The white screen of death – what is the cause?
The white page error is shrouded in legend which it owns its dreaded name: the white screen of death. It is the error establishing a database connection, which means that for some reason PHP code can not connect to MySQL database to read out the information needed to fully build the page. The blank page is therefore a sign that your site is not connected to your database. Database error can occur because of several reasons. The most common are listed below. Check them out!
Compatibility issues disturbed by a plugin
It is possible that one of plugins installed on your website is posing a problem. If you have an access to administration panel, go there and try turning off all your plugins. After that, activate them one by one to identify the faulty one. If you don’t have an access to admin dashboard, log in to your page via FTP, and search for a folder named /wp-content/plugins. Next, change its name for whatever you want, e.g.: /wp-content/plugins_oldones. It will deactivate all the plugins. Then log in to your page normally, as the white screen of death should have already disappeared, and reactivate all the plugins one by one to identify the faulty one.
WordPress theme is no longer updated
If you have just activated a new theme in WordPress, or the one installed has been not updated for a while, it is likely your theme may be causing the white page error. If so, log in to your page via FTP, find /wp-content/themes folder and change its name for whatever you want, e.g.: /wp-content/themes_oldones. After this change WordPress will not find the location of your theme and will automatically activate the default one. Now you can log in to your web page normally and install your favourite theme, but first make sure its version is updated and compatible with your WordPress.
You may need more PHP memory
If it is not a plugin, nor a theme that poses a problem, you may need to increase the PHP memory limit. Too many plugins and themes installed can make your memory flooded. How to increase its limit?
go via FTP to wp-config.php: file and add to the code the following line of code: define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');
if it doesn’t help, log in to your WordPress, go to .htaccess file and add to the code the following line of code:
php_value memory_limit 64M
you can also contact your hosting provider and ask for increasing the memory limit.
If none of above pieces of advice helps, you should display error messages. WordPress by default hides them, so you will need to activate displaying error messages on your own. Go to your .htaccess file and add to the code the following line: php_flag display_errors on. Now all the errors will be displayed across your website, so you can look through them and identify the one that is causing dreaded white screen of death.
