Fixing the WordPress white screen of death

Applies to: All plans.

A blank white WordPress page — the "white screen of death" (WSOD) — almost always means a single plugin or theme has crashed PHP, not that your hosting is down. This guide walks you through finding the culprit and getting your site back. Work through the sections in order and test your site after each step.

Before you start: you need access to your client area (to reach cPanel by single sign-on) and your WordPress admin login if you can still reach it. If the admin area is also white, you will work from cPanel -> Files -> File Manager instead.

Symptoms

The front of your site, your wp-admin dashboard, or both show a completely blank white page.
No error text, no theme, no menu — just white.
It often starts right after you installed or updated a plugin, theme or WordPress core.

Common causes (most likely first)

A faulty or incompatible plugin — the most common cause, especially right after an update.
A broken theme — a theme update or edit that contains a PHP error.
PHP memory exhausted — a heavy plugin pushes the page over your plan's memory limit.
An outdated or wrong PHP version for your current WordPress, plugins or theme.
A corrupt core file after an interrupted update.

Quick fixes

1. Turn on WordPress debug to see the real error

A white screen hides the underlying PHP error. Reveal it so you know what to fix.

Open cPanel -> Files -> File Manager and go to your site's folder (usually public_html).
Edit wp-config.php and find the line define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );.
Change it to true, and to log the error privately rather than show it to visitors, add these lines just above the /* That's all, stop editing! */ comment:
```
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
```
Save, then reload your site. The error is written to wp-content/debug.log, which you can open in File Manager.

Result: the log usually names the exact plugin, theme or file at fault — for example a path under wp-content/plugins/. Set WP_DEBUG back to false once you have finished.

2. Disable all plugins

If you can still reach wp-admin, go to Plugins -> Installed Plugins, tick all, choose Deactivate and apply. If your site comes back, reactivate plugins one at a time, reloading after each, until the white screen returns — that last plugin is the culprit.

If you cannot reach wp-admin, disable them from cPanel:

In File Manager, open wp-content.
Rename the plugins folder to plugins-off.
Reload your site. If it works, your problem is a plugin. Rename the folder back to plugins, then rename each plugin sub-folder one at a time to find the bad one.

3. Switch to a default theme

A broken theme causes the same blank page. In wp-admin, go to Appearance -> Themes and activate a default WordPress theme (such as a Twenty-something theme). If the admin area is white, in File Manager rename your active theme's folder inside wp-content/themes/ — WordPress falls back to a default theme automatically.

Result: if switching theme fixes it, the fault is in your theme. Restore it from a backup or contact the theme author.

4. Check your PHP version and limits

An old PHP version, or hitting your memory limit, can blank the page.

Set a modern PHP version per domain in cPanel -> MultiPHP Manager (a current PHP 8.x is usually best). See How to choose the right PHP version for performance.
Raise the PHP memory or upload limit within your plan's CloudLinux limits — see How to increase the WordPress memory or upload limit. These limits are capped by your plan, not unlimited.

5. Restore from a backup

If the screen appeared right after a change and you cannot trace it, roll back. On Self-Managed plans you can self-restore in cPanel — see How to back up and restore WordPress. On Managed plans our team keeps daily off-site backups for 30 days.

If that did not work

If you see a 508 "Resource Limit Reached" rather than a true white page, that is a resource issue, not a crash — see "Resource limit reached" and 508 errors explained.
Re-upload a fresh copy of WordPress core's wp-admin and wp-includes folders if the debug log points at a core file.
Gather your domain, the exact error text from debug.log, and when it started, then contact us. On Managed plans this kind of fix is included in your support; on Self-Managed we will still point you to the cause.