WordPress (WP) is a highly-refined platform. It is very unlikely that your WordPress site will be down. WordPress won’t often give reasons for a WordPress website that is down.

Avoid these five WordPress errors.

Kobe Digital can help you with WordPress website design and maintenance.

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Backup your WordPress site first

Before you attempt to correct any errors, make sure that you have a backup copy of your WordPress website.

Always have an emergency plan!

While it’s rare for files to get lost, it can still cause hours, months, or even years of damage.

Backups give you peace of mind that your website will be able to be restored to its original state following an unfortunate event.

Schedule backups of WP sites frequently to make sure you have the latest version.

How do you determine if your WordPress site is unavailable

Check to see if WordPress has been disabled for all users or is only loading for you.

To check, use WebsitePlanet.

If your site is not down for you, it will show that it is still available. Clear your cache and check your connectivity.

If your site is not accessible to all users, this means that something is wrong with your code or server.

Take a look at what happened before your WordPress website crashed. These could be a plugin update, plugin installation, theme change, or plugin installation.

Five reasons WP websites can crash

There are many reasons why your WordPress site might have crashed.

1. Domain expired

Your domain expired. It happens when you purchase a domain (https://yourcompanyname.com), and for whatever reason, you don’t renew it. It is easy to fix. It’s easy to renew your domain every year.

2. Server

Your server crashed. You can wait for your server to restart. We will quickly correct any server problems.

3. Host

Your web hosting service may have issues. 

4. Broken code

Broken codes are the most common reason WordPress websites don’t load. Broken codes can be caused by many plugins.

These are some plugins that break website code:

• Auto-updates are insufficient or not complete for your WP site/WP plugs
• Incompatible plugins
• Poor theme/plug coding
• Conflicts between themes or plugins

5. Exhausted memory

PHP has a memory limit that you can use for your site when it is installed. This may differ from the hosting provider’s. Your site may need to be restarted.

5 quick fixes for a WP site crash

Check if your WordPress site still works by figuring out what caused the error, and then logging into the WordPress Admin dashboard.

You can also restore your site from an earlier backup

1. White screen of death

A white screen of death (WSoD) is not always an error message. This happens when WordPress displays a blank page and does not display any file path or error message. This means that your website isn’t being loaded correctly.

WSoD can appear on any page of your website or one page.

Quick fix: Rename files

First, you must identify the root cause of WSoD. This means that you must locate the folder responsible for your WordPress website’s blank pages.

You can rename folders in the site’s file manager. This allows you to find files in your web hosting account.

To get started, follow this path:

Your web hosting account >>> cPanel> file manager> public.html> WP-content

There will be folders in your WordPress content folder that contain all of your content. Because updates can sometimes cause conflicts in your code.

Change the name of a file to something like plugins-disabled. Rename one file, such as the plugins folder to plugins-disabled.

A change in the pages of your WordPress site, such as a partial page load or page not loading, is likely to be within that folder.

Keep digging down into the folder.

Delete each subfolder from that folder until you notice a change. The file responsible for the crash will be renamed.

It works

A file can be renamed to disable it. WordPress will not load it.

Renaming the site will make it function again, but not fix the problem. Contact a developer to report the issue.

The file can be deleted if it’s not needed for your site, or reinstalled.

Additional tip: This bonus tip will save you time

The debugging mode can be a quicker but more technical option. This mode allows you to locate the file path responsible for the WSoD quicker and doesn’t require you to rename every file individually.

Use this path to activate debugging mode

Your web hosting account > > cPanel>> file manager > public.html> wp-config.php

To open the file wpconfig.php, Edit mode must be used

Scroll down to the bottom to find the following line. To locate it, you can use the hotkey Ctrl/Command E.

• define( ‘WP_DEBUG, false );

Modify code to:

• define( ‘WP_DEBUG, true );

This will enable debugging mode.

To see error messages and file paths when your page reloads, you can switch to debugging mode. Your site should now work properly again.

You will need to reset the code to false after you are done debugging.

2. Error when connecting to the database

An error in your WordPress.config.php file can often cause this error.

Use the file path to open the wpconfig.php editor mode

Your web hosting account >>> cPanel>file manager> public.html>wp-config.php

Quick fix: Repair your database

Verify that your hostname and password match. Next, go to phpMyAdmin and compare the details.

To activate WP’s data repair support, add the following code to your wp.config.php.

• define( ‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR, true );

Save the file. You can find the database repair script at: https://yoursiteurl.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php

Two options will appear when you load the page.

• Repair database
• Optimize your database and fix it 

Both programs will run the repair program. After your site loads properly, you can delete the allow repair code from your file wpconfig.php.

3. Memory exhaustion error

Your site’s memory has been exhausted if you receive an error message like “Fatal error” (or another number)

Before you increase your PHP memory limit, it is a good idea to first inspect the files on your site. To free up memory, delete large files and compress them.

Quick Fix: Increase your PHP memory

To increase your PHP, you can create a file.

If you don’t have one, you can ask your web host provider for one.

If you have a memory limit, check it.

If the code is not there, you can add it. The syntax looks like this: memory_limit=64M

If your error is very small, you can increase its size to 64m or even 256m. Refresh your page to verify that the changes have been confirmed.

WordPress might require that you add another line in your wpconfig.php. This could be used by WordPress to sometimes override the PHP.ini file.

To locate your wpconfig.php, open cPanel in your web hosting account.

Your web hosting account > > cPanel> file manager > public.html> wp-config.php

Click Edit and then copy the code that appears below the line “That’s it! Stop editing!” ” Happy blogging.

• define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );

Your web hosting provider may have exceeded your memory limit if your code does not load properly. This could mean that your web hosting provider has exceeded your memory limit and you may need to upgrade.

4. Internal server error

The most common causes of internal server errors are

• Memory Limitation
• Problem with. htaccess

If the problem is memory related, you can increase the PHP to address it as described in the memory exhaustion section.

You can check this file path to see if it is the second reason.

Your web hosting account > > cPanel> file manager> public.html>.htaccess

After you locate the file, rename and refresh your page.

Your. htaccess file may be corrupted if your page doesn’t work. A new one will be required.

Quick Fix: Create a new. htaccess file

Go to your WP Admin dashboard to create a new one. htaccess. Find the Permalinks tab under your settings.

No changes are required on the Permalinks tab.

You can easily create a new file by clicking the save button in. htaccess

This may not work because your PHP memory limit has been exceeded. It will be necessary to increase it.

5. HTTP 404 error

A 404 error almost always means that your WordPress page was not found by the server.

HTTP 404 errors can occur when a URL is changed or broken. This can often be caused by an error in yours. htaccess.

Upload a file to. htaccess.

Create a new file called. htaccess.

If this fails, you can name a new file. htaccess. There is no extension, but there is a period before.

Add this code to your file:

Copy the. htaccess file to your public_html directory.

Your web hosting account > File manager > public.html

This should fix the HTTP 404 error.

Kobe Digital can help manage your WordPress website.

Tired of all the hassles involved in setting up and maintaining a WordPress website?

We offer Website design and maintenance services. 

As a web design company, we have more than 7 years of experience. We can help you with any issues or build the perfect WordPress website.

Contact us or call us for more information!