If you follow me on Facebook or read any of my blog posts, you’ll know my big thing is making sure that your website is properly backed up. Not only does having a cast-iron backup system allow you to sleep at night, it means you don’t have to worry too much about updating your website theme, plugins and WordPress version. If something goes wrong, you can of course, simply roll back your website to your most recent backup. Side note: Cloud-based back-up services like BlogVault allow you to create a copy of your site on their server so that you can test updates before updating your live site.
But if something goes wrong, there are a few quick fixes you can use before going to the trouble of restoring a backup. Here a 5 ways you can easily troubleshoot WordPress.
1. WordPress is stuck in Maintenance Mode after updating
When updating WordPress to a new version, occasionally your site can get ‘stuck’ in maintenance mode, with the message ‘WordPress is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance’ showing and the back end of your website inaccessible. A poor internet connection or server timeout might cause this, or maybe the wind the blowing the wrong way – who knows. Anyway, this is an easy one to fix.
You’ll need to connect directly to your hosting server so that you can see all of your WordPress files. You can either sign into your hosting account and look for the File Manager tool – every host offers this. In Siteground, for example, you will find the File Manager in your Control Panel (cPanel). Alternatively you can connect using an FTP client. I like the free FTP tool, Filezilla. Filezilla has clear instructions, but essentially you’ll need to obtain your FTP details from your hosting company. Usually they are listed prominently in your account area or clearly labelled in cPanel. You’ll need the server address (usually ftp.yourdomain.com), your username and your password. Getting familiar with connecting to your hosting via FTP is a really good idea anyway. A lot of WordPress troubleshooting is easier via FTP.
Once connected, go to the root of your site. You can tell you’re in the right place because you’ll see your WordPress files there. Look for the file called .maintenance. You can safely delete it and that should bring your site back to normal. You may find that your WordPress update didn’t complete and you need to run the update process again.
2. You get function errors after updating a plugin
Updating plugins, especially if you trigger several updates at once, can occasionally cause an error in the plugin functions file. It might even be that the plugin maker hasn’t updated their plugin to be fully compatible with the very latest version of WordPress. (Another good reason to use a cloud-based backup system where you can test updates). It might look something like this…either on the front end of your site or at the top of your dashboard in the back end.
The first thing to do is to disable all plugins and then switch them back on one by one until you find the culprit. You might find that fixes the problem. If it doesn’t, the next step is to check if the fault lies with the plugin or is being caused by a clash with your theme. The next step it to switch back to the default theme (currently Twenty Seventeen), via the Appearance > Themes area.
If you are still seeing an error, then the issue is likely to be the plugin. Nearly all plugin settings are stored in your WordPress database, so you can usually safely delete the plugin and re-install it without any problems.
3. You can’t see changes you’ve made
Let’s unpack the mysterious ‘Clear your cache’ instruction that support experts and helpful Facebook group members like to tell you to do.
When you are viewing your website, you might not actually be viewing the most recent version of it, because your website might be ‘cached’.
Typical symptoms include:
- recent changes not showing up
- seeing a different version on mobile
This means that a version of your website might be stored somewhere so that it can be served up quicker than loading a whole site / page from scratch.
The problem is that these saved versions can be stored in several different places. Here’s where you can look for and clear possible caches.
Your Browser
1. Go to the Chrome menu and choose History > Show Full History > Clear Browsing Data. A modal screen will appear. Make sure you only check the Cached Images & Files option. Once the cache is cleared, reload your page and behold your pages.
2. There is an Empty Cache & Hard Reload shortcut in Chrome. Either hit F12 or Alt + CMD + I to reveal the Inspector Tools panel. Once that is open, go to the browser reload symbol and right click to reveal the dropdown menu. Choose Empty Cache & Hard Reload. Done!
Your website security plugin
If you’ve installed a speed or security plugin, most of them have built-in caching which is automatically toggled on. In the plugin settings area, you’ll find controls to ‘Purge the Cache’ or exclude certain pages from automatic caching.
Your hosting
Some hosts offer server-side caching as standard. I know that Siteground does. You’ll need to access your Site Tools area and look for speed settings and the option to clear your caches.
(Sidenote: Cloudflare/CDN is also a form of caching, so worth checking that hasn’t automatically been enabled).
Do start with clearing your browser cache first, then work your way through the other options.
4. Your posts or pages are showing 404 not found
Some changes you might make to your theme – installing certain plugins, migrating your site to a new host or switching themes – might cause 404 Page Not Found errors. The quick fix is to reset your permalinks. Go to Settings > Permalinks and switch your permalink choice to a different option and save. Switch back to your preferred arrangement and click save again. Note: if you have just migrated your site from a different website address, you may need to physically update your site’s link structure or edit your wp-config file. Check out WordPress Codex for some more information, and of course, a quick call to your host should be your first port of call if you have widespread 404 errors.
5. Your site is showing the white screen of death
At some point, you’ll probably encounter the so-called white screen of death. It means that when you visit your WordPress website, you’re seeing a completely blank screen. It also means that you probably can’t log into the backend of your website using the /wp-admin sign in. The two most common reasons for this are plugin or theme compatibility issues following updates. The easiest way to find out which it is, is to access your files again, either via your File Manager or by FTP.
Firstly, navigate to your site files and look for the WordPress folder called wp-content. Inside that folder, you’ll find folders containing all of your themes and plugins.
TO TEST IF PLUGINS ARE THE PROBLEM
Start with the plugins folder. If you were updating a particular plugin, find that plugin and simply rename the folder by right clicking on it. This will deactivate the plugin and hopefully bring your site back to life, so that you can login normally again. You can then delete the plugin via File Manager / FTP and reinstall a fresh version in the usual way.
If you have a lot of plugins and want to quickly find out if it’s a plugin or your theme, you can simply rename the whole plugins folder to say, ‘plugins_old’. If the white screen of death disappears, you know one of your plugins is the culprit. Create a new folder called ‘plugins’ and transfer each plugin one by one to that new folder. Now you can activate them one at a time in your plugins area.
TO TEST IF YOUR THEME IS THE PROBLEM
If you’d like to test if your theme is the problem, open your themes folder and rename your theme folder, taking note of the original name in case you need it later. This will cause WordPress to load the default theme and hopefully resolve your white screen issue. You might need to delete and re-install the latest version of your theme to fully resolve the issue. If you’re still having white screen problems after this, it’s time to get in touch with your hosting company and ask them to check your hosting account for errors.
In Summary
When troubleshooting WordPress, the main thing to remember is ‘don’t panic’. Work through the steps above methodically. Often errors are easy to fix if you keep a cool head.
If you’d like to learn more about mastering WordPress and get one-to-one support, check out Siteschool.
I have gone through your article which was on wordpress error and issues. WordPress is a popular Content Management System (CMS) used by millions of websites, and it can sometimes encounter errors and issues. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot common WordPress errors and issues:
1.Check your error logs
2.Deactivate plugins and switch to a default theme
3.Check for conflicts
4.Check your WordPress version
5.Check your server
6.Clear your cache
By implementing the above points you can resolve your wordpress error and issues. Readers, If you have any doubt about this you can take a free consultation from a company like Alakmalak technologies. They have 17+ years of experience in this field.