When WordPress Falls Sick!!

It will not be an exaggeration to state that ‘WordPress Is Addictive’, and it can be quite frustrating to encounter an error on opening the favourite page. Worst still, when there is no clue how on earth this error occurred or what does that mean, let alone being aware of what can be the possible solution.

Here, this short write-up is an attempt to deal with a few most common errors on WordPress, with their possible fix, that can be tried next time one sees one of these:

1. 500 Internal Server Error:

It may be a due to a corrupt .htaccess file, a conflicting plugin or theme, or even a corrupt WordPress installation.

Fix:

If possible to do so, check the error log to specifically point out the problem. Else, try dealing with the possibilities one by one.
For a corrupt .htaccess file, which may be the reason in most cases, navigate to the root directory of the WordPress installation, and locate .htaccess file. Rename this file to some other name, like, .htaccess_ex, and reload the website. The site may work, but if it does not, navigate to WP admin panel’s Settings ->Permalinks, and resave the settings.
It may be the faulty PlugIns or Themes, try deactivating those one by one. The faulty ones, when removed, will make the page error-free.
If nothing else works, get a fresh copy of WordPress, and reload the wp-admin and wp-includes directories.

2. White Screen Of Death (WOSD):

A blank white page, that occurs due to the incompatibility issues with a plugin or a theme.

Fix:

Navigate to the root of the WP directories, using FTP, and open /wp-content dierctory.
Isolate the plugins by renaming the plugin folder there. Call it anything, like plugin_ex.
Create a new plugin folder.
Check the website now. If it works fine, the problem was with the plugin.
Do not open the plugin page at this point. Try copying the plugins one by one, to check which one was faulty.
If the website still does not work well, it may be due to one of the faulty themes.
Navigate to /wp-content/themes folder.
Isolate the themes by renaming the folder, example, theme_ex.
Open up WP Admin Panel, and head to Themes Page. This will activate the default theme, depending upon the installation version.

3. Maintenance Mode Error:

That reads, “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.” Whenever an update happens, a temporary .maintenance file is created. When this file is not removed after the updation, this error occurs.

Fix:

Login to the WP rot directory via FTP.
Locate the .maintenance file and delete. This will resolve the problem.

4. Error Establishing A Database Connection:

This error means inaccessibility to the database. It may be due to various reasons:

Issue with the wp-config.php file.
Problem on the web host server, may be the allocated quota exceed limit issue.
Host server is down.
Rare, but possible that the site is hacked.

Fix:

Connect to the server using FTP, and locate the wp-config.php file. Open it, and check that the database related details are correct.
If not, try cleaning the website. Sucuri SiteCheck is a recommended tool for securing the website and cleaning it up.
If still not working, get in touch with the hosting provider, to check if the allocated quota has exceeded or if the server is down.

5. Connection Timed Out:

This error occurs when the website tries to do more than the server can manage. That means, an overloaded or a badly configured server.

Fix:

Deactivate the plugins. If it solves the problem, re-activate one by one. This will identify which one is creating the problem.
Alternatively, deactivate the theme, and revert to the default theme, as discussed in the first issue.
As another trial, try increasing the PHP memory limit, by editing wp-config.php file. Add the following code to the file: define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’); This will increase the memory limit to 64 MB. However, on a shared server, the limit cannot be increased beyond a limit.

You may also consider accessing php.ini file, and increase the maximum execution time.

Author bio: Chace Monteith is a passionate blogger, social media addict and media buying professional with over 5 years of industry experience. He is currently associated with insidershostreview.com.