Common WordPress Errors and How To Fix Them?

WordPress is one of the most successful and reputable blogging platforms that has revamped millions of online ventures, businesses, and organizations.

With its relatively easy-to-use interface, setting up a business is a breeze. With its 13 years of existence, WordPress has achieved impressive heights of success and has become a cornerstone for many businesses to get into action.

However, with millions of its users working in a different environment, you might have to encounter some common errors associated with WordPress. Since nobody is perfect, the errors are pretty normal to occur.

Interestingly, you can fix these errors quickly by navigating to the WordPress forums, where many users have already faced a similar situation.

No matter how complex the error is, the supportive online community and veteran WordPress users have got you covered. Not only is this a sense of achievement, but it technically refines your WordPress skills.

Ranging from basic to advanced errors, this article walks through all the errors you can expect from WordPress. Without wasting any moment, let’s dive right into it and diagnose all the related problems.

Backup Your Site Before Troubleshooting Errors

First things first and safety on top. Before you start fixing the most common WordPress errors, it is always a great idea to backup your website to avoid further data loss. However, you can begin backing up your website through WordPress plugins or by your web hosting company.

UpdraftPlus and BackupBuddy are believed to be the most secure ones among other plugins. Also, keep in mind, schedule the backup regularly before things go south, and you can expect a smooth running of your website from the back-end. You can also create a manual WordPress backup and store it in your cloud. Once you have a backup plan, you can always get back to the previous functional date when everything was working fine.

Let’s talk about the list of some of the most common errors and how to fix them.

White Screen of Death

Nothing is worse than logging into your website, and then all you see is a white screen. WSOD is one of the frustrating errors, making it inaccessible for both the administrators and visitors. The bad news is that it doesn’t indicate if the error has even occurred or not. Let’s take a look at the causes of WSOD.

Causes

Exhausted memory limits
Hardware failures
Plugin causing compatibility issues
Poor configuration on the server
Coding issues

Solution

There are several methods on how to fix the white screen of death. Let’s talk about some of them.

Increase Memory Limit

One of the primary reasons for WSOD is the lack of PHP memory limit. Therefore, increasing the memory limit will sort out memory issues.

What do you need to do?

Open the wp-config.php file and add the following line of code with the PHP tags.

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

This will increase your memory limit by 64M. However, if the luck didn’t work out with this line of code, try the following one.

php_value memory_limit 64M

Disable WordPress Plugins

The faulty plugins can be the main culprit of WSOD. Simply disable all your plugins.

How to do that?

On the dashboard, go to “Plugins,” then select “All plugins,” and click on the “Deactivate” under “Bulk Actions” from the drop-down menu.

Switch to Default Theme

If the problem still persists, try using a default theme and see if it works. But, if you can’t access the dashboard, connect it to the FTP client like FileZilla and then troubleshoot the problem. Upon accessing the site’s files, rename your wp-content/themes folder to some other name.

Connection Timed Out Error

This is another common error which may have manifested several times. It means the website has failed to load successfully and has given up. Connection timeout occurs due to a variety of reasons. Let’s have a look.

Causes

Overburdened shared servers
Exhausted PHP memory limit
Heavy plugins
Theme function issues

Solution

Increase Memory Limit

The first way to fix this issue is to increase the PHP memory limit once again. However, we have already discussed the solution. Refer to the solution of the previous common error.

Disable Plugins

The second way is to start disabling all the WordPress plugins one by one, reactivate them carefully, observe which one is the main culprit causing the trouble and remove it.

Upgrade Hosting Plan

If nothing works out, it’s time to upgrade the hosting plan. Your website might need better services to function correctly. Consider buying a premium package of your web hosting, so you don’t have to worry about common errors.

Error 404

Being an internet user, error 404 has become a part of our life—the most common error to deal with and see what causes it.

Causes

It could be due to the mistyped URL
The page might have been moved or deleted
An issue with your DNS settings or permalink of your site

Solution

Update Permalink

All you need to do is reset the permalink settings or manually update their rewrite rules. Just go to the permalink settings and click on save changes. Despite not making any changes, the permalink settings will automatically be updated. But it will also update their rewrite rules.

Reupload .htcaccess File

Create a new file and name it “.htcaccess.” Don’t forget the period. Now, paste it into the following code.

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

</IfModule>

# END WordPress

After pasting the code, save the file. Restoring this file will result in updating the permalink settings.

WordPress Login Redirect Loop

Here comes another common error you can encounter while logging on to WordPress. In this error, you will be redirected with a refreshing loop rather than logging even after entering the correct credentials. The error doesn’t process the request further to the admin panel.

Causes

Poor redirect configuration
Cookies and cache using outdated files

Solution

Clearing Browser Cache

One of the best ways to eliminate the issue is to clear browser cookies and cache. Wordpress uses caching to boost up your website’s load times. The problem continues to arise when the cookies and cache use outdated files.

How to clear cache?

Simply press CTRL+H and then click on clear browsing data from the left column, the dialogue box will appear. Tick the last two boxes. Select the time range to “All Time” and click on “Clear Data”.

Internal Server Error

This is one of the most confusing errors to encounter for a beginner. You need to figure out the problem yourself, as the server is unable to recognize the error. However, this error is similar to the WSOD to a greater extent.

Causes

Corrupted plugin functions
Corrupted .htcaccess
Insufficient memory limit
Corrupted theme functions

Solution

Edit .htcaccess File

Primarily, this error is caused by the corrupted .htcaccess file. Essentially you should edit the .htcaccess file. Open your WordPress root directory via FTP and give it a name .htcaccess.old. Now, reload the browser and check if the error has been resolved or not. If the problem is fixed, roll over to the settings>permalink and save the changes to update your .htcaccess file and flush rewrite rules. Are you still getting an error? Try deactivating the plugins.

Deactivate Plugins

Refresh the browser and see if the problem has gone. If the error is eliminated, blame the corrupted plugin. Refer to the instructions and solution of the WSOD error and repeat the procedure of disabling plugins. Both errors possess the same methods.

Syntax Error

A syntax error is highly likely to occur when there’s an issue with coding structure or a missing character in a problematic file. Usually, this error happens when you’re integrating code snippets to your website via php. functions. A simple statement will appear on the screen to let you know where the error has occurred.

Causes

Mistake in editing the code
Incorrect lines in PHP scripts

Solution

Sound knowledge regarding editing and pasting the PHP code can be of great help and can prevent mistakes in the future. Otherwise, the consequences would be dreadful. To make the parse successful, you need to correct the PHP scripts and edit them accordingly by visiting the FTP without any chance of committing mistakes. Once you’re done with this, save, re-upload the file on your server, refresh the browser, and you should be all OK.

WordPress Stuck in Maintenance Mode

Another easy common error to resolve. Since maintenance is an automatic feature, you can not stop it from occurring. Usually, it happens when the WordPress site undergoes an update process for a scheduled maintenance mode, and you are left with nothing. However, when the update process gets interrupted before it is complete, you may have to encounter scheduled maintenance.

Causes

Server updates and file extractions
Slow response from the server
Low memory

Solution

This might seem a confusing task, but believe me, it has an easy solution.

Root Directory

You need to access the root directory via SFTP client and delete the file named .maintenance. This file is the sole reason for the occurrence of scheduled maintenance mode, and by deleting it, you can expect your site to work normally. Also, don’t forget to retry the failed update.

Alternatively, you can try updating your website manually.

WordPress Images Not Uploading

It’s an annoying error when you’re working on WordPress, and suddenly the error pops up, indicating that the images won’t be uploaded. However, not uploading images is a common error, and we have got a solution for you.

Causes

Incorrect file permissions
It might be due to the incompatible plugin

Solution

This can also occur when your site has been hacked, a faulty plugin, or something with the provider’s site—all you need to begin with connecting via the FTP client and edit the permissions.

Go to the “Uploads Folder” inside the wp-content directory, right-click and choose “File Permissions.” Now, change the numeric value to 744, allowing the owner to read and write uploads. Once you’re done with it, click OK, and changes will be applied.

Repeat the entire process with the same method. Do this with all the files inside the folder. Right-click and choose “File Permissions” once again. You’ll now have to set the numeric value to 644, check the “recurse into subdirectories” box, and select “Apply to files only.”

Sill, experiencing some issues? Repeat the exact instructions, and this time, set the numeric value to 755, and you should be all set.

Unable to Access the Admin Panel

Forgetting your username or password is quite common these days. But, when you have to option to reset the password, what else do you need? The problem kicks in when you click on “Forget Password” and don’t receive an email from the WP to recover the forgotten password.

Causes

It’s a mystery to know what causes this error.

Solution

Edit PHP functions File

In such a case, you need to reset your password using phpMyAdmin. However, note that applying this trick can be risky, as it can further create problems with your database or server. Head onto wp-content/themes/your_current_theme via FileZilla. Open the file as mentioned above and add the following line of code.

wp_set_password(‘DesiredNewPassword', 1);

Now, put your set password in place of “Desired New Password” save the changes and reupload them. After logging on to the site, remove the code, and upload it again.

Restore your Email and Password Via File

First things first, sign in to your control panel. Now, choose PhpMyAdmin and select your site’s database. Now, go to the wp_users table and click on “Edit.” Put the genuine value for user_pass. Don’t forget to convert your password into MD5, as the phpMyAdmin uses MD5 encryption. Click on save and reload your website.

Final Words

That’s it for today! We just revealed the most common errors that you can encounter at any time of the day. We hope this guide will be a great help for you, as it involves step-by-step methods to eliminate the errors successfully. Despite being one of the best and powerful software, WordPress manifests errors, which is pretty normal. We have discussed some of the nerve-wracking errors that require technical information to diagnose. Feel free to get in touch with a web developer if you’re a beginner.

Tech Geek