Troubleshoot the blank pages in wordpress

Problem

The blank page will occur when you try to view the wordpress website, This may occur on single page, on multiple pages and on entire site. You may also unable to login to the admin panel.

 

Resolution

The general causes for this problem on wordpress sites are:

 

• A malfunctioning plugin

• A malfunctioning Theme

 

To resolve this problem you can disable the plugins one by one by selecting individually until the blank pages disappear. Apart from this if you notice that the current theme is causing the issue then you need to suspect the current theme by reverting back to its default theme.

Disabling plugins

You can disable the plugins if you login to the wordpress as a administrator from the plugins options. If you are not an administrator you need to disable the plugins manually from the cPanel provided with your website hosting, To do this follow the below steps:

1. Login to your cPanel

2. Click on file manager and then go to the path public_html/wp-content/plugins.

3. Each plugin will be in a separate directory, To disable the plugins you need to rename the plugin for example: to disable the Akismet plugin just rename it as Akismet_bak

4. You need to repeat the above process for all the plugins one by one, If you notice that the particular plugin is causing the issue then it's well and good.

 

Reverting to the default theme

If you login as an administrator you can disable the themes in the admin panel from the optio Appearances--->Themes, but if you are not an administrator you need to follow the same process as we have mentioned for plugins.

 

Follow the below steps to reverting to the default theme:

1. Login to your shared hosting cPanel.

2. Go to the directory public_html/wp-content/themes

3. Note down the default theme, If there are several themes you need to revert back to the most recently used theme.

4. Go back to the cPanel home screen.

5. Open the phpmyadmin in the databases section.

6. Expand the database which you have assigned to the website.

7. Click on wp_options.

8. You will see the template and stylesheet rows in the option_name column, In the option_value row you will see your current theme.

9. Double click on option_value in the template row, Type the default theme which you got from the step 3.

10. Repeat step 9 for the stylesheet row. The default theme is now active.

11. If the previous theme was causing the issue the site should work now.