How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death

Updated October 31, 2026

A WordPress white screen is almost always a PHP error with the message hidden. Find that message and the fix is usually one renamed folder or one deactivated plugin.

Since WordPress 5.2, most of these errors don't show a blank page anymore. Visitors get "There has been a critical error on this website" instead, and the site's admin email gets a link to recovery mode. Same problem, same fixes, just a slightly less spooky screen.

So the rule for everything below is simple: read the error before you change anything. Guessing is how a 10-minute fix turns into an afternoon of reinstalling plugins one by one.

1. Five minutes of triage
2. Fix 1: Use the recovery mode email
3. Fix 2: Turn on the debug log
4. Fix 3: Switch off every plugin without wp-admin
5. Fix 4: Switch off the theme
6. Fix 5: Raise the memory limit
7. Fix 6: Clear caches and stuck maintenance
8. Or ask your assistant
9. What goes wrong
10. Finer points

Five minutes of triage

Answer three questions before touching any files.

1. Is it the whole site, or one page? Open the home page, a blog post and /wp-admin in a private window.
2. What changed last? A plugin update, a new theme, a pasted snippet, a PHP upgrade at the host. Most of the time, the answer is right there.
3. Did WordPress send an email? Check the site's admin inbox (and spam) for a message about a technical issue.

If only one page is blank and the rest work, it's that page's template, a plugin that only runs there, or its content. If wp-admin is blank too, plan on file access: SFTP, or the file manager in your hosting panel.

If it started the day your host upgraded PHP, switch the PHP version back in the hosting control panel first. That usually brings the site back while you update whatever plugin or theme can't cope with the new version.

Fix 1: Use the recovery mode email

When WordPress catches a fatal error, it emails the admin address a description of the problem and a secret recovery mode link.

1. Click the link in the email and log in.
2. WordPress pauses the plugin or theme that crashed, for your browser only. Visitors still see the broken site.
3. Go to Plugins (or Appearance → Themes), find the one flagged as paused, and deactivate it.
4. Exit recovery mode and check the site in a private window.

That's the fastest fix there is, and it needs no files. It doesn't help if the email never arrived, and on hosts that don't send mail reliably, it often doesn't.

Fix 2: Turn on the debug log

If there's no email, make WordPress write the error down. Open wp-config.php in your site's root folder (SFTP or file manager) and add these lines above the line that starts /* That's all, stop editing!:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

Reload the broken page, then open wp-content/debug.log. The last "PHP Fatal error" line names a file, and the file path names the culprit: wp-content/plugins/some-plugin/ is a plugin, wp-content/themes/your-theme/ is the theme.

Keep WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY set to false so visitors never see raw errors, and switch WP_DEBUG back to false once you're done.

Fix 3: Switch off every plugin without wp-admin

If you know which plugin it is, rename just that plugin's folder in wp-content/plugins and you're done.

If you don't, switch them all off at once:

1. Connect over SFTP (or open your host's file manager) and go to wp-content.
2. Rename the plugins folder to plugins_old.
3. Reload the site. If it's back, a plugin was the cause.
4. Log in to wp-admin and open the Plugins screen. WordPress notices the plugins are missing and deactivates them.
5. Rename the folder back to plugins. Your plugins are back, all inactive.
6. In wp-admin, reactivate them one at a time from Plugins, reloading the site after each, until it breaks again. That's your plugin.

Fix 4: Switch off the theme

Especially likely if the white screen started right after a theme switch or a theme update.

1. In wp-content/themes, rename your active theme's folder (add -old to the end).
2. WordPress falls back to another installed theme, ideally a default one like Twenty Twenty-Five. Make sure one is installed.
3. If the site loads, the theme is the problem. Rename it back once you've fixed or updated it.

If the white screen started right after an edit in Appearance → Theme File Editor, this is the one. WordPress's docs warn that the editor makes no backup and can't fix a site it has crashed.

Fix 5: Raise the memory limit

If debug.log says "Allowed memory size of … bytes exhausted", add this to wp-config.php, above the same "stop editing" line:

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

On shared hosting the server may cap PHP memory lower than whatever you set, and only your host can raise it. If the error comes back, ask them.

Fix 6: Clear caches and stuck maintenance

A caching plugin or your host can keep serving a blank page after you've fixed the cause. Clear the cache once the site's actually working.

And if the message is "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Please check back in a minute.", that's a different problem: a leftover .maintenance file from an interrupted update. Delete it from the site's root folder. WordPress also ignores the file once it's more than 10 minutes old.

Or ask your assistant

If the whole site is down and WordPress can't start, the Kitepod plugin can't start either, so your assistant can't reach the site. Kitepod can't fix a site that's completely down. That's a job for your host or SFTP, with the fixes above.

But plenty of white screens are partial: one page, the front end only, or a site you've just brought back with recovery mode and now need to clean up. If wp-admin still loads, the plugin can usually still answer, and your assistant can do the reading for you:

It pulls the last fatal error, any paused plugins from recovery mode, Site Health results and the tail of the debug log (with passwords and keys masked). Then it can roll the guilty plugin back to its previous version. A checkpoint is taken first, and under the default policy the rollback waits for you to approve it.

The next white screen is easier to avoid. A PHP snippet added through Kitepod starts switched off, and if turning it on breaks the site, it's switched off again automatically. Theme code changes are made in a draft theme, and if publishing one causes a fatal error on the home page, the old theme goes back.

What goes wrong

You renamed the plugins folder and forgot

Every plugin stays off, so the site works but forms, SEO and the shop don't. Rename it back to plugins and reactivate them.

debug.log is still there months later

It can hold file paths and other details you don't want public. Turn WP_DEBUG off and delete the file when you're finished.

The site works for you and is blank for visitors

You're seeing a cached page, or recovery mode is still active in your browser. Check in a private window and clear the cache.

The recovery email went nowhere

It goes to the admin email in Settings → General. If that's an old address, update it once the site's back. If your host doesn't send mail at all, an SMTP plugin usually fixes that.

wp-admin works, the front end is blank

That points at the theme or a plugin that only runs on the front end. Fix 4 first, then Fix 3.

Finer points

What causes the WordPress white screen of death?

A PHP fatal error: usually a plugin or theme that's incompatible with your PHP version or another plugin, a typo in a theme file or snippet, or PHP running out of memory.

Is my content gone?

Almost never. Posts, pages and settings live in the database, and these errors are in code. Once the code is fixed, everything's where you left it. Still, take a backup before you start changing files.

Why is only wp-admin white?

A plugin that runs in the dashboard is failing, or the memory limit is too low for the admin screens. Check debug.log first, and see wp-admin not working for the dashboard-only fixes.

Can my host fix the white screen?

Usually, yes. Most hosts can read the PHP error log, restore a backup or disable a plugin for you, and it's worth asking before you spend an hour on it.

Write down which plugin it was. If the next update breaks the site again, that's the one to replace.