WordPress Outage: Find the Cause and Recover Safely
A WordPressWordPress is free software for building and editing a website in your browser. It is written in PHP, so it builds each page when someone visits. outage can mean a white screen, an error, a slow or unreachable site, or an administration area that will not open.
More about this
The symptom determines where to look.
Plugins, themes, PHPPHP is a programming language that builds your web pages on the computer that hosts your site, just before they reach the visitor. WordPress runs on it. and hostingWeb hosting is the service that keeps your website's files on a computer that is always online, so visitors can open your site at any time. are common starting points.
Site or hosting
A hosting outage often affects several sites. A code fault may affect particular pages while the server itself continues to work. Common causes include failed updates, incompatible PHP code, a full disk, a low memory limit or an unavailable database.
How to check safely
Which PHP version does your site report?
We read only what your site already sends in public: the headers and the top of the homepage. No scan, no login.
Check the host's status page and account panel. Open the site in a private window to rule out cached content and try the administration area. Record the exact message.
Back up before changes. Read errors from a protected log instead of displaying them publicly.
What you can try
For a critical error or white screen, investigate the last updated pluginA WordPress plugin is an add-on you install in WordPress to give your site extra features, such as contact forms, SEO tools or a webshop.. For maintenance mode, confirm that no update is running and check the .maintenance file. For a database error, compare wp-config.phpwp-config.php is the file containing basic settings for a WordPress installation, including its database connection. with the hosting settings and ask whether the server is running.
For resource-limit messages, review account load. Each symptom has its own guide in this hub.
When PHP may be involved
If the outage began after changing PHP versions, include compatibility in the investigation. Check supported versions before planning a tested update. Do not add another untested change during recovery.
Preventing another outage
Update WordPress, plugins and themes one at a time and check the site after each change. Test major updates on stagingA staging environment is a private copy of your website where you try updates first, so any mistakes happen there and not on the live site.. Keep automatic backups and verify recovery.
Remove unused plugins and set a reminder before security supportSecurity support is a phase in which a PHP version only gets fixes for security problems. Ordinary bugs are no longer repaired. ends for your PHP branchA PHP version is a numbered edition of PHP, like 8.3. Each edition is looked after for a limited time, then gets security fixes only, then nothing..
When to get help
If the site is unavailable or the cause is unclear, ask for help. A person replies within 1 working day. Emergency repair starts from £315, excluding VAT.