How to fix the WordPress White Screen of Death

I just felt so much fear! While I was giving the final touches to the blog so that it is ready for its launch on January 1st, girlknowstech.com has become down. Error 500, and sometimes the famous white page of PHP. Do I need to tell you how disappointed I was? If you have the same problem right now, don’t be afraid, maybe I can help you fix the problem!

For my part, I had this error while I was modifying my file “functions.php” in WordPress: Appearance> Editor> Functions.php. What I did not know is that when we modify our file functions there, it is not the one at the root that we modify, but the theme’s functions.php!

1. Identification of the source of the problem

First, we are going to enable the debugging mode of WordPress.

Connect to your server via FTP and download the file www/wp-config.php.

Search for this line of code. Replace the “false” by “true” like shown below.

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

Upload the new file on your server.

Go back to your website and refresh the page. You should see an error message now that will help you know where the problem comes from.

2. Fix the problem

Now that you know the source of the problem and its path, go to the FTP and download this file which causes problems.

Erase the line of code or the piece of code in error. Then, upload the new file to the server. Then cross your fingers so that your blog works again!

-> If, like me, it is the file functions.php that caused your problem, know that you can empty it completely and your site will continue to function. So, if you are not able to tell what is the problem, you can add line by line your previous code in order to find what is causing the problem.

Conclusion

I hope this article can help someone. You can’t imagine how much I was panicking! 😉