How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death

The “white screen of death” is exactly what it sounds like — you open your WordPress site or dashboard and get a blank white page with no error message. It is unnerving, but it is almost always caused by one of a few things, and it is usually quick to fix.

What causes it

A blank screen normally means a PHP error stopped the page from loading. The usual suspects are a faulty plugin, a broken theme, or your site running out of memory.

Fix 1: Disable your plugins

A misbehaving plugin is the most common cause. If you cannot reach the dashboard, follow disabling a plugin without wp-admin to switch them off. If the site returns, reactivate them one at a time to find the culprit.

Fix 2: Switch to a default theme

If plugins are not to blame, your theme might be. Using File Manager or FTP, rename your active theme’s folder inside wp-content/themes/. WordPress falls back to a default theme, which tells you whether the theme was the problem.

Fix 3: Increase the PHP memory limit

Running out of memory can cause a blank page. Raising the limit often clears it — the same idea covered in increasing limits for WordPress. You can add a higher memory value in wp-config.php.

Fix 4: Turn on debugging

To see the actual error instead of a blank page, enable WordPress debug mode by setting WP_DEBUG to true in wp-config.php. The message that appears usually points straight at the offending plugin or theme file.

Related errors

If you now see a message rather than a blank page, our guides on the 500 internal server error and syntax errors in WordPress take it from there.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there no error message at all?

By default WordPress hides errors from visitors. Turn on WP_DEBUG to reveal the underlying message so you can fix the real cause.

Only my admin area is white, but the site works.

That usually points to a plugin or theme affecting the dashboard specifically. Disable plugins and check, then your theme.

Nothing here fixed it.

Restore a recent backup with JetBackup, or open a support ticket and we will dig into the error logs with you.