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According to statistics, WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, with a market share of 60%. Not only that, WordPress powers 42.7% of websites (a total of 708 million sites) on the internet and 17% of top websites in the world. All these numbers do not mean that it is perfect. It has flaws, and most WordPress website administrators know them very well. They must deal with errors and security and privacy issues from time to time.
In this article, you will learn about seven common WordPress errors and how you can fix them.
How you can Fix Common WordPress Errors
1. Database Connection Problems
There are instances when your WordPress website cannot connect with your database, where all the content is stored. As a result, WordPress fails to serve content to your website visitors and displays this error. To fix this problem, go to your WordPress dashboard and use the WordPress repair tool. This tool checks whether your database is corrupt.
If that does not work, go to your wp-config.php and check whether your account credentials match cPanel’s. If everything is OK, you can contact your hosting provider, as they might be experiencing technical issues causing your WordPress website to struggle to connect with your database. Talk to customer support, who can help you troubleshoot the problem.
2. White Screen of Death
Most of us are familiar with the blue screen of death, as we grew up using Windows operating systems on our computers. Did you know there is also a white screen of death? It’s on WordPress and shares a few characteristics with the blue screen of death.
If you have ever seen the white screen of death on WordPress, you might wonder where my website went and how I can get it back. There is no common cause for this error, but in most cases, it happens due to PHP and database errors. To fix this, you must monitor themes and plugin-related issues. Deactivate all your plugins and themes if you find that these themes and plugins are the main reason behind the problem. If a theme or plugin does not cause this, you should consider increasing the WordPress memory limit. If that does not work, you should use the debugging tool by adding define ( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true ) to the wp-config.php file.
Related Reading: WordPress Broken Admin issue (Fix)
3. Internal Server Errors
Internal server errors are usually caused by catchall error messages, which indicate a problem with your server, but there can be many different causes. Therefore, you should take a comprehensive approach to resolving this issue. Here are some things you can do to fix internal server errors.
- Reupload wp-admin and other folders
- Increase memory limit
- Disable all your plugins
- Use default theme
- Fix your corrupted htaccess file
You can download a fresh copy Of WordPress and upload wp-admin and other folders again or try to fix the corrupted htaccess file. To do this, you must establish an FTP connection and change the name of your htaccess file. Go to settings and permalinks to save the permalinks so that WordPress generates a new htaccess file and replaces the corrupted file with a newly created file. You can reactivate plugins when you need them. The same goes for themes and other elements.
4. Parse and Syntax Errors
Parse and syntax errors occur when there is an error in your PHP code. This usually happens when you try to add code to your functions file, but a plugin or theme can also cause it in some cases. Your server will tell you the main reason behind this error and indicate the code line number causing the problem, making your life easier.
In most cases, such errors occur soon after you have made some changes, so you can quickly fix this error by reverting those changes. If not, you should establish a connection with an FTP and delete the code causing all the problems.
5. Connection Timed Out
Nothing is more frustrating for a user than to see a connection timed-out error. This error mainly occurs due to poor shared hosting environments with low memory limits. That is, you should choose a hosting provider like you select a design company. If you have purchased a shared hosting and the server your website is hosted on fails to respond to all the requests, a connection timeout message will pop up on the user screen who will try to access your website.
Start by deactivating and reactivating all the plugins individually to identify which plugin is causing the problem. You can also consider switching hosting providers, getting an upgraded plan, or switching to a dedicated server.
6. 404 Error
Another annoying error commonly occurring on WordPress websites is the 404 error. Mainly, these 404 errors arise due to misconfigured permalink settings or htaccess files. Go to settings and reset your permalinks in your permalink’s settings. If that does not resolve the problem, you can try renaming your htaccess file by connecting to an FTP, especially if you cannot access your WordPress dashboard.
7. Caught Up In Maintenance Mode
WordPress users are bound to face issues when updating their WordPress version. WordPress turns on maintenance mode to prevent any problems while automatically installing updates. This allows your website users to have an average experience instead of a broken one due to updates.
Although this process usually works in most cases, there are instances where your WordPress website does not come out of maintenance mode and gets stuck in it. Thankfully, you can quickly fix this problem by establishing an FTP connection and deleting the maintenance file, which is located in your website’s root directory.
Which common WordPress errors do you face? Let us know in the comments section below.
Guest Author Bio: Irfan Ak is a digital marketing strategist and guest blogger on various websites. He is currently associated with Branex Inc., a leading Toronto web design company. He has worked with multiple other brands and created value for them.