Is your website down, but you cannot access your backend to fix it? This guide will help you identify the causes of your website issues to take the proper steps to resolve them.
Note: If the problem is a wrong password or username, follow this separate guide and change your WordPress login details.
The most common WP errors that hinder you from logging in:
- White page
- "500 Internal Server Error"
- "Critical Server Error"
- "Database Connection", "Error Loading Data", "404, Page not found" & "403, Forbidden"
- "503, Service unavailable" & "522, Connection time out"
Interpretation of different error codes and solutions
- How to interpret an error code
- Code contains the word "plugin"
- Code contains the word "theme"
- Code contains "wp-admin" or "wp-includes"
Did you know?
If you’re facing error messages that you can’t resolve on your own – even with the help of our guides and support – or don't have time to fix them, our WP Troubleshooting service can help.Use the contact form for Premium Care to get details, pricing, and priority assistance.
White page
Having to deal with this error can be pretty annoying at first because you are locked out of WordPress and don't have any error messages to work with.
What you see: Literally a white page with no content at all.
Possible cause: Your website may show a white screen after reaching its memory limit.
What to do: First, try emptying your browser cache. If nothing changes, follow the steps below.
- Enable debugging.
- Wait a few minutes and refresh your page.
- Interpret the code and find out how to fix your error.
Note: If no error code appeared yet, it could be PHP related. Activate PHP error messages for an error to appear. Continue with interpreting the code.
"500 Internal Server Error"
Much like an entire white page, this generic error doesn't provide any valuable information just yet. Following the steps below, you'll receive a meaningful error code that can help you understand what causes the issue.
What you see: A primarily white page with an explanation concerning an "Internal server".
Possible causes: Improperly named .htaccess files, PHP memory limits, outdated WordPress plugins and themes
What to do: First, try emptying your browser cache. If nothing changes, follow the steps below.
- Enable debugging.
- Wait a few minutes and refresh your page.
- Interpret the code and find out how to fix your error.
Note: If no error code appeared yet, it could be PHP related. Activate PHP error messages for an error to appear. Continue with interpreting the code.
"Critical Server Error"
Don't let the word "critical" intimidate you. You don't need to worry about your website being broken. This guide can help you fix the issue and regain access to your WP Admin. It always helps if you remember what your last action was. Maybe a plugin was deleted or installed? Maybe the PHP version was changed?
What you see: A mostly grey page with a box informing you that "There has been a critical error on the website."
Possible cause: Often, PHP issues, as well as malfunctioning plugins, themes or scripts, cause WordPress to crash.
What to do: First, try emptying your browser cache. If nothing changes, follow the steps below.
- Enable debugging.
- Wait a few minutes and refresh your page.
- Interpret the code and find out how to fix your error.
Note: If no error code appeared yet, it could be PHP related. Check your PHP version and activate PHP error messages, there should be an error message you can interpret.
"Database Connection", "Error Loading Data", "404 Page not found" & "Forbidden"
"Error Establishing a Database Connection WordPress"
- What to do: Update WordPress database connection details
"Error Loading Data"
- What to do: Update WordPress manually
"403, Forbidden Error"
- What to do:
- Go to File Manager.
- Open the folder wp-admin.
- Locate the .htaccess file.
- Delete it and confirm the deletion of the file twice.
- Restart your 1-click installation by typing in your domain name in the browser.
"404, Page not found"
- What to do: Fix 404 permalinks in WordPress
"503, Service unavailable"
Possible cause: Most likely, this error message indicates that the server is unavailable. However, there can be many reasons for this.
- What to do: We suggest contacting our support if the data is on our webspace.
"522, Connection time out"
Possible cause: This is an error specific to Cloudflare. Content delivery networks (CDNs) like Cloudflare make website connections faster between browsers and their origin servers. There are times, however, when the server fails to respond within a specified timeframe. This is when the Error 522 message appears, indicating the connection has timed out.
- What to do: You can find more information about the error's possible causes and steps to resolve it in this external guide.
How to interpret an error code
An error code can look overwhelming at first, but with this simple trick, you can quickly establish what it is about and take the appropriate steps to fix the issue. Here's the trick:
Press Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F) on your keyboard and search for the terms "plugins" or "themes".
The error code contains the word "plugin"
The cause of the problem is the plugin mentioned after /plugins/
....../wp-content/plugins/[plugin_name]What you see:
Before you continue it is very important to create a backup of webspace and database.
What to do:
- Disable all your plugins from the database.
- You should now be able to reaccess WP Admin.
- In WP Admin, ensure to update everything (all plugins, themes and WP version).
- Reactivate your plugins one by one.
- (optional) If a third-party plugin cannot be updated, it will keep causing errors. Please remove it from your webspace or contact the developer of the plugin.
Tip: We have collected a whole list of plugins that we advise against using. Check out our discouraged WordPress plugins list.
The error code contains the word "theme"
The cause of the problem is the theme mentioned after /themes/
....../wp-content/themes/[theme name]What you see:
Before you continue it is very important to create a backup of webspace and database.
What to do:
- Change your WordPress theme to a default theme in the database.
- You should be able to reaccess WP Admin.
- In your WP Admin, ensure to update everything (all plugins, themes and WP-version).
- (optional) If a third-party theme cannot be updated, it will keep causing errors. Please remove it from your webspace or contact the developer of the theme.
The error code contains "wp-admin" or "wp-includes"
If the error message neither includes /wp-content/ nor /plugins/ or /themes/, then the problem is most likely related to the WordPress core files and can be fixed by a manual update.
What you see:
Before you continue it is very important to create a backup of webspace and database.
- Double-check if your backups were successful.
- Update WordPress manually.
- You should be able to reaccess WP Admin.
Tip: Read more about our tips on how to improve the security of your WordPress site.
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