Are you having problems with WordPress?

Have you come across an error and are unsure how to fix it?

Some errors are rather easy to understand and fix. Others are more complex and may require help from either your hosting company's tech support or a WordPress Developer.

If your hosting company's tech support is really good at what they do, they will be able to explain the problem and get it fixed.

You might even want to take notes of what they told you and how they fixed the problem and create a file of problems that you encounter and what was done to resolve the issue.

The White Screen of Death

What is it?

The white screen of death is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a white screen — most often blank, but sometimes with an error written on it.

Why does it happen?

There are two main reasons why this happens.

• Memory-related issues. There could be a script on your website that’s exhausted the memory limit.

• Code-related issues. You may be using a theme or a plugin with badly written code.

How to fix it?

To identify which of the above caused the problem, you will be required to access your site’s PHP error logs.

To do this, you can do any of the following:

Contact your hosting provider directly.

Once you understand why this happens, you can do the following to fix it:

Increase the memory limit

Disable plugins

Roll back to the default theme

Internal Server Error

What is it?

Oftentimes internal server errors are 500 errors, and they occur for many different reasons. These are fairly common and are not necessarily WordPress-specific.

Why does it happen?

The most common reasons for these are:

Not enough memory is allocated

Fatal errors (which can be due to a faulty plugin or theme)

There could be also a problem with the .htaccess file.

How to fix it?

To fix this, you can do this by contacting your hosting provider.

Error Establishing Database Connection

What is it?

If you see this error, it means that there is a problem connecting to the database. There are several reasons why this can happen.

Why does it happen?

This error could be caused by:

• Incorrect database information in your settings

• A bad/corrupt database

• Problems with the server (the hosting provider)

How to fix it?

If it’s a problem with your database information, you should access your FTP client, open up wp-config and make sure that the following fields are entered correctly:

Database name

Database Username

Database password

Database host

If it’s a problem with your hosting provider, you should contact them and see if they’re having issues.

Connection Timed Out

What is it?

This error occurs when the server can’t handle your website’s requirements. It is most common with shared hosting, where there is a restriction on memory allocation.

Why does it happen?

Most often, the reason is the lack of memory. However, it can also be due to a faulty plugin or theme.

How to fix it?

You can try deactivating all of your plugins and then reactivating them one by one to see if there’s a correlation between the plugins and the error.

You can roll back to the default WordPress theme.

You can contact your hosting provider.

Changes to the Website Do Not Appear

What is it?

Sometimes there’s a problem with WordPress, where the changes you’ve made are not saved or don’t show.

Why does it happen?

The most common reason is that your cache is not cleared, and you need to clear it.

How to fix it?

Go to your browser’s settings and clear the cache. Most browsers have it under settings > privacy and security

Allowed Memory Size Exhausted Error

What is it?

The Allowed Memory Size Exhausted error is another error that occurs when there is not enough memory allocated to the website.

Why does it happen?

There simply isn’t enough memory to achieve what you are trying to do.

How to fix it?

Contact your hosting provider

Syntax Error

What is it?

A syntax error is most associated with the PHP structure of a website.

Why does it happen?

You may be missing a symbol (like “;”) in the php.ini file

You may be using the wrong type of quotation marks and brackets.

How to fix it?

Oftentimes, this error explains where the problem occurs (which file and which line). All you need to do is to correct it.

This Site is Experiencing Technical Difficulties

What is it?

You get a message that the site is experiencing technical difficulties.

Why does it happen?

There are numerous reasons why this may happen. You will be sent an email to your WordPress admin address, where you’ll have more information.

How to fix it?

Since the possible reasons for this error are many, we recommend that you read the email from WordPress and learn what the problem is exactly.

WordPress 404 Error

What is it?

When trying to access a post or a page, you get a 404 page (this often occurs on the user’s end).

Why does it happen?

The most common cause of this is the permalink settings in WordPress.

How to fix it?

You will need to reconfigure your permalink settings manually.

To do so, you need to log in to the WordPress dashboard, choose Settings, and click Permalinks.

Enter /%Posname%/

Locked Out of WordPress Admin

What is it?

You are locked out of the wp-admin area and cannot access it.

Why does it happen?

The loss of a password and no access to the password recovery email

A faulty plugin

Hacking

How to fix it?

If you were hacked, Contact your hosting provider

If it’s a faulty plugin, try removing them all and reactivating them one by one, to find the culprit.

Image Upload Issues in WordPress

What is it?

Sometimes there are issues with the images of your WordPress website. These often manifest in either the inability to upload images or the disappearance of the images from your website (broken images).

Why does it happen?

The main reason for this error happening is incorrect file permissions.

How to fix it?

If your images are located on the hosting provider’s servers, you should contact them to let them know.

The solution to this problem usually involves you giving the correct permissions to the files.

If your images are on your computer, you will need to access them (via an FTP client) and change their file permissions in the wp-content folder (under uploads).

403 Forbidden Error in WordPress

What is it?

A 403-page error is shown when you try to load a page.

Why does it happen?

The reason for this is that your server permission doesn’t allow access to that specific page.

There are several reasons for this:

You don’t have the permission configured in your files

Faulty security plugins

Server configuration

How to fix it?

The first step would be to check if it’s indeed a problem with the plugin.

You do this by deactivating all plugins. If the problem is solved, we reactivate the plugins one by one to see which one is the cause of the problem.

If it’s a problem with the files, then it’s most likely a problem with the .htaccess file.

To fix the issue there, you should locate the file (via your FTP client). Delete it from the server. Then, launch the site again, and see if the problem was solved, if it was, then the problem was in the file.

In this case, you need to generate a new file by going to the WP admin area, selecting the settings tab, and then choosing permalinks. A simple click on the save changes button will generate a new file.

Too Many Redirects Error

What is it?

When you try to load a page, you get an error message that says that the webpage has too many redirects.

Why does it happen?

This error could be the result of redirection issues.

Faulty SEO plugins

How to fix it?

The way to fix this is by going to the wp-admin area, selecting the settings tab, and selecting the general tab. Now, you have to check the URLs.

Try removing the www part, or on the contrary, adding it (sometimes this causes the problem). If this fails, try contacting your hosting provider for help.

If it’s an issue with a plugin, then you should remove them all, add them one by one, and see which one causes the problem.

Maximum Execution Time Exceeded Error

What is it?

You may see this error when you try to update a WordPress plugin or a theme.

Why does it happen?

This happens because WordPress has set time limits to its PHP script, to protect it from abuse. It is, usually, between 30-60 seconds. When it takes longer for the script to execute, it causes this error.

How to fix it?

The best thing to do would be to deactivate the plugin that causes this problem.

You can also contact your hosting company

WordPress Continuous Logging Out

What is it?

The issue is exactly what it sounds like, you keep getting logged out of WordPress.

Why does it happen?

To authenticate your login session, WordPress uses cookies for a defined URL in your settings. If you are attempting to log in from a different URL, then you get this error.

How to fix it?

To fix this issue, you’ll have to make sure that the URL you are accessing from has access to the settings.

To do this, you need to go to the settings tab in your WordPress admin account and select the general tab. From here, make sure that the URL is correct, and that’s it.

502 Bad Gateway Error

What is it?

You get this error when accessing a page, or pages on your website.

Why does it happen?

This happens because the hosting server takes too long to respond to the request.

How to fix it?

To fix this, you can try the following:

Reloading your website

Clearing your cache via the browser settings

Updating themes and plugins

If all else fails, try contacting your hosting provider for help.

503 Service Unavailable Error

What is it?

This error is similar to the 502 error in that it occurs when there’s a problem with the server being unable to get a response from the PHP script.

Why does it happen?

Oftentimes this is the result of the following:

Heavy memory requirements

Server problems

Attacks by hackers

How to fix it?

To fix this problem, you can try the following:

Deactivating and reactivating the plugins one by one, to see if one of those plugins is the reason for the problems.

Rolling back to the default WordPress theme.

Contacting the hosting provider for help.

504 Gateway Time-out

What is it?

This is another one of the 500s errors, and shows an error message saying “504 gateway timeout error.”

Why does it happen?

This is again a problem with the server and can be caused by plugins, problems with the hosting provider, firewalls, and more.

How to fix it?

Sometimes the problem fixes itself, given some time. However, if the problem persists, try the following:

Disable and enable the plugins one by one, to see if one of them is the reason for the problem.

Roll back to the default, WordPress theme.

Contact your hosting provider for more help.

413 Request Entity Too large Error

What is it?

This error message is shown when you try to install a new plugin or a theme.

Why does it happen?

This is often the result of the user trying to install a file that is larger than the file limit that WordPress has put.

How to fix it?

Contact your hosting provider

Some of the errors are easily fixed, based on your experience.

Other errors may be more difficult to understand what the problem is or how it is fixed.

Do not be afraid to contact your hosting company for their help in fixing the problems.