You open your website and it is gone, or you see a white screen, or an error message you have never seen before. Whatever the message says, the order of checks is the same. This guide takes you from the quickest checks to the more technical ones, so you can find the cause and bring the site back, and know when to stop and ask for help.
If you think the cause might be a hack, read how to tell if your WordPress site has been hacked first, and go to what to do in the first hour.
Step 1: Check whether it is down for everyone
Open the site on your phone using mobile data, and ask a colleague or use a free uptime checker. If it works elsewhere, the problem may be your browser cache, your network or your location, not the site. If it is down for everyone, carry on.
Step 2: Check the basics that are not WordPress
- Domain. Has the domain name expired? An expired domain stops the site completely and is easy to miss.
- Hosting. Is the account paid up, and has your host sent a suspension or resource limit notice? Check the email linked to the account, including spam.
- Disk space. A full hosting account stops WordPress from writing files and can break the site.
- SSL certificate. An expired certificate shows a security warning that stops most visitors. Renewing it fixes this.
- Host status page. A wider outage at your host is out of your hands, and the status page will say so.
Step 3: Read the exact error
The message tells you where to look. These are the most common ones:
- "There has been a critical error on this website." A PHP error, usually from a plugin, a theme or a PHP version mismatch. WordPress often emails the site administrator a link to recovery mode.
- A blank white screen. Often the same cause, with error display turned off.
- "Error establishing a database connection." WordPress cannot reach the database. The credentials in
wp-config.phpmay be wrong, or the database server may be down. - "500 Internal Server Error". A server-side fault. A damaged
.htaccessfile, a plugin conflict or a PHP memory limit are the usual causes. - "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance". A WordPress update was interrupted and left a
.maintenancefile in the site root. Deleting that file brings the site back. - "503 Service Unavailable". The server is overloaded or being restarted, or a resource limit was reached.
Step 4: Switch on error logging
If the cause is not clear, turn on WordPress debug logging by adding these lines to wp-config.php:
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
WordPress then writes errors to wp-content/debug.log, and the file path in the error usually names the plugin or theme at fault. Turn debugging off again when you are done. Your host's error log is another good place to look.
Step 5: Find the plugin or theme at fault
Most WordPress outages trace back to a plugin or theme, often right after an update. If you cannot reach the dashboard:
- Connect by SFTP or your host's file manager.
- Rename the
wp-content/pluginsfolder toplugins-off. This disables every plugin at once. - Reload the site. If it comes back, the cause is a plugin.
- Rename the folder back, then rename plugin folders one at a time to find the one at fault.
If plugins are not the cause, rename the folder of your active theme in wp-content/themes. WordPress falls back to a default theme if one is installed.
Step 6: Check PHP and memory
A site can fail after the host upgrades PHP, or after an update needs a newer version than you run. Check the PHP version in your hosting panel and compare it with what your plugins and theme support. If the error mentions memory, your host may let you raise the PHP memory limit.
Step 7: Restore from a clean backup if you need to
If you cannot fix the problem directly, restore a backup taken before the outage. Before you do, copy the current files and database, so you do not lose anything added since. Restore the most recent backup you know was good, and then repeat the update that caused the problem on a staging copy. Our guide to a staging site explains how to test an update safely.
If you are not sure your backups work, read how to tell if your website backups actually work before you need them.
Step 8: Rule out a hack
If the site went down with no update and no host change, or you see unfamiliar users, strange pages or redirects, treat it as a possible hack. Restoring a backup without finding the cause leaves the way in open. Our complete recovery guide covers what to do.
When to stop and get help
Ask for help if you cannot reach the files, if the error does not match any of these, if the site takes orders, or if every hour of downtime is costing you money. Our Emergency Recovery covers sites that are hacked, down or flagged. It is a one-time $299 service with no plan or contract. We look at what happened, fix it, harden the site and send a written report. We do not promise a fixed completion time, because it depends on the cause, and we tell you what we found.
How to stop it happening again
Most outages are preventable. Keep WordPress, plugins and themes updated on a schedule, test updates on a staging copy first, keep backups off the server and restore-test them, and use uptime monitoring so you hear about an outage before your customers do. That is the routine in our WordPress update routine, and it is what our WordPress maintenance plans do every month.
