The “white screen of death” is a blank page where your site should be, with no error message. On current versions of WordPress you will more often see “There has been a critical error on this website” instead. Both mean the same thing: PHP hit a fatal error and stopped. Here is how to find and fix it.
First: check your email
Since WordPress 5.2, when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error, WordPress emails the site admin a link to recovery mode. That link logs you in with the broken plugin paused, so you can deactivate or update it. Check the admin email inbox (and spam) before anything else.
Turn on debugging to see the real error
Connect with SFTP or your host’s file manager, open wp-config.php, and replace the existing WP_DEBUG line with:
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );Reload the page, then open wp-content/debug.log. The last “PHP Fatal error” line names the file that failed, which usually points straight at a plugin or theme folder. Set WP_DEBUG back to false when you are done.
Common causes and fixes
A plugin
If the error names a plugin, rename that folder in wp-content/plugins (for example add -off to the end). WordPress deactivates it. If you cannot tell which plugin, rename the whole plugins folder, confirm the site loads, rename it back and reactivate plugins one at a time. Our plugin conflict guide covers this in detail.
The theme
If the error is in wp-content/themes, rename your active theme folder. WordPress falls back to a default theme if one is installed. A recent edit to functions.php is a frequent culprit.
Memory limit
“Allowed memory size exhausted” means PHP ran out of memory. See how to increase the WordPress memory limit.
PHP version
An old plugin on a new PHP version (or the reverse) can fail on load. If the white screen started right after your host upgraded PHP, update the plugin or temporarily switch PHP back while you sort it out.
Only the admin is blank
If the front end works but the dashboard is white, it is still usually a plugin. The same rename approach works.
Still stuck?
See our broader guide to handling a WordPress critical error. If the site is down and you need it back now, our $79 one-time fix gets it working again, and a Care Plan keeps it that way by testing updates on staging first.