There has been a critical error on this website learn more about troubleshooting wordpress

Nothing is more terrifying than when your WordPress site goes down, especially when you get an alarming message like “There has been a critical error on this website.”

When you’re locked out and the frontend is entirely down, you need to know how to fix the critical error now. Every minute that passes is driving away visitors as they encounter a glaring error screen.

Luckily, fixing this critical error is usually just a matter of adding a small PHP function or deleting a problem plugin. Here we’ll go over a variety of ways to troubleshoot this issue and get your site up and running again fast.

Check out our video guide to fixing the ”There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website” Error

What Causes the “There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website” Error?

If you’ve been using WordPress for some time, you’ve likely heard of or possibly even encountered its most infamous error: the White Screen of Death. This startling glitch would cause your entire website, and sometimes even your backend, to load as a blank white page.

In recent versions of WordPress, this blank screen has been replaced with the critical error and the text “There has been a critical error on your website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions.”

While this is less panic-inducing than your site simply refusing to load at all, the error text isn’t much more helpful than before, and it’s likely to leave you wondering: What causes this critical error?

Much like the White Screen of Death, the issue can usually be traced back to an issue with PHP: either your memory limit being surpassed, or an error in your code, plugins, or theme. It may also be an issue of database corruption.

While the error text itself may not be very helpful, knowing this makes troubleshooting much easier.

You may also want to look into these other WordPress errors, as you could be experiencing multiple of them:

• ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT — Caused by a slow or overloaded web server.
• ERR_CACHE_MISS — If you see this, look into your website’s cache or PHP tools like plugins, as they’re very likely the cause.
• 500 Internal Server Error — A serious error that can usually be traced back to server file corruption.
• Error Establishing a Database Connection — Corruption in your database or a database server issue can be the root of this problem.
• HTTP 503 Service Unavailable — Indicates an issue with your server.
• HTTP 502 Bad Gateway — Yet another server issue, often caused by too many visitors overloading it.

And if you see any other strange errors, look through these HTTP status codes.

How to Fix the “There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website” Error?

You’re here to get your site up and running again, and to that end, we’ve collected several different potential ways to fix the issue. Knowing that the cause is likely PHP-related, these may involve editing core WordPress files. Even with your site in a broken state, make sure to back it up before implementing any of these suggestions, as we don’t want to make it worse!

If you’re able to log in to your website’s backend, that will help immensely. But as your entire site is likely down, you’ll very likely need to access it through FTP (or SFTP).

Contact your web host or look through your hosting dashboard to find your FTP login credentials, and make sure to install an FTP client like FileZilla. This guide on connecting to WordPress over FTP can help too.

Enable Debug in WordPress

If you’re having trouble with WordPress, one of the first things you should do is enable debugging. With debug mode on, you’ll be able to see the various PHP errors occurring on your site, and you can use this to trace back to the root of the issue.

As you may be unable to access your dashboard, you’ll also need to enable the debug log. This will write all PHP errors to a file.

If you’re hosting with Kinsta, enabling debugging with MyKinsta is very easy. Just log in to the hosting dashboard, then go to Sites > Tools > WordPress debugging and click Enable. You can then look around your site to find the cause of the issue or check the log. Make sure to disable debugging when you’re done, as it’s visible to your visitors as well as you.

If you need to manually turn on debugging, or you need to access the debug log, follow these steps.

• Step 1: Connect to your site with FTP.
• Step 2: Find wp-config.php in the root folder and open it with a text editor or IDE.
• Step 3: Place the following code at the bottom of the document, just before the final message, then save and close the file:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

Here’s what it will look like when done:

Debugging is now enabled on your site and errors will be written to the log. You can find the debug log in the wp-content folder, named debug.log.

Look for names of your theme or plugins which will point to them being the cause or references to a specific file. Even if you aren’t sure what to do with this information, save it someplace — it can help you if you need to reach out for support.

When you’re finished debugging, make sure to remove these lines of code.

Roll Back Your Site

When WordPress errors rear their head, restoring a backup can be a quick and easy way out. While it won’t always solve the issue, it’s definitely worth a shot. And if the problem happens again, you may be able to retrace your steps next time.

How you restore your website all depends on how you backed it up. If you use a plugin, follow the instructions in the documentation. If backups are included with your web host, you’ll likely be able to do it from your hosting dashboard.

For instance, Kinsta users can restore a backup by logging into MyKinsta, finding your site under Sites, going to the Backups tab, then clicking Restore to…

Before restoring to your live site, try it on a staging site to ensure that the site is indeed functioning and you’re not overwriting your hard work.

Revert to a Default Theme

Sometimes the critical error can be traced back to a conflict within your theme. The best way to test for this is to temporarily delete it and revert to a default theme, which should immediately clear up the issue.

Make sure you back up your site first, as you’ll need a way to get your theme files back once they’re gone. Simply reinstalling the theme may cause you to lose your custom styling.

If you have access to your dashboard, this is easy. Just go to Appearance > Themes, click on the theme to select it, and then click Delete in the lower right corner of the pop-up window.

If you don’t see the option, then try downloading and switching to a different theme. The safest bet is to try a default theme like Twenty Twenty-One.

If you don’t have access to your backend, follow these instructions to revert to a default theme with FTP.

• Step 1: Connect to your site with FTP.
• Step 2: Navigate to wp-content/themes. You have two choices here: either rename your theme folder (will allow you to turn the theme back on later) or simply delete it.
• Step 3: If you don’t have a backup theme here already, manually download Twenty Twenty and place its files into the themes folder.

Your site should now revert to Twenty Twenty. If it loads properly now, you know it was a theme conflict.

To restore your theme files, simply reinstall the theme or change the folder back to its original name.

Disable All Plugins

When you’re having a critical error, a plugin is often to blame. If you have several or even dozens of plugins on your site, trying to locate the one that’s the issue may seem like a daunting task.

But there’s an easy way to find the problem plugin: simply turn them all off and see if that fixes the problem. If it does, enable them one by one until your site breaks again. And there’s the culprit!

To disable your plugins from the dashboard, visit Plugins > Installed Plugins and tick the checkbox at the top of the list to select them all. Then click Bulk Actions > Deactivate, which should be enough to disable any conflicts and restore your site.

You can also click Delete instead to entirely remove their files, though you will need to reinstall them manually or restore a backup.

You can then turn them on one by one by returning to Installed Plugins and clicking Activate on each.

You can do essentially the same thing through FTP.

• Step 1: Log in to your site with FTP.
• Step 2: Open the wp-content folder to find your plugins.
• Step 3: Rename the plugins folder to plugins_old and verify that your site is working again.
• Step 4: Rename the folder back to “plugins”. The plugins should be disabled still, so you should be able to log in to your dashboard and activate them one by one. If the plugins reactivate automatically, rename individual plugin folders with _old until your site is restored.

Raise the PHP Memory Limit

Even if a plugin or theme is the cause of your broken website, the PHP memory limit is often the real one to blame.

What is the PHP memory limit? Your web server only has a certain amount of RAM, or memory, so WordPress sets a hard limit on how much memory a single PHP script can take up. When this limit is exceeded, you’ll encounter the white screen of death or the critical error.

While you don’t want to set the memory limit too high and allow misconfigured scripts to slow your site to a crawl, the default value may be far too low. Raising your PHP limit just a bit could instantly fix your broken website.

• Step 1: Access your site through FTP and open wp-config.php.
• Step 2: Insert the following code right before the final line and save.

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '128M' );

You can also try 256M if this doesn’t fix the issue, but anything higher is definitely unnecessary unless specifically called for in plugin documentation. If the issue is with the memory limit, the plugin you’re using is almost certainly broken and needs to be disabled.

A side note: Some hosts may enforce an extremely low memory limit and won’t allow you to raise it. If this is the problem, your only option is to switch to a better host or delete the plugin causing the problem.

While Kinsta does enforce a memory limit, it’s set to 256 MB. You should have no issues with legitimate working plugins on a Kinsta plan.

Raise the Max Upload File Size and Text Processing Functions

If you’re only seeing the critical error in certain situations and not constantly on every page, a small tweak to a few PHP functions might be able to fix it.

Uploading large files and finding yourself on an error screen is probably a result of the max upload file size being too small, while certain large pages breaking can be fixed by increasing recursion and backtrack limits.

First, check what your maximum upload size is and compare it to the file you’re trying to upload. You can find this by visiting Media > Add New and checking beneath the file uploader.

To fix either of these issues, you’ll need to log into FTP and edit the wp-config.php file, placing the new code right above the final comment line.

To increase the max upload file size, add this code:

ini_set('upload_max_size' , '256M' );
ini_set('post_max_size','256M');

And to fix the breaking of large pages on your site, add this code:

ini_set('pcre.recursion_limit',20000000);

ini_set('pcre.backtrack_limit',10000000);

Clear Your Site Cache

Caching is a great way to speed up your website, and most of the time it’s strictly a good thing. But sometimes the cache can get corrupted, leaving your site throwing out errors.

When this happens, a simple solution is to clear the cache, which should be all you need to get rid of the problem and restore your site to working order.

No fear: The cached version of your pages will soon be restored, allowing your site to load quickly again. Clearing the cache will simply delete the stuck corrupted files.

MyKinsta users can clear their site’s cache through their hosting dashboard. Visit Sites > Tools and then click Clear Cache.

Using a different host, or maybe a caching plugin? Check out their documentation; they should be able to give you detailed instructions.

Upgrade Your PHP Version

Outdated PHP can cause your site to break, and other conflicts are sure to occur. You usually want your site on the latest version of PHP supported by WordPress, which is currently PHP 7.3 to 8.0.

Some WordPress users prefer to stay on PHP 7.4 as they’re concerned about theme and plugin compatibility. Usually, this won’t cause problems. But if you’re using PHP 5.x, it’s imperative you upgrade as it can cause serious conflicts.

A PHP upgrade is a big deal, so make sure you have a backup ready before trying it.

Kinsta users can upgrade PHP version with MyKinsta without needing to do anything complicated. Just log in and go to Sites > Tools, then click Modify under PHP engine. Select the version you want and, after a short wait, your site will be running on the latest PHP version.

If you’re not using Kinsta, upgrading PHP will rely on your host. Contact them for help.

Check for Malware

Sometimes a critical error can be caused by malware, especially if you’re noticing strange PHP scripts that can’t be traced back to your plugins or theme. Removing malware is a tough task, more so when you’re locked out of your website and can’t even run a scan.

It can be hard to tell the difference between legitimate files and suspicious ones added by malware, and deleting random core files isn’t likely to end well. Malware can also modify PHP files, hiding scripts in them you won’t notice as malicious unless you’re a developer.

If you suspect malware is the cause, then it may be best to turn to your web host for help.

Where to Get WordPress Support If All Else Fails?

If you’ve tried all these options and nothing is working, you definitely have a real problem on your hands. But you can always turn to your web host for help identifying and fixing the issue. A good web host will provide you with the support you need to get your site up and running again.

Along with every plan, Kinsta offers live WordPress support 24/7. With our support tools integrated into your MyKinsta dashboard, getting help at any time is only a click away. Response times are fast — often less than two minutes — so you won’t be waiting around with a down site for hours or days.

So how does the scope of support compare to this particular issue? Kinsta offers technical support when errors appear on your site, including the titular critical error. We can help you identify exactly which files or plugins are causing the problem.

While you’ll need to go in and fix the issue either yourself or with the help of a developer, Kinsta support is happy to offer instructions on how to do so (for instance, how to access the file through FTP).

Every plan includes access to the same great support; there’s no priority support plan, and no special treatment given to certain customers. So if you’re stuck on a critical error and need help resolving it, turn to Kinsta support for assistance.

Summary

The WordPress critical error can have a variety of causes, though the issue often has to do with PHP. Either the PHP memory limit has been exceeded, or your plugins or themes are having issues.

The quickest way to fix the problem is to roll back your website if you have a backup, but there are a variety of other methods you can try, from raising the PHP memory limit to identifying and disabling a problem plugin.

Troubleshooting may require trying a few different things, but don’t get discouraged if you can’t fix it yourself. You can always get WordPress support from a host like Kinsta. When in doubt, turn to the experts.

And if your site is often plagued by errors, check out our guide to the 65+ most common WordPress errors.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us.

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. We have been creating WordPress tutorials since 2009, and WPBeginner has become the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry.

As a WordPress site owner, your site might occasionally suffer downtime caused by one or many critical errors in WordPress. When that happens, you’ll see the dreaded error message which says, “There has been a critical error on your website” when you try to log in or view the site.

With this message, WordPress is basically telling you that there is a fatal error on your website. During this period, the site will remain inaccessible to visitors, and you may be blocked from accessing the admin panel.

Fortunately, this error is easy to resolve, and in this article, we’ll go over some possible fixes for the WordPress critical error. First, let’s take a look at why this error might occur in the first place.

Causes of the «There Has Been a Critical Error in Your Website» Error

The critical website error in WordPress can be caused by one or several things, but unfortunately, the error text is too vague to provide any idea of what exactly went wrong with your site. Therefore, it’s up to you to figure out the reason behind it.

If you encounter this error while setting up WordPress for the first time, then it’s very likely that you either specified the wrong database information or added an inaccessible database. In this case, you’ll have to set your correct database details in the wp-config.php file of your WordPress installation.

Aside from setting the wrong database information, the critical WordPress error can also result from the following issues:

• corrupted database
• poor hosting provider
• lagging or overburdened web server
• corrupted website cache or PHP code (including plugins and themes)
• server file corruption
• other server-related issues

To help in fixing the issue, WordPress detects when a critical error happens and sends an email notification to the administrator’s email address. This email contains the error details and a link for logging in to the site dashboard in recovery mode.

Note that, sometimes, this email might get sent to the spam folder. Therefore, be sure to check there if you don’t find it in your main inbox. If you don’t get the email at all, then you’ll have to locate the issue yourself and fix it.

How to Fix the “There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website” Error

Fixing the error requires you to know what caused it in the first place. In the notification email sent by WordPress, you’ll be shown the corrupted PHP file(s) and even the line of code to correct. However, if you didn’t get this message, don’t worry.

Below are eight methods of resolving critical errors in your WordPress site. Click on the link below to skip to a particular section:

1. Deactivate Your Site Plugins

Corrupt plugins are one of the most common causes of critical website errors in WordPress. If the WordPress critical error occurred just after you installed a plugin, then you’ll need to deactivate that particular plugin and see what happens after that.

You can deactivate a plugin from the Plugins area in your WordPress admin panel. But, in the event that you’re blocked from accessing the back-end, you’ll have to deactivate the plugins manually.

You can find all the plugins used in your site by navigating to wp-content > plugins from your WordPress site’s root directory.

There, all you need to do is rename the plugin. This ensures that WordPress loads without the problematic plugin when you next restart your WordPress site, which should get rid of the error.

If you’re not exactly sure which plugin is responsible, you can just rename them one by one until you find the culprit.

For hosted WordPress sites, you’ll need to log in using FTP. Consult your hosting provider for information on how to do that.

2. Check the Error Logs

Another method for checking the underlying cause of the critical error is by inspecting the error_log file, which stores PHP error information on your WordPress site. You can find this file within the wp-content folder of your WordPress installation.

The file lists all the errors in your WordPress site, as well as the time that each of them occurred. In addition, each error has detailed information about the responsible source file and even the line of code you’ll need to fix.

3. Return to a Default Theme

Themes are responsible for the look and feel of WordPress websites. Because they form the foundation of your site, you’re very likely to get a critical error if there are conflicts in the PHP code powering your site’s theme.

To check if a theme is responsible for your WordPress error, switch the current theme to a default one such as Twenty Twenty. If you can access the admin panel, go to Appearance > Themes and search for a default theme to use.

If you don’t have access to the admin panel, you’ll need to manually delete the theme folder in wp-content > themes. But before you do that, make sure that your site is backed up so you don’t end up permanently losing your theme files.

4. Restore Your Website From the Most Recent Backup Copy

The mere possibility of your WordPress site suffering a critical error is a good enough reason for you to regularly back up your site. Restoring a recent backup may be all you need to do to get your website working again in the shortest time possible.

The process of restoring a backup depends on how the backup was made. If you used a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus, navigate to the backup plugin’s panel and find the restore functionality. The interface will differ depending on the plugin you’re using, but generally, you’re just required to select a backup file to restore the site.

If you’re using a hosting platform which provides regular backups, you should be able to restore your website from the hosting dashboard or admin panel.

5. Enable Debug Mode for WordPress

In debug mode, WordPress is able to automatically detect PHP errors in either the main software or in the themes and plugins used on the site.

To enable debug mode in your WordPress site, open the wp-config.php file with a text editor or IDE and include the following code at the bottom of the file:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

The first setting above is what actually turns on debug mode on your site. The rest just defines how the logs will be shown.

Save the file and restart your website. Errors will be added to the log in a file called debug.log, which you can find in the wp-content folder. Inspect the logs and try to figure out the theme or plugin responsible for the error.

Make sure to remove these lines of code when you’re done with debugging.

6. Raise the Upper Limit for Upload File Size

If you get the critical error message when attempting to upload a file to WordPress, it’s probably because the maximum upload file size is too small. In that case, you can fix the issue by increasing the limit.

You should always first compare the current maximum upload size to the size of the file you want to upload. The maximum size is shown on the Media > Add page, just beneath the file upload section.

To increase the limit, open the wp-config.php file with a text editor and set the new maximum upload size in ini_set() as shown below:

ini_set('upload_max_size' , '256M' );
ini_set('post_max_size','256M');

On the line above, we also increase the maximum size for text processing.

7. Clear Your Site Cache

Caching helps your website to load faster by temporarily storing important and frequently used data. However, as data accumulates, it’s possible for the cache to get corrupted. When this happens, you’ll get a critical error on your site.

This problem can be resolved by clearing the cache. All the stale data will be deleted, and your site should start working again.

If you’re using a plugin like W3 Total Cache, go to the plugin’s panel in your WordPress dashboard and look for the functionality for clearing the cache. You may need to log in using the link in WordPress’s email in order to access your site’s admin panel.

8. Upgrade Your PHP Version

Using an old version of PHP is a common cause of critical errors in a WordPress site. For this reason, you should always use the latest stable version of PHP for your WordPress site. Currently, that’s between PHP 7.4 and 8.0.

Stable versions are not prone to errors like the older versions (PHP 5.x). You also don’t have to worry much about plugin and theme compatibilities. If you’re on an old PHP version, upgrade it to PHP 7.4 or higher. But before you do that, make sure you have backed up your website.

In most hosts, you can upgrade PHP from the hosting dashboard.

Summary

The WordPress critical error is one of the most common errors in WordPress, and fortunately, it’s very easy to resolve. In this article, we looked at several ways to troubleshoot this error and bring your website back to life.

To briefly recap, they are as follows:

• Deactivate your site plugins
• Check the error logs
• Return to a default theme
• Restore your website from the most recent backup copy
• Enable debug mode for WordPress
• Raise the upper limit for upload file size
• Clear your site cache
• Upgrade your PHP version

“There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website” Error

Specifically, the error that you will see on the screen is “There has been a critical error on your website.” The full error is:

“There has been a critical error on your website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions. Learn more about debugging in WordPress.”

There are various other versions of this error that comes up depending on what kind of changes you are doing:

• wordpress critical error after php update
• there has been a critical error on this website. wordpress install
• there has been a critical error on this website. wordpress fix
• there has been a critical error on your website. wordpress godaddy
• wordpress critical error can’t login
  
• wordpress critical error php 8
• wordpress ” there has been a critical error on this website
• wordpress recovery mode
• critical error when activating woocommerce

If you have come this far it is because you were manipulating your WordPress as administrator and suddenly a message has appeared on the screen indicating that the site has technical problems.

Since WordPress version 5, thanks to the debugging mode, a message appears on the screen indicating that the site has technical problems. Here we see how to fix it.

There are a lot of common wordpress errors that you can encounter, like 500 internal server error,  504 Gateway Timeout error,  404 Page Not Found , 405 Method Not Allowed Error , WordPress File And Folder Permissions Error, Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress, White Screen of Death (WSOD) Error and many more. We have covered all these in depth.

What does this WordPress critical error mean?

Between WordPress 5.2 and WordPress 5.3, we used to get the error message, “The site is experiencing technical difficulties.” But with the latest release of WordPress 5.4, WordPress developers have changed the message you receive. The developer has replaced the error message with There has been a critical error on your website.

What Causes “There has been a critical error on your website.” in WordPress?

WordPress 5.2 has a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site. it notifies you with this automated email. ”So it is clear that these types of problems generate PHP FATAL errors. FATAL errors occur when PHP stops working and requires you to troubleshoot issues before you can complete the process.

There are quite a few reasons you may experience critical error in WordPress, so try to remember what was your last action was.

• Did you install or delete a plugin?
• Did you activate or deactivate a plugin?
• Did you upload, activate or deactivate a new theme?
• Did you make any changes to your web hosting?
• Did you update anything through FTP?
• Did you update your PHP version?

When we have a website with WordPress and some of the plugins that we have active require the use of a lot of memory, or if the website has many concurrent visits, a high PHP memory consumption can occur. If the memory needs exceed the established limits, the error will occur on the web:

The “There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website” error appears when there is an issue with your WordPress website and it cannot be fixed.

This error can occur if:

• Your web host has provided an incorrect username and password for your WordPress site.
• The system administrator has deleted the wp-config.php file from your server’s /wp-content/ folder.
• A hacker has hacked into your server, stealing valuable information or disabling important features like comments, pingbacks, RSS feeds or login security.
• Forgotten to update your WordPress installation before moving to a new server or domain name.

There are many other possible causes for the “There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website” error.

The most common cause is due to a security issue or a virus on your website. Checking for malware can help you find out whether there is an infection on your site. In case a malware is found, we also have a post on how to remove malware from wordpress website here.

Step 1: Access your WordPress site by logging into it and clicking Maintenance > Web Hosting Manager.

Step 2: Run your website through a malware scanner. Scan your website using WP HACKED HELP Free WordPress malware scanner online. We have also listed many other WordPress security scanners here.

Step 3: Follow the instructions displayed in the pop-up window to check for malware on your site.

Step 4: If there are any viruses found, remove them immediately using an antivirus software application.

With a FATAL error, your request cannot be completed. Instead of showing broken pages with multiple errors, WordPress now displays a decent post. That’s it.

To debug the actual error that occurs and the reason, it will be necessary to activate the debug mode in WordPress. Next, we explain how to do it.

How to Debug & Fix Critical Error in WordPress?

Enable debug mode in WordPress

Check logs

Login to your site using FTP and check the error logs. If that doesn’t help, try enabling debug mode.

There are several options to activate debug mode in WordPress. One of the fastest and most efficient is to modify the wp-config.php file that will be at the root of our website. We will edit it and add the following lines (at the end, for example):

To do this login to your site using FTP and open the wp-config.php file from WordPress root folder in a text editor. Find the following lines.

PHP

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 ); 

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );

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

Change the false values to true and save. Now when you refresh your site, you may see other errors that may give you a better understanding of where the error is coming from. You can also check the debug logs via FTP. Make sure to turn these back to false once you’re done.

The file may already contain some of these lines, if so we will check that it is the same and we will leave one of them. We will save the changes in the wp-config.php file and, from now on, WordPress will write any warning, notice or error that occurs on our website in the file:

/www/wp-content/debug.log

With the previous lines we tell WordPress to save the possible errors that may occur in the debug.log file and NOT to show them on the screen.

This is highly recommended so as not to display sensitive information to the user who navigates to our website. Obviously, if we are developing the web and it has not yet been published, we can change the lines:

PHP

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );

1

2

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );

For:

PHP

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true );

@ini_set( 'display_errors', 1 );

1

2

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true );

@ini_set( 'display_errors', 1 );

This way it would show the errors on screen as well.

Consult the log file and analyze possible errors in WordPress

Once we have activated the debug mode, we can download or read the file directly:

/www/wp-content/debug.log

Which will have content similar to the following:

Depending on the log level, it will show us the Warnings, the Notices or the errors or all of them. In our case, it will show us all the log levels. We will mainly focus on the lines that start with “PHP Fatal error” or “Error”. And above all the “PHP Fatal error”, which are those that can cause the web to not be shown to the user.

There are other levels of error, but these are the most important. Now let’s learn how to solve it by upgrading your version of PHP.

Upgrade PHP to 7.4 Or Greater

WordPress is built with PHP and your hosting company sets its version.

Before you start updating your version of PHP, we strongly recommend that you make a backup of your site and the database. In case something goes wrong, you can restore your site from the backup.

Just like updating your WordPress plugins and theme, it’s also important to update your WordPress PHP to the latest version. There are mainly two reasons why you need to update your version of PHP:

Your WordPress site will be faster: The new version of PHP (currently 7.4) is more efficient. You can increase the performance of your site up to 3 or 4 times faster.

Your site will be more secure: WordPress is the most popular CMS and built with PHP. Hence, it becomes easy for hackers to hack a wordpress site. By updating your PHP, you will have the latest security features, which are missing from the previous version of PHP. Therefore, it is very important to update your PHP to the latest version.

Check your PHP version

To check your current PHP version you can create a new file let’s say serverinfo.php. Now edit this file and add the following code in the file. After that run file it will give you all information about the system your server is running.

Troubleshoot Theme Conflict Issues

To do this, simply activate a default theme, such as Twenty Twenty or greater.

Unfortunately, because your site displays an error, you will have to troubleshoot issues with your host’s file manager (like cPanel file manager) or use FTP or sFTP (it’s like the secure version of FTP).

It is important to note that by changing the theme, you will not lose the settings of the chosen theme.

To do this, rename your active theme folder by adding DISABLE or DISABLED at the end of the folder name. For example, if you are using Twenty Nineteen and the folder is “twentynineteen “, you would call it “twentynineteenDISABLE” or “twentynineteenOLD”. Come back to the top of your site and refresh.

The goal is to see if the error goes away. In case it doesn’t, it’s anything but a topic. Try to rename the organizer to their unique name when you have completed your survey.

Troubleshoot Plugin Conflict Issues

If that’s not the theme, it could be a problem with the plugin. In some ways, the troubleshooting is similar. However, it is much easier to rename the plug-in folder to “pluginsOFF”. Visit the site and log in. This will close all plugins. Note that this will not remove the original settings for these plugins, as they will be there when you re-enable them later.

Once the plug-ins are disabled, go back and rename the folder to “plug-in”. Go to your WordPress admin area and re-enable each one, one by one, until you see the screen saying “There has been a critical error on your website”.

When you’ve discovered the problem, you probably need to restore the object or module that caused it. You can do this in several ways.

Download the original plugin files directly from the WordPress plugin directory and replace the plugin via File manager by your host (or cPanel) or via FTP or sFTP.

Use the WP Rollback plugin to restore the plugin to the previous version.

If you are using WP Rollback, there are several versions to choose from. It will tell you which version you have. Below you can follow the images to get a feel for how to use WP Rollback.

If you are using WP Rollback, there are several versions to choose from. It will tell you which version you have. Below you can follow the images to get a feel for how to use WP Rollback.

Choose the plug-in to restore. Click on “Rollback” if it is available in the plugins listed in your WordPress administrator.

Fix faulty custom codes

If none of the above worked, we will assume that neither the plugins nor the themes are the culprits, and the next thing to do would be to check if any of your custom codes have any incompatibility with the current version of WordPress, theme, plugins or PHP.

To fix this, simply delete the custom codes from the theme’s functions.php file or where you add them and check if there are no more critical WordPress errors.

If the critical errors are fixed then you already know that the culprit is…

• Your custom code.
• …Or the version of PHP, due to compatibility problems between the two.
  

Seeing a critical WordPress bug may seem worrisome, but at least now it alerts you, and even offers you a link to learn how to debug WordPress errors like syntax error.

In addition, your WordPress site will send you an email with instructions, and sometimes it will even activate the WordPress recovery mode.

If you don’t receive the email from WP, you can look at the server logs and get the entry related to this issue?

It can also help you find the solution. You can access the error log via FTP or cPanel by going to the root directory of the WordPress installation.

You can also talk to your hosting provider to find out the location where the error logs are kept as different for each host.

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This post was last modified on July 29, 2022