10 most common WordPress errors and how to fix them

WordPress has been an amazing content management system (CMS) for bloggers and web developers. The easy interface and user-friendly features of WordPress have totally changed the method of designing websites. This tool has made it possible for beginners to start their own website with the help of numerous plugins and themes. WordPress might have been an amazing tool for beginners, but it still has some technicality involved which might give trouble to a new user. In fact, there are a number of common WordPress problems that most users are likely to encounter at least once.

WordPress problems and solutions

Here in this post, we have collected some of the most common WordPress errors and issues and how to fix them.

First make sure you backup your site before making any changes. That way, if something goes wrong that can’t be recovered with the tips below, you can always go back to a point in time when everything was running smoothly.

Backups can either be performed by your web host (high quality hosting providers will do that for you) or you can use one of the many WordPress plugin solutions out there:

 

Fix WordPress Coding (Syntax) Error

When you try to add a code snippet to WordPress, then you might face a PHP error message reading “Parse error – syntax error, unexpected $end” with the URL Link. This is nothing major, you just have to recheck your code and find any missing bracket or coma in it.

Fix Error Establishing a Database Connection

Error Establishing a Database Connection

When you see the error message “Error Establishing a Database Connection,” it simply means that WordPress couldn’t connect to your MySQL database server. The most common reason for this problem is incorrect database login credentials. Maybe your password or username is wrong.

  • Check If Your Plugin or Theme Files Haven’t Been Corrupted
  • Check If Your Database Hasn’t Been Corrupted.
  • Check Your Database Connection Credentials
  • Restore The Default WordPress Files

Read how to fix the Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress.

Fix WordPress Internal Server Error 500

WordPress 500 internal server error

Sometimes a user might see Internal Server Error”, or “500 Internal Server Error” on their screen due to problem in the server that can’t be recognized. Most of cases it is not a big issue, just problem in the line or the .htaccess file of your website. To fix it, you can try to access corrupted .htaccess files and try to fix them. If your website won’t stop showing this error even after accessing the corrupted files, then this may be due to over-exhaustion of your PHP memory. To fix this problem completely you have to increase your PHP memory.

  • Check Your .htaccess File
  • Switch To The Default Theme
  • Deactivate All Your WordPress Plugins
  • Increase php Memory Limit

Fix WordPress Database Errors

The error 500 is not only related to your .htaccess files, but it can also occur due to some problem in your database. If you have recently changed your database credentials, such as your database host, database username, or database password, then you might receive this error, but can be fixed very easily.

Before fixing this error, you have to make sure that you have been receiving the same message on the backend and front end of your website. If the message is different on both ends, then this means that your database is corrupted.

  • Connect to your site via FTP
  • Go to WordPress root and download the “wp-config.php” file to your desktop.
  • Edit this file in Notepad, add one extra line at the end (right before “That’s all, stop editing”):

define(‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR’, true);

  • Now upload the file back to your site (via FTP) overwriting the old version.
  • Go to http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php.

WordPress Database Repair

  • Click either of the buttons.
  • Once the automatic repair finishes, go back to your site and check if the problem is solved.

Note: Don’t forget to revert your “wp-config.php” file to its previous state. To do this simply Remove that new line define(‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR’, true); that you just added and re-upload the file.

Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death

Wordpress White screen of Death

If you are looking at the plain white screen on your computer, and you don’t know what is the problem with your WordPress site, then there are two possibilities – either you have over-exhausted your PHP memory limit or there is some problem with the server configuration. Now, you can increase the PHP memory limit of your website, however, if you are already using the full capacity of your website, then you have to uninstall all of your plugins and clear some space. Here we have listed 5 solutions to fix the WordPress White Screen of Death error.

  1. Disable Plugins and Themes
  2. Resolve Syntax Errors
  3. Switch on Debugging
  4. Increasing Memory Limits
  5. Check File Permission Issues

Fix Error 404 (Not found) on WordPress

If you are constantly seeing error 404 on one of your web pages and the rest of your website is fine, then this WordPress error can be fixed by reconfiguring your permalinks settings or manually update your rewrite rules. To fix your permalinks settings, go to “settings”, then “permalinks” and click “save changes”.

Update permalink

WordPress Sidebar Content Error

Well, if your sidebar is appearing below the content instead of along with it, then this is a problem with your HTML or CSS coding of the theme. There is a big possibility that you might have forgotten to close the div HTML tag. However, if you are using a custom theme, then the problem could in the bandwidth ratio or floating properties. You have to add “float: left;” and “float: right” properties at the right place, otherwise your theme won’t work properly.

  • Check the out.php page or other page files
  • Double-check your single.php file
  • Solve your sidebar issues with your Theme’s developer
  • Check your div elements
  • Check if the Issues with the Plugins
  • Set your Site’s Width
  • Check your customizations (HTML or CSS)

WordPress White Button or Text Error

Okay, so if you are facing the WordPress problem where your button space is going blank or you won’t able to see your text because of the white color. Then, this problem could be related to 2 issues – JavaScript is not working on the admin panel or missing or corrupt TinyMCE plugin. This problem can be fixed easily by clearing your browser cache or using different browsers.

Fix allowed memory size exhausted error in WordPress

allowed memory size exhausted error in WordPress

If you are getting this message “Fatal error: the Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted”, then this occurs when you have exhausted the default memory size limit.  And you can easily fix it by increasing the php memory limit in WordPress.

To Increase PHP Memory Limit in WordPress

  • Connect to your site via FTP
  • Go to WordPress root and download the “wp-config.php” file to your desktop.
  • Edit this file in notepad, add one extra line at the end (right before “That’s all, stop editing!  Happy blogging.’”):

define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );

Note: This code tells WordPress to increase the PHP memory limit to 256MB.

Increase PHP Memory Limit in WordPress

  • Now upload the file back to your site (via FTP) overwriting the old version.
  • Visit your WordPress site and the memory exhausted error should disappear now.

Connection Timed Out

This error also shows up when WordPress doesn’t have enough memory to play with. When this is the case, you will have to increase the memory limit in your wp-config.php file. To do this, place the following line of code at the end of your wp-config.php file:

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '128M');

If this doesn’t fix your error, try deactivating all the plugins and switching to the default theme. See instructions in the 500 Internal Server Error section above.

WordPress Login Page Error

If you are facing the login page problem every time you add your website details and you get directly back to the login page, then this could be due to the wrong values in your website URL or home URL. As we know, WordPress uses cookies to access the website, so you have to delete your cookies cache before trying to log in again. If this problem won’t fix by doing this, then you can uninstall all of your plugins and try again.

WordPress Image Upload error (failed to write to disk)

If you are facing problem in uploading images to your website or you’re already uploaded images are broken, then this is a problem with the permission in a WordPress directory. To fix this WordPress error, you can use the FTP client to change the permissions of the directory. You can also access file permissions by using cPanel’s File Manager if you have access to it.

Forget the WordPress admin password?

Sometimes you might forget the WordPress Admin password, But don’t worry It is really easy to reset the WordPress Admin password. Use the Forgot Your Password feature offered by WordPress if this didn’t work for you then follow the steps below to reset the WordPress admin password from PHPMyAdmin.

  • login to PHPMyAdmin and select your WordPress site’s database:
  • Now, select the wp_users table from the list of tables:
  • You will see all the users there are on your WordPress website (including You) as a database entry.
  • Find your username among the list and click the Edit link to the left of the entry row:
  • On the Edit page, you will see options to edit user_pass:
  • select MD5 from the drop-down and then input your new password in the Value field.
  • Click the GO button at the bottom and login using your new password.

reset wordpress admin password from phpmyadmin

The WordPress admin dashboard is not displaying properly

Sometimes you may notice the WordPress admin dashboard does not display correctly, it only displays words and not the dashboard. The WordPress admin dashboard is displaying without CSS. All the links are not arranged properly.

  1. Check that your internet connection is not being held behind a firewall or a proxy connection.
  2. If you discover that a firewall or a proxy is in use, clear the cookies and cache by pressing Ctrl + F5 to refresh your page.
  3. If you have any WordPress plugins installed for the admin menu such as ‘Admin Drop Down Menu’ plugin or the ‘Lighter Menus’ plugin, upgrade it. If it doesn’t work, try to deactivate it.

You are not authorized to view this page (403 error)

Sometimes you may receive an error message “You are not authorized to view this page. (403 error)” after inserting the username and password in the WordPress admin login page. This could be an error with Directory Indexes to fix this

  1. Log in to the Control Panel.
  2. Click on Web Options.
  3. Go to the Directory Indexes section.
  4. Add index.php to the Directory Indexes.

So, if you are facing any of the above-mentioned WordPress errors, then now you can easily fix them yourself without any external powers. Just use WordPress very carefully and create beautiful websites.

WordPress Maintenance mode error

When WordPress is under the updation process, it includes a .maintenance file. But sometimes It may happen that the file is not removed automatically which results maintenance mode error. And you need to remove that file so as to remove the maintenance error. Just log in to your FTP server and do the needful.

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