WordPress White Screen

The “White Screen” in WordPress is one way that a WordPress site will show bugs in the underlying PHP code or system configuration.   In geek-speak this is known as a fatal error.    It can be a bug in PHP code or an incompatibility between the code and the server configuration.

The most common cause is a bug in the PHP code itself.  Plugins, themes, and WordPress can be the source of the problem.    If you have upgraded more than one item on your site prior to noticing a white screen, any of the updated items is suspect.

Note: You should ALWAYS back-up your site before upgrading to new versions of WP or any plugins. We suggest using JetPack . BAck-up your Word Press site

Here are some ways to track down the source of a “white screen” and recover from it quickly.

Debugging With Debug Log

With WordPress it is very easy to debug the activation process of a plugin and get a detailed log file of exactly what is going on.

Often there are hidden warnings or errors. Sometimes they are generated by the plugin. Many times they are generated by OTHER plugins or your custom WordPress theme. The first stage of debugging is to turn on the built-in WordPress debugging messages and debug log.