WordPress Errors are some of the most concerning areas that no one should ever try to underestimate. No matter How small or major the WordPress error is, it has the potential to affect your website performance as well as it’s ranking.
Outdated plugins or themes, Downtime errors, damaged pages, etc. can prevent your visitors to access your website. And due to this, you may get panic and helpless at the same time.
But fortunately, some of the errors you might face on your website are likely to be reported and fixed before you take any action. However, it is also impossible to anticipate and fix every WordPress error. But understanding some of the most common WordPress errors will help you to prevent them and tackle them if they trigger.
At WPOven, we have even covered several common WordPress errors and methods to fix them. In this post, we bring you a complete compilation of Some common WordPress errors and will let you know how you can fix them easily.
But before that, let us take a look at How you can find WordPress errors on your Website.
This would help us in pin-pointing the exact problem. NOTE: Don’t forget to turn debugging off after you have solved the error.
Below is a list of the Most Common WordPress Problems / Errors along with their Causes and Solutions :
1. White Screen of Death
Known as “White Screen of Death”, it is one of the most common WordPress errors. In this error, you will see a blank white screen when you open your Site URL.
White Screen Of Death Error
CAUSE:
There can be many reasons for the White screen of death error, the most common being plugin/theme incompatibility.
Others could be “PHP memory limit exceeded” or “cache size exceeded“
CURE:
If you can access the WP-admin back-end area, then start by deactivating all your plugins.
Now if the white screen error is solved, try activating the plugins one at a time, and after activating each plugin check if the site is working properly or not and when you find the plugin, after activating it which causes the white screen or Blank screen error to occur, deactivate that plugin.
If after deactivating all the plugins the white screen error remains, go to the WordPress admin area and activate the default “Twenty Twelve” theme, and check if the white screen error is solved.
If you are NOT able to access the WP-admin back-end area.
– Access the “wp-content” folder via FTP (using software like “FileZilla” etc), and rename the folder “plugins” (e.g to “plugins-old”, “plugins2” etc). This will deactivate all the plugins on your WordPress install.
– If this fixes the error, then make a new folder named “plugins” and copy all the plugins from the old folder (with the changed name) to this folder one by one and check the site for the error after adding each plugin.
– If the first step did not solve the error then rename the “themes” folder, this will deactivate your current theme and set “Twenty Twelve” (depending on your WordPress install it could be “twenty thirteen”) as your current theme.
If any WordPress error codes 500 to 599 display on your web browser, it simply means your server is unable to perform a given request due to any reason.
500 Internal Server Error
CAUSE:
The most common cause is a corrupt “.htaccess” file.
Other causes: Conflict between plugins/themes, PHP memory limit, or even a corrupt WordPress installation.
CURE:
Using FTP clients like FileZilla etc navigate to the WordPress install folder and find the “.htaccess” file and rename it (e.g. “.htaccess_old” or “.htaccess2” etc).
If the error is solved then the problem is your “.htaccess” file.
You can generate a new “.htaccess” file by navigating to Settings–>Permalinks from your WP-admin panel and saving the settings.
This Common WordPress error generally occurs from the server end and it has nothing to do with your local computer. This error simply means that there has been an inadequate or no proper response received from the other server. This is how it appears on your web browser:
502 bad gateway
CAUSE:
Origin Server is not working properly
Domain unable to determine the right IP address
Block Request By Firewall
The server gets completely failed
Something wrong with your web browser
CURE:
Refresh your webpage after 30 seconds.
Clear cookies and cache memory of your browser.
Try accessing the same website on another browser.
The WordPress Error 503 is an HTTP status code that specifies that a web server is unavailable to process the request. The server can be either the one that can be directly accessed or the web browser trying to get access.
503 Error
CAUSE:
The server is temporarily down due to ongoing Maintenance
Technical difficulties from your web hosting side.
Server inadequacy
DDoS attack
Improper DNS configuration
CURE:
Refresh the webpage
Restart your Computer or Router
Reboot the server
Check your Firewall settings
Check server connectivity
Check server logs
Check Web server resources
Deactivate or Restrict your installed plugins and themes
The WordPress error 504 is a result of a communication problem between a server and gateway server which is act as a proxy. In simple words, it can be interpreted as the server could not complete your request within some specified time.
504 Gateway Timeout Error
CAUSE:
Slow and poor Server performance
Insufficient PHP workers
Problem with the Firewall
Network connectivity issues
CURE:
Try to reload the page
Try a different browser
Check on different devices
Disable the proxy
Check DNS records propagation
Temporarily disable the CDN
Check the issues with your hosting provider
Clean the site from spam, bots and protect it from DDoS attacks
When your WordPress site is unable to establish a connection with your database due to any reason, it won’t be able to collect the necessary data for the content to display. In return, WordPress display error message as shown in the picture below:
Error Establishing a database connection
CAUSE:
The most common cause can be within the “wp-config.php” file.
Another could be due to problems at the web host end, especially if you’re on a shared hosting plan.
CURE:
Open up the “wp-config.php” file using FTP.
Check the following details are filled correctly :
This common WordPress error you will face when you have unnecessarily used spaces or PHP tags while coding. And the best part about this error is, that it let you know the exact location of the issue so that you can easily fix it either by editing the relevant files or completely replacing it.
warning: Cannot modify headers already sent
CAUSE:
This is mostly caused by an excess/unrequired spaces or excess spaces between the <?php or ?> tags
CURE:
Open up the file that would be mentioned in the error message, and remove all the extra spaces from the file.
Make sure the first characters in the file are “<?php” i.e there are no spaces before it.
8. Briefly Unavailable for scheduled maintenance.
Whenever you are making some changes, editing, or running updates on your WordPress site, it automatically turns into maintenance mode. And during this time, for anyone who tries to access your website, a message will appear just like the image shown below:
Briefly Unavailable for scheduled maintenance
CAUSE:
If you perform an automatic update for WordPress, it makes a file “.maintenance” that lets people visiting your site during the update process know that the site is under maintenance.
If this file gets corrupted or the automatic update fails, the file will remain in the WordPress folder and not get deleted automatically.
CURE:
Access your WordPress root folder via FTP and find and delete the “.maintenance” file there.
9. WordPress Critical Error
The WordPress Critical Error is a common WordPress error that does not allow WordPress to load scripts that helps in work properly.
Earlier, this WordPress critical error was used to display on-screen similar to the White screen of death or data error message. But after certain WordPress updates, the error now can be displayed on your screen as ” There has been a critical error on this website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions“.
WordPress error : WordPress Critical Error
CAUSE:
It can be caused by malfunctioning plugins, poor scripts, or codes.
You have recently added some code snippets from a third party, this may also trigger a WordPress critical error.
Exceeded WordPress memory limit
CURE:
Disable all your installed plugins
Increase your WordPress memory limit
Enable Debugging in WordPress
Restore your Website
Backup your website and revert to the default theme
10. 400 Errors
The errors that start with 400 series usually represent that, there went wrong during communication between a browser and the website server. These are also referred to as client errors, referring to the issue with the request made by the user.
Error 400 – Bad request
This error generally means there is a syntax error in the request made by the user agent.
Error 400 Bad Request
CAUSE:
Typed incorrect URL or used some characters that are not allowed.
Uploading a large file that exceeds the threshold limit.
Cookies and cache memory that have been stored in the browser get corrupted.
CURE:
Carefully type the URL in the address bar and recheck the URL for any typo errors.
Clear your Browser History, Cookies, and cache from your browser as well as DNS cache.
Disable or deactivate Extensions that you installed on your browser.
11. Error 403 – Forbidden Error
Error 403 signifies that the user is prohibited or forbidden to access the requested web resource, which exists on the web server. Generally, we use this feature as a measure to keep your WordPress site safe but sometimes it started to create problems if you do not set permissions properly.
Error 403
CAUSE:
When you set incorrect file permissions
When there is no website or web application files are uploaded to the server directory.
This is one of the most common WordPress errors, that you will encounter frequently while surfing the internet. This Error 404 simply means, the URL you trying to access the page where the necessary text and some content are currently missing.
404 error
CAUSE:
Invalid URL
Caching problem
Problem with DNS settings
Compatibility issues with installed plugins and themes.
One of the most common WordPress errors that on average almost every WordPress user has faced is being locked out of WordPress. And this error creates a sense of panic for most of the users.
Locked Out Of WordPress
However there can be many reasons that one can easily be locked out of WordPress, Some of the reasons are:
CAUSE:
Forget or typed incorrect WordPress login credentials
Unable to Reset Password
Forget your custom Login URL
Locked out due to Hacker’s attack
CURE:
Reset your password
Reset the password from the host control Panel
Disable the plugin that helped you to create a custom login URL
Contact your Web hosting provider
Create a new user and assign it new admin privileges directly in the database.
Another most common WordPress error a user generally face is an HTTP error during uploading images. This type of error usually occurs when a user tries to upload media to WordPress via a built-in media uploader.
This type of WordPress error is generally difficult to solve because, unlike browser errors, it won’t provide you with sufficient information about the possible cause of the error.
At last, every WordPress site owner’s dream is to run a website without any errors or issues and make it available all the time for their visitors. You do not like your visitors to witness error messages while accessing your website.
After all, if you are running an online business, these errors will seriously hit your Traffic, sales, search engine rankings, and all sort of revenues through it.
In addition to it, your visitor will have started trust issues with your website, and ultimately it can ruin your brand reputation. Once damaged it will be a difficult and time taking process for you to regain the same trust and reputation as it was before.
Therefore, in this post, we have compiled the 14 most common WordPress errors, that you can face on regular basis and fix them as easily as possible. And at last, you will be able to get your business back right on track.
If you have any queries or problems still regarding your WordPress installation, feel free to contact us through this page: https://wpoven.com/contact.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I fix WordPress errors?
There are multiple methods you can try to fix WordPress errors, some of them are: 1. Clear your Browser history, cookies, and cache memory. 2. Check your WordPress error logs. 3. Disable all your Installed Plugins 4. Revert to the default theme 5. Check your .htaccess file 6. Increase your WordPress memory limit
How do I reset WordPress?
1. First you need to install and activate a WP reset plugin. 2. Go to Tools > WP reset. 3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the Site reset option. 4. Type reset in the confirmation field to confirm the reset and then click the “Reset WordPress” button. 5. After typing “reset” in the confirmation box, click on the Reset Site button to initiate the process. 6. A pop-up window will appear, Click on “Reset WordPress” to continue. 7. After that, go to WordPress Dashboard > Tools > WP reset > Tools Tab for deleting theme and plugin files. 8. And click on delete themes > Delete all themes. Similarly, follow the same steps to delete Plugins.
Why am I getting a WordPress error?
There can be multiple reasons for generating WordPress errors, some of the most common reasons are: 1. Broken URLs 2. Internet connectivity issues. 3. Misconfigured DNS settings 4. Issue in server connection with your WordPress files 5. Incorrect file permissions 6. Poorly coded Plugins and themes 7. Syntax error
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