Topics

  • The White Screen of Death
  • Internal Server Error
  • Fault Establishing Database Connection
    • Incorrect wp-config.php Information
    • Bug with Your Web Host
    • Compromised Website
  • Failed Automobile-Upgrade
  • Connection Timed Out
  • Maintenance Manner Following Upgrade
  • You 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 constant
    • Database Errors
      • Fault thirteen – Cannot Create/Write to File
      • CREATE Command Denied to User
      • Error 28
      • Error 145
      • Unknown Cavalcade
    • Resources

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

This page lists the most common WordPress errors experienced by WordPress users, and provides a starting point for fixing them. At WordPress Back up, y'all will besides find links to more than detailed pages or forums where a volunteer will exist there to help.

The White Screen of Death

Both PHP errors and database errors can manifest equally a white screen, a blank screen with no data, normally known in the WordPress customs as the WordPress White Screen of Expiry (WSOD).

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

  • A Plugin is causing compatibility issues. If you tin access the Administration Screens try deactivating all of your Plugins and then reactivating them one by one. If you are unable to access your Screens, log in to your website via FTP. Locate the folder wp-content/plugins and rename the Plugin binder plugins_old. This will deactivate all of your Plugins. You can read more nigh manually deactivating your plugins in the Troubleshooting FAQ.
  • Your Theme may be causing the trouble. This is especially likely if you are experiencing the white screen of death 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 Twenty-1). If you are using WordPress 5.8 and below, delight switch to Twenty Twenty-1 theme since the Twenty Twenty-Two theme requires 5.9 and above. If you can't admission your Administration Screens, access your website via FTP and navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. Rename the folder for the active Theme.

The WP_DEBUG feature often provides boosted information.

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Internal Server Error

Internal Server Error bulletin

In that location can be a number of reasons for an Internal Server Mistake. Here are some thing you can do to solve it:

  • The almost likely result is a corrupted .htaccess file. Log in to your site root using FTP and rename your .htaccess file to .htaccess_old. Attempt loading your site to encounter if this has solved your problem. If it works, make sure to visit Settings > Permalinks and reset your permalinks. This volition generate a new .htaccess file for you lot.
  • Effort deactivating all of your Plugins to see if information technology is a Plugin upshot. If you are unable to access your WordPress Administration Screens, deactivate your Plugins via FTP past post-obit these instructions.
  • Switch the Theme to a WordPress default Theme (due east.g. Xx Twenty-One) to eliminate whatever Theme-related problems. If you are using WordPress 5.8 and below, please switch to Twenty Twenty-One theme since the Twenty Twenty-2 theme requires 5.9 and above.
  • Increase the PHP Retentiveness limit
  • Try re-uploading the wp-admin and wp-includes folders from a fresh install of WordPress.

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Error Establishing Database Connexion

If you get a folio featuring the message "Error Establishing Database Connectedness," this ways that there 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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Incorrect wp-config.php Data

"Fault establishing a database connection" is ordinarily acquired past an error in your wp-config.php file. Admission your site in your FTP client. Open up wp-config.php and ensure that the following are right:

  • Database name
  • Database username
  • Database password
  • Database host

Learn more nigh editing wp-config.php.

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

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Issues with Your Web Host

The adjacent stride is to contact your spider web host. The following hosting bug may be causing the problem:

  • Your database has met its quota and has been shut downwards.
  • The server is downward.

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

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Compromised Website

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

Scan your site with Sucuri SiteCheck to ensure that information technology hasn't been compromised. If it has y'all should check 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 information.
  • A warning that the update failed.
  • A PHP error bulletin.

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

To update your WordPress site manually, see the Transmission Update article.

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Connection Timed Out

The connection timed out error appears when your website is trying to practise more than your server can manage. Information technology is particularly mutual on shared hosting where your memory limit is restricted. Hither are some things you lot can try:

  • Deactivate all Plugins. If deactivating all the WordPress Plugins on your site resolves the upshot, reactivate them one-by-one to encounter which plugin is causing the problem. If you are unable to access your Administration Screens, read most how to manually deactivate your plugins.
  • Switch to a default WordPress Theme. If you are using WordPress 5.8 and below, please switch to 20 20-One theme since the Twenty Xx-Two theme requires v.ix and above. This should rule out whatsoever Theme-related bug.
  • Increase your memory limit in wp-config.php. If you are on shared hosting you may have to enquire your hosting provider to increment your retentiveness limit for you.
  • Increase the maximum execution fourth dimension in your php.ini file. This is not a WordPress core file so if you are non certain 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 Mode Post-obit 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 cheque back in a minute." The maintenance file may non have been removed properly.

To remove this message do the following:

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

Read more about the maintenance mode issue.

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You Make Changes and Zippo Happens

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

If you make a change to a website and the browser does not think information technology is significant, it volition simply load the information from your enshroud, and you won't encounter your changes. To ready the problem, only empty your browser cache or shut the tab and reopen the link.

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If you are experiencing 404 errors with pretty permalinks and a white screen when you lot upload images, mod_rewrite may non exist 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-fly. Information technology'south what yous need to make pretty permalinks work.

WordPress Multisite networks usually feel this but it can as well occur on shared hosting providers or later a site migration or server move.

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

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

If y'all are non familiar with editing your .htaccess file, contact your hosting provider to ask them to plow on mod_rewrite rules. There is more information on pretty permalinks in the WordPress Codex.

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Custom Postal service Type 404 Errors

You may feel bug with 404 errors and custom post types. Try the post-obit steps:

  1. Brand sure that none of your Custom Post Types and single pages have the same name. If they practise, rename the single page, 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 affluent the rewrite rules and should solve your problem.

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Specific Error Messages

In that location are a number of dissimilar errors that will appear in your mistake logs. To access your error logs you will demand to turn on debugging and then locate your error log via FTP. The following information will help yous to decipher some of the common error letters.

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PHP Errors

Below are some common PHP error messages.

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Fatal Errors and Warnings

If you receive a alarm that WordPress cannot modify header data and headers are already sent, information technology commonly ways that you accept spaces or characters before the opening tags or after the closing tags. Read how to fix the headers already sent error.

If you are experiencing this problem when you lot take just installed WordPress you may have introduced a syntax fault into wp-config.php. These instructions volition help you to fix the error.

Call to undefined office

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

  • An mistake when trying to auto-install or motorcar-upgrade a Plugin. Effort installing or upgrading the Plugin manually.
  • An error when trying to automobile-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 event.
  • You may be trying to call a function that doesn't exist. Check functions.php for misspellings.

Try deactivating the WordPress Plugin or changing the WordPress Theme that caused the error to appear. If you are unable to do this from within the Assistants Screens, you lot may have to exercise this manually via FTP.

Allowed memory size wearied

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

  • Increase your retentiveness limit in wp-config.php
  • Increase your memory limit by editing php.ini. This is not a file that comes with WordPress and then if you are unfamiliar with information technology you should contact your spider web host well-nigh increasing your memory limit.
Maximum execution time exceeded

You may receive a message such equally "Maximum execution fourth dimension of 30 seconds exceeded" or "Maximum execution fourth dimension of 60 seconds exceeded". This ways 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 fix this error.

Editing .htaccess

Make certain yous dorsum up .htaccess before you lot edit it.

Add together the following line to .htaccess:

php_value max_execution_time 60

Editing php.ini

Add the following to php.ini 

max_execution_time = 60

If yous are unsure of how to make these changes, or if you are on shared hosting that prevents y'all from making them yourself, you should contact your hosting provider and ask them to increment your maximum execution time.

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Parse errors

Syntax Error

A syntax error ways that y'all accept made a mistake while creating your PHP construction. You could, for instance, be;

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

When this error appears information technology will tell y'all which file the error appears in (functions.php for example) and approximately which line (it may not always be the exact line so be sure to check simply before and simply after) in the lawmaking.

Unexpected

If you are receiving an error which says 'parse mistake: unexpected' this usually means that y'all have forgotten to include a character. The most common are:

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

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Utilize of an undefined constant

As with parse errors, "use of an undefined constant" means that you lot are missing a character. Information technology could exist one of the following:

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

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Database Errors

The post-obit errors may appear in relation to your WordPress database.

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Error 13 – 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 up to a directory that cannot be written to when using PHP to access MySQL. To verify this, enter MySQL at the control line and type testify variables. You'll get a long list and one of them will read: tmpdir = /somedir/ (whatever your setting is.)

To solve this, modify 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 arrangement, Find the my.ini.
  2. Once found, open this in a elementary text editor and notice the [mysqld] section.
  3. Under this section, find the tmpdir line. If this line is commented (has a # at the showtime), delete the # and edit the line so that it reads: tmpdir = /writable/dir where /writable/dir is a directory to which you tin write. Some use /tmp, or you might likewise try /var/tmp or /usr/tmp. On Windows, employ C:/Windows/tmp.
  4. Save the file.
  5. Shutdown MySQL by typing mysqlshutdown -u -p shutdown.
  6. Start 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 brand sense and you take someone to administer your organization for y'all, show the above to them and they should be able to figure it out.

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CREATE Control Denied to User

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

Alternatively you can create a new user to assign to your database. If you do create a new user you will demand to ensure that it 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,
  • y'all accept also many files in /tmp (even if there is lots of free space), or,
  • Your cache on your server is full

This is a MySQL error and has zero to practice with WordPress directly; you should contact your host almost information technology. Some users accept reported that running a "repair table" command in phpMyAdmin fixed the problem.

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Error 145

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

Always backup your database before performing whatsoever actions on it.

If you have non used phpMyAdmin before, or are uncomfortable doing so, contact your web host and inquire them to run Check/REPAIR on your database.

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Unknown Column

An unknown column error can be caused by a missing cavalcade in the database. If yous accept simply upgraded WordPress then endeavour manually upgrading again. To update your WordPress site manually, see the Update article.

If you are running a database query when you run across the error and so you may by using incorrect quotation marks for the identifier quote character. This question on Stack Overflow provides more details. Also meet the MySQL documentation.

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Resources

  • MySQL Error Codes and Messages