How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death

Step 1: Check the admin email for a recovery link

WordPress emails the site’s admin address with the subject “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”. It names the plugin or theme at fault and contains a special recovery mode link.

1. Open the email (check spam). Note the plugin/theme named.
2. Click the recovery link and log in. WordPress lets you in with the faulty item paused.
3. Go to Plugins (or Appearance → Themes), deactivate the faulty item, then update or replace it.

No email? Continue below.

Step 2: Turn on debug logging

1. In cPanel, open File Manager → public_html and edit wp-config.php.
2. Find define( 'WP_DEBUG', false ); and replace it with:

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

3. Save, reload the broken page, then open wp-content/debug.log. The last lines show the error and the file causing it.

Step 3: Disable all plugins

If the log points to a plugin — or you are not sure:

1. In File Manager, go to public_html/wp-content.
2. Rename the folder plugins to plugins-off.
3. Reload the site. If it works, a plugin was the cause.
4. Rename the folder back to plugins (all plugins stay deactivated).
5. Log in to WordPress → Plugins and reactivate them one at a time, reloading the site after each. The one that brings back the white screen is the culprit — leave it off and update, replace or report it.

To disable just one known plugin, rename only its folder, e.g. plugins/old-slider → plugins/old-slider-off.

Step 4: Switch to a default theme

If plugins were not the cause:

1. In wp-content/themes, rename your active theme’s folder (e.g. mytheme → mytheme-off).
2. Make sure a default theme such as twentytwentyfour or twentytwentyfive exists in themes. If not, download it from wordpress.org/themes and upload it.
3. Reload — WordPress falls back to the default theme. If the site appears, the problem is in your theme (often a recent edit to functions.php).

Step 5: Raise the memory limit

If the log says “Allowed memory size … exhausted”:

• In cPanel → Software → Select PHP Version → Options, set memory_limit to 256M (512M for large WooCommerce stores).
• Optionally add to wp-config.php: define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

See Change PHP version and settings.

Step 6: Check the PHP version

Errors like “Call to undefined function” after a PHP change mean old code. Switch PHP back one version to get online, then update the plugin/theme and switch forward again.

Step 7: Restore a backup (last resort)

If nothing helps, restore yesterday’s files and database from Files → File and Directory Restoration (paid plans) or your backup plugin — see Back up and restore WordPress.

Prevent it next time

• Update plugins one at a time, with a backup first — or test on a staging site.
• Delete plugins you do not use.
• Avoid “nulled” (pirated) themes and plugins — they often contain malware.

Troubleshooting summary

debug.log says	Fix
…/plugins/plugin-name/…	Rename that plugin folder
…/themes/theme-name/functions.php	Undo your edit or switch theme
Allowed memory size exhausted	memory_limit 256M
Call to undefined function mysql_… / create_function	Update code or change PHP version
Maximum execution time exceeded	Raise max_execution_time; check heavy plugins

Need a hand? WhatsApp +254 104 666 000 — we can look at the server logs for you.