How to fix the White Screen of Death (WSOD) in WordPress

    What is the White Screen of Death?

    The White Screen of Death (WSOD) is one of the most common WordPress errors. Your site displays a completely blank white page with no error message, making it difficult to diagnose. This is usually caused by a PHP fatal error or a memory limit being exceeded.

    Common causes

    • A faulty plugin or theme
    • PHP memory limit exhaustion
    • Syntax errors in theme or plugin files
    • Corrupted WordPress core files
    • Incompatible PHP version

    Step 1: Enable WordPress debug mode

    Connect to your hosting account via File Manager in cPanel or via FTP/SFTP, and edit the wp-config.php file in the WordPress root directory. Find the line:

    define('WP_DEBUG', false);

    Replace it with:

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

    This will write errors to wp-content/debug.log instead of displaying a blank page. Check this file for specific error messages.

    Step 2: Increase PHP memory limit

    Add or edit the following line in wp-config.php:

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

    Alternatively, add this to your .htaccess file:

    php_value memory_limit 256M

    If the WSOD was caused by memory exhaustion, this should resolve it.

    Step 3: Deactivate all plugins

    If the issue persists, a plugin is likely the cause. To deactivate all plugins without accessing wp-admin:

    1. Open File Manager in cPanel or connect via FTP.
    2. Navigate to wp-content/.
    3. Rename the plugins folder to plugins_disabled.
    4. Reload your site. If it loads, a plugin is the problem.
    5. Rename the folder back to plugins.
    6. Reactivate plugins one by one from wp-admin to identify the faulty one.

    Step 4: Switch to a default theme

    If disabling plugins does not help, switch to a default WordPress theme:

    1. Navigate to wp-content/themes/.
    2. Rename your active theme folder (e.g., mytheme → mytheme_disabled).
    3. WordPress will automatically fall back to a default theme (Twenty Twenty-Five, etc.).
    4. If the site loads, the issue is in your theme.

    Step 5: Re-upload WordPress core files

    If none of the above works, core files may be corrupted:

    1. Download a fresh copy of WordPress from wordpress.org.
    2. Extract the ZIP file.
    3. Upload the wp-admin and wp-includes folders to your server, overwriting the existing ones.
    4. Do not overwrite the wp-content folder or wp-config.php.

    Step 6: Check PHP version compatibility

    In cPanel, go to Select PHP Version (or MultiPHP Manager) and ensure your site is running a PHP version compatible with your WordPress version. WordPress 6.x requires PHP 7.4 or higher (PHP 8.1+ recommended).

    Published