{"id":5028,"date":"2026-06-25T11:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.copahost.com\/blog\/?p=5028"},"modified":"2026-06-25T14:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:34:18","slug":"wordpress-white-screen-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.copahost.com\/blog\/wordpress-white-screen-of-death\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress White Screen of Death: Causes and How to Fix It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The WordPress white screen of death (WSOD) is a completely blank page \u2014 no content, no error message, nothing \u2014 that appears when a fatal PHP error crashes WordPress before it can render anything. The most common cause of a truly blank screen is PHP memory exhaustion, where the process is killed before WordPress can even show an error. It’s almost always fixable, usually by raising the memory limit or disabling the plugin or theme behind it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WordPress<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Few things are as unsettling as loading your site and getting nothing but a blank white page. The white screen of death is especially frustrating because, unlike most errors, it gives you no clue<\/strong> \u2014 no code, no message, no hint of where to look. This guide explains what causes that blank screen specifically, how it differs from the “critical error” message you may have seen, and how to fix it step by step \u2014 starting with the most likely cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the white screen of death?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The WSOD is a blank, unresponsive page that replaces your site when a fatal PHP error<\/strong> stops WordPress before it can output any HTML. WordPress hides fatal errors by default (they can expose sensitive information), so instead of an error message, you get a white void.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can affect your whole site<\/strong>, just the front end<\/strong>, or just the admin dashboard<\/strong> \u2014 and which one it hits is itself a clue, as we’ll see. Across browsers it looks slightly different (Chrome may say “This page isn’t working” with an HTTP 500, Firefox shows a plain blank page), but the root cause is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White screen vs. the “critical error” message<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the key distinction, and it tells you a lot about what went wrong. Since WordPress 5.2<\/strong>, WordPress has a fatal-error handler that catches<\/em> most fatal errors and shows the message “There has been a critical error on this website,” along with a recovery-mode email. So why do you still sometimes get a pure blank screen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because some errors kill PHP before<\/strong> WordPress can run that handler \u2014 most often memory exhaustion<\/strong>. When PHP runs out of memory, it terminates the process immediately, leaving no chance for WordPress to display its critical-error message. So:<\/p>\n\n\n\n