WordPress Troubleshooting

The most common cause of a 500 Internal Server Error message is a corrupt .htaccess file. Additional causes can be a conflicting plugin or theme, or even a corrupt WordPress installation. Sometimes, PHP memory limits may also cause a 500 Internal Server Error. The easiest way to figure out where the problem lies is to check your website’s error_log (many shared web hosts often do not enable full error logging, though).

A White Screen of Death means when you access your website, you see nothing but a blank page. There can be multiple reasons behind a WSOD, the most common ones being compatibility issues with a plugin or a theme. Of course, the “incompatibility” itself can have multiple faces: a plugin may have a conflict with another plugin, or a plugin may not be compatible with the latest version of WP. Similarly, a theme may also experience compatibility issues with WordPress after an update. The easiest solution is to retry and revert to a backup or rename your /wp-content/plugins folder.

This means WordPress is experiencing a problem when trying to access the database. The direct cause can be an issue with the wp-config.php file – most likely, details related to your database have been entered incorrectly or has changed. However, most of the time, database connection errors occur due to a problem that can be solved only by your web host (especially if you are on a shared hosting server).

Each time you update WordPress to a newer version, it makes a temporary .maintenance file. The problem occurs when the .maintenance file is not removed properly after the upgrade (in many cases, this happens when the upgrade process itself fails to complete successfully). Log into your hosting account and delete the .maintenance file.

An error that you receive from an overloaded server (or a badly configured server).It generally happens when the website’s server is too overloaded and is unable to complete your browser’s request.