade a Plugin. Try installing or upgrading the Plugin manually.
  • An mistake when trying to auto-install or auto-upgrade a Theme. Try installing or upgrading the Theme manually.
  • You may be using an incompatible WordPress Plugin or incompatible Theme. This could happen with older versions of WordPress and a new WordPress Plugin, or if you are trying to use a WordPress Multisite Plugin on a unmarried site installation. Upgrade WordPress to resolve this result.
  • Yous may exist trying to call a function that doesn't exist. Check functions.php for misspellings.

Try deactivating the WordPress Plugin or irresolute the WordPress Theme that acquired the error to announced. If you lot are unable to exercise this from inside the Administration Screens, you may take to do this manually via FTP.

Allowed memory size wearied

An Allowed Memory Size Exhausted error means that your WordPress installation doesn't have enough retentiveness to achieve what you desire. You tin try out the following steps:

  • Increase your memory limit in wp-config.php
  • Increment your memory limit past editing php.ini. This is not a file that comes with WordPress so if you lot are unfamiliar with it you should contact your spider web host about increasing your memory limit.
Maximum execution time exceeded

Yous may receive a message such as "Maximum execution time of thirty seconds exceeded" or "Maximum execution time of 60 seconds exceeded". This means that it is taking to longer for a process to consummate and it is timing out. At that place are a number of ways to ready this error.

Editing .htaccess

Make sure you back upwardly .htaccess earlier you edit it.

Add the following line to .htaccess:

php_value max_execution_time 60

Editing php.ini

Add the post-obit to php.ini 

max_execution_time = 60

If you are unsure of how to brand these changes, or if you lot are on shared hosting that prevents you from making them yourself, you should contact your hosting provider and ask them to increase your maximum execution fourth dimension.

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Parse errors

Syntax Error

A syntax error ways that you have made a fault while creating your PHP structure. Yous could, for instance, be;

  • Missing a ; at the end of an individual line.
  • Using curly quotation marks.
  • Missing a curly subclass.

When this error appears it volition tell you lot which file the error appears in (functions.php for case) and approximately which line (it may not always be the exact line so be sure to check just before and just after) in the code.

Unexpected

If you are receiving an error which says 'parse error: unexpected' this usually means that you have forgotten to include a grapheme. The most mutual are:

  • Unexpected '=' : you have forgotten to include the $ when referencing a variable
  • Unexpected ')' : y'all have forgotten to include the opening subclass (
  • Unexpected '(' : y'all have forgotten to include the closing bracket )
  • Unexpected T_STRING: you have forgotten a quotation mark or a semi-colon at the finish of the previous line
  • Unexpected T_ELSE: y'all take an else statement with no opening if statement

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Use of an undefined constant

As with parse errors, "use of an undefined abiding" means that you are missing a character. It could be ane of the following:

  • Missing a $ when referencing a viariable
  • Missing quotation marks around array keys

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Database Errors

The following errors may appear in relation to your WordPress database.

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Error xiii – Cannot Create/Write to File

There are a number of reasons why you may be experiencing this error.

MySQL cannot create a temporary file.

The MySQL variable tmpdir is set to a directory that cannot be written to when using PHP to admission MySQL. To verify this, enter MySQL at the control line and type show variables. You'll get a long list and 1 of them will read: tmpdir = /somedir/ (whatsoever your setting is.)

To solve this, alter the tmpdir variable to point to a writable directory.

  1. Find the my.cnf file. On *nix systems this is usually in /etc/. On Windows system, Find the my.ini.
  2. One time plant, open this in a unproblematic text editor and find the [mysqld] section.
  3. Under this section, discover the tmpdir line. If this line is commented (has a # at the get-go), delete the # and edit the line and then that it reads: tmpdir = /writable/dir where /writable/dir is a directory to which you can write. Some utilize /tmp, or y'all might too try /var/tmp or /usr/tmp. On Windows, use C:/Windows/tmp.
  4. Save the file.
  5. Shutdown MySQL past typing mysqlshutdown -u -p shutdown.
  6. Beginning MySQL by going to the MySQL directory and typing ./bin/safe_mysqld &. Usually the MySQL directory is in /usr/local or sometimes in /usr/ on Linux systems.

The file permissions are incorrect

Correct the File Permissions.

If none of this make sense and you accept someone to administrate your organization for you lot, show the above to them and they should be able to figure it out.

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CREATE Command Denied to User

This fault occurs when the user assigned to the database does not take adequate permissions to perform the action to create columns and tables in the database. You will need to log in to CPanel or Plesk to give your database user acceptable permissions.

Alternatively you can create a new user to assign to your database. If y'all exercise create a new user y'all volition need to ensure that information technology is updated in wp-config.php.

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Error 28

It could be because:

  • you are out of space on /tmp (wherever tmpdir is), or,
  • you lot accept as well many files in /tmp (fifty-fifty if there is lots of free infinite), or,
  • Your enshroud on your server is total

This is a MySQL mistake and has nix to practice with WordPress direct; y'all should contact your host almost it. Some users have reported that running a "repair table" command in phpMyAdmin stock-still the trouble.

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Fault 145

This indicates that a table in your database is damaged or corrupted. If yous are comfortable using phpMyAdmin you can use these instructions on repairing your MySQL database tables.

Always backup your database before performing any actions on it.

If you have not used phpMyAdmin before, or are uncomfortable doing so, contact your web host and enquire them to run Check/REPAIR on your database.

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Unknown Column

An unknown column error tin can be caused by a missing cavalcade in the database. If you take just upgraded WordPress and so effort manually upgrading again. To update your WordPress site manually, run across the Update commodity.

If yous are running a database query when you lot encounter the fault then y'all may by using incorrect quotation marks for the identifier quote grapheme. This question on Stack Overflow provides more details. As well come across the MySQL documentation.

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Resource

  • MySQL Error Codes and Messages