Fix WordPress White Screen of Death

The WordPress White Screen of Death!! You visit your site but all you see is a white page.

Don’t worry or freak out! This is a pretty common WordPress error.

You refreshed your website after updating your themes and/or plugins and now you see just a white screen.

This does NOT mean your site is gone, deleted and you’re starting over. It just means something is broken.

Usually, when this happens you can still access the WP Admin. Which will use to resolve the problem!

Steps to Fix WordPress White Screen of Death

1. Try to access the WP Admin

Go to, yourdomain.com/wp-login.php (replacing yourdomain.com with your actual domain name).

If you can access the admin you’re going to move onto step 2. If you can NOT access the admin you can either use FTP to change the name of your plugin and theme folders, which will deactivate them, or you can access your database through your hosting provider and phpMyAdmin.

Here is an example tutorial on how to access phpMyAdmin from GoDaddy.

2. Deactivate the plugins in WP Admin

• In the sidebar of the dashboard click on plugins.

• Check the box next to Plugins above the list. This will automatically select all the plugins.

• Then in the drop down select “Deactivate” and click Apply.

• Refresh your homepage. Did it work? If not, then we have one more test, deactivating the theme (next step).

3. Deactivate the theme you’re currently using in WP Admin

• In the sidebar of your dashboard click on “Appearance”. That will display your themes.

• Locate TwentyFifteen or TwentySixteen and click “Activate”.

Refresh your homepage. Did it work?

If not, you need to check out some other common WordPress error fixes and see if you can resolve it that way.

Next Steps

Alright, 90% of the time that is going to resolve the WordPress White Screen of Death issue. However, that is only the beginning.

If deactivating the plugins brought the site back up, now you need to find the plugin causing the issue.

• Reactive the plugins 1-by-1 and refresh the home page. If it breaks again, you now know which of your plugins is causing the problem.
• First, make sure your plugin is up-to-date.
• If it is, maybe try to upload an older version via FTP, sometimes it’s the update that broke it.
• Either way, you should do a Google search for your plugins name or go to wordpress.org/plugins if it was a free plugin and see if you can find it there. There may already be someone info on how to resolve the issue.

If deactivating the theme brought the site back up, now you need to reach out to the developer to find out why.

• First, check to make sure your theme is up-to-date.
• If it is, maybe try to upload an older version via FTP, sometimes it’s the update that broke it.
• Either, you should do a Google search for your theme and see if you can find a form on wordpress.org or at the developer site. Chances are, others are having the same issue.

If none of this works…Or you don’t want to deal with it…

I can do it for you!

Just submit a One Time Fix request here!