This is one of the most common issues a WordPress user can run into. This error can be especially frustrating for beginners as it has no notification informing the user what the actual issue is, so the first thing most users suspect is the theme being corrupt.
The error can be caused by the PHP code of the theme or a plugin, but it’s most commonly caused by the low server resources; namely the memory_limit which proved insufficient for executing certain scripts.
If a similar error appears in the fronted, but you can still access your WordPress backend, you’ve most likely made some oversight while installing or uploading the theme or a plugin. As you may already know, you can access the backend of your website directly on the address your-website-domain/wp-admin
White Screen of Death appears in the Google Chrome browser as a warning notifying you of a HTTP ERROR 500.
Mozilla Firefox on the other hand displays a literal white screen.
How do I solve this?
Starting from the version 5.2, WordPress lets the administrators tackle and solve fatal errors on their website by using the new function called Recovery Mode.
When a fatal error occurs, the error message will be displayed letting the user know that the site is experiencing some technical difficulties.
The administrator will also receive an email notifying them of the problem , with an included link leading to the Recovery Mode function. By clicking on this link, users can start the recovery mode.
When in recovery mode, the plugins and themes which caused the fatal error are temporarily stopped just for this client. After getting to know the problem, the site admin can solve the issue accordingly.
You can also do this manually, by changing the name of the plugins folder, found inside the wp-content folder – you can do this via an FTP client or through cPanel. This way, you’ll effectively disable all the plugins.
If you can access your website after doing this, you can try activating the plugins, one by one; this way you can eliminate the plugins which work fine and pinpoint the one that is causing the issue.
However if the issue persists, you can try increasing the php resources settings on your server. You can achieve this through the server settings or cPanel, or by contacting your hosting provider so they can increase the following PHP (master) values and adjust them as follows:
max_execution_time = 300 memory_limit = 128M upload_max_filesize = 128M post_max_size = 256M max_input_vars = 3000
Increasing the memory_limit only will usually do the trick, but we recommend increasing all the resources to values listed above since this way you make sure you don’t run into any issues while importing the demo content.