How To Troubleshoot & Fix Common WordPress Issues

WordPress is one of the widespread tools for building websites. Millions of people use it to run blogs, online stores, and business sites. While it’s easy to use, it can sometimes have problems.

Your site may load slowly, show error messages, or go completely blank. These issues can affect how your visitors use your WordPress site and may even cause you to lose traffic or sales. That’s why it’s important to fix them as soon as possible.

This guide shows several clear and quick solutions to the most common WordPress issues. Whether you’re seeing a white screen, a database error, or slow pages, this will help you figure out what’s wrong and how to fix WordPress issues without being a tech expert.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• WordPress issues, like white screen errors and slow loading, are common but fixable with simple steps.
• Always check plugin and theme compatibility when something breaks after an update.
• Use caching, image optimization, and the latest PHP version to improve speed and performance.
• A database error usually points to incorrect login details or a server issue, so double-check your wp-config.php file.
• If your site gets stuck in maintenance mode, delete the .maintenance file from the root folder.
• You can fix too many redirects by matching your site URLs and disabling problem plugins.
• Mixed content warnings happen when secure and non-secure links are used. Update all URLs to HTTPS.
• Use debugging tools and backups before you make changes to recover if something goes wrong.
• Contact your hosting provider when server-related limits or errors occur.
• Updating everything regularly and testing new changes on a staging site helps prevent most future WordPress issues.

Slow Page Load Times

If your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, Google may see it as slow. Since page speed affects search rankings, a slow WordPress website can hurt your SEO and make it harder for users to reach you.

This can lead to fewer page views, lower rankings in search engines, and lost revenue. You may also notice higher bounce rates in analytical tools (e.g., Google Analytics), which shows that people leave your site too quickly.

The best way to test your website is to use GTMetrix, which analyzes how fast a website loads, highlights areas that need improvement, and offers suggestions to boost performance and enhance user experience. In our example, the website loads in 1.1s, and we will show you how we reduce this later.

One of the primary reasons for slow pages is large images that aren’t optimized. If you upload high-resolution pictures without reducing the size, your site must work harder to load them.

Another reason could be using too many plugins. Some plugins run in the background and slow things down, especially if they aren’t built well or updated often.

Lack of caching is also one of the common WordPress issues. Without caching, your WordPress website loads everything from scratch every time someone visits. This uses more server resources and takes longer to show pages. Also, if you’re using an old version of PHP, your site won’t perform as well. PHP is the language WordPress is built on, and newer versions run faster and more securely.

To fix these issues, choose a reliable and fast WordPress Hosting provider. Next, consider setting up a content delivery network, such as Cloudflare, to boost loading times across the globe.

Then, compress your images. You can use free tools or plugins, like Smush, to compress and optimize images. Here’s how to do it:

Install and activate the Smush plugin.

Go to Smush → Bulk Smush. Scroll down to Settings.

Ensure you enable Automatic Compression to compress any new images you upload automatically. You may also choose whether to remove image metadata.

WordPress 5.3 and higher automatically generates a resized version of any image larger than 2560×2560 pixels while keeping the original file as a backup. Change this size limit or turn off the image scaling feature if necessary.

Don’t forget to click SAVE CHANGES at the bottom of the page to apply your changes.

However, if you want to compress images you have already uploaded, click BULK SMUSH.

Additionally, ensure that lazy loading is enabled to make your web page load faster by delaying image loading until they are needed on the screen. If not, click ACTIVATE under Smush → Lazy Load. Once enabled, you can customize lazy load settings based on your requirements.

TIP: For more details on image optimization, check out our tutorial discussing WordPress Image Optimization Techniques for Faster Loading.

After compressing and optimizing images, go through your plugins and remove any you don’t need. Only keep those that are necessary and updated regularly.

Next, set up a caching plugin. W3 Total Cache is a good option because it’s easy to use and speeds up your site by storing a version of each page. Additionally, it highlights advanced performance features that help speed up your WordPress site. It includes:

• Full site CDN delivery;
• Caching for dynamic content and REST API;
• Script and CSS optimization;
• Lazy loading;
• And tools for monitoring and cleaning cache activity.

These features work together to reduce load times and improve the visitor experience.

Finally, check your PHP version through your hosting dashboard and switch to the latest version supported by WordPress. Hosted.com users can navigate to cPanel → Software → Select PHP Version and choose the latest PHP version from the dropdown menu. This one update alone can make a big difference in site speed.

After doing all these optimizations, don’t forget to test your WordPress website. In our example, we reduced the fully loaded time from 1.1s to 994ms.

The Critical Error or White Screen of Death (WSoD)

Sometimes, when you visit your WordPress site, you may see nothing but a blank white screen.

Other times, you’ll get a message saying, There has been a critical error on your website. This problem is often called the White Screen of Death (WSoD). It’s scary because your site looks completely broken, but most of the time, it’s fixable.

This error usually happens when something in your WordPress site’s code goes wrong. It may be a plugin or theme working incorrectly with WordPress. It could also be a mistake in your PHP code or your site running out of memory.

To start fixing it, you’ll need to turn on WordPress debugging. To do this, navigate to your website’s root directory, open your wp-config.php file, and add this line if it’s not already there:

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);

This will help you see the exact error and where it comes from. To make things simple for you, we’ve written a dedicated and detailed tutorial on WordPress debug mode that you may find at the following link:

– WordPress Debug Mode: How to Enable it & Fix Errors

Next, connect to your site using FTP or your hosting File Manager. Go to the following directory:

public_html/wp-content/plugins

Rename the plugins folder to something like plugins-disabled. This turns off all plugins at once.

Now, reload the WordPress website. If it loads, you’ll know a plugin caused the problem. Rename the folder back to plugins, then go into it and rename each plugin’s folder one by one to disable it and find the one that broke the site.

If plugins aren’t the issue, switch to a default WordPress theme. You can easily do this using your WordPress dashboard. However, if you’re hosting your website with Hosted.com, you can also do this in your hosting panel as follows:

First, ensure you’re logged in to your Hosted.com account. From the dashboard, go to Manage Services and choose WordPress Hosting from the dropdown menu. In the Product Information section, find Control Panel and click Login next to it.

Once inside the cPanel Dashboard, navigate to Popular Applications → WordPress.

Here, you’ll see all your current WordPress installations. Click WordPress Manager to open and manage your desired installation.

Next, click Manage Themes.

Now, you’ll see three tabs:

1. Installed: Switch to this tab to view and activate one of your already installed themes.
2. Add Theme: Use this to browse available themes on WordPress.org.
3. Upload Theme: If you’ve purchased a premium theme or have a .zip theme file on your computer, you can navigate to this tab to upload your theme.

However, if you’re just getting started, it’s a good idea to look up reviews or user experiences online to ensure the theme is reliable, easy to customize, and doesn’t have known WordPress issues.

Another common fix is increasing the PHP memory limit. To do this, add the following line to your wp-config.php file:

define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’);

This gives WordPress more room to run, which can solve the problem if memory is the issue. On the following link, find an article on 4 detailed methods for increasing the PHP limit:

– WordPress Memory Limit Management: How to Verify & Increase it

Once your WordPress site works correctly, update your plugins, themes, and WordPress core. To do that, refer to the following tutorials:

• How to Update WordPress Theme: 5 Effective Methods
• How to Update WordPress Plugins: A Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Update WordPress: 5 Easy Ways

Remember, keeping everything updated can help you avoid these WordPress issues in the future.

Excessive CPU Usage or Server Overload

If your WordPress site feels slow or keeps going offline, it may use too much CPU power on your server. This usually happens when your site has more visitors than your hosting plan can handle, or if something on your site uses too many resources.

Heavy traffic is great, but if your server isn’t ready for it, things can slow down fast. Some plugins or poorly written scripts can also take up more processing power than they should. And if you don’t use caching, your server must rebuild every page from scratch for each visitor, which adds even more load.

The first thing you can do is check with your hosting provider. Ask if your current plan is strong enough for your traffic. If not, upgrade to a better WordPress Hosting plan with more CPU power and RAM, which can help your site run smoother during busy times.

Next, review your plugins. Some plugins continue to run in the background and can slow things down. If your host provides a resource usage report, use it to find which plugins are causing problems. Replace or remove the ones that are too heavy.

Finally, set up a caching plugin, such as WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache, to help your server store ready-to-go versions of your pages so it doesn’t have to work too hard every time someone visits. This reduces CPU load and speeds up your site.

PHP Update Required

When you log in to your WordPress Admin Dashboard, you may see a warning about using an outdated PHP version. That’s a sign your site is running on an older version of PHP, which can slow things down and cause issues with newer plugins or themes.

To check which PHP version your site uses, login to your hosting control panel, such as cPanel. Then, go to Software → Select PHP Version. If your PHP version is below 8.0, it’s time to update. So, choose the latest version from the dropdown list and click Apply.

However, if you don’t see the option on your hosting control panel, contact your hosting support and ask them to update it. They usually handle this quickly.

Note: Before updating, check the compatibility of your WordPress plugins and themes with the new PHP version. You can check plugin pages or run a staging site if your host provides one. This helps you avoid compatibility issues.

Maximum Execution Time Exceeded Error

When trying to install a plugin, update WordPress, or run a backup, you may see an error that says Maximum execution time exceeded. This means a script on your site is taking too long to finish, and the server cuts it off before it’s done.

Servers set a time limit to stop scripts from running forever and overloading the system. But sometimes, if a task is big, such as importing data or updating files, it may need more time than the default setting allows.

To fix it, try increasing the execution time. If your host allows it, open your php.ini file and add this line:

max_execution_time = 300

If you can’t find that file, you can also add the statement below to your .htaccess file located in the root directory:

php_value max_execution_time 300

TIP: Hosted users can easily access the php.ini file through the built-in cPanel interface. Go to cPanel → Software → MultiPHP INI Editor, switch to Editor Mode, select your domain name from the list, add the PHP code, and click Save to save your changes.

This raises the time limit to 5 minutes, which is usually enough for most tasks. If those changes don’t work, reach out to your hosting provider to raise the limit or show you where to make the changes safely.

It’s also a good idea to clean up old plugins, reduce heavy scripts, and keep everything updated to ensure your site runs more efficiently. That way, your tasks won’t take as long, and you’ll avoid hitting the time limit again.

By adjusting the execution time and making your site lighter, you’ll keep things running smoothly and avoid those annoying timeout errors.

Parse Error: Syntax Error, Unexpected

If you ever see an error message pointing to a specific line in a code file, like Parse error: syntax error, unexpected…:

Or, you see a message saying There has been a critical error on this website:

It means there’s a mistake in the code. This usually happens after editing a theme or plugin file, or when you manually add custom code. However, a critical error not only means you have code-related problems, but it can also occur due to various other WordPress issues, such as

• Theme Incompatibility
• Plugin Conflicts
• File & Directory Problems
• Syntax Issues in PHP Code
• Database Issues
• Configuration and Memory Limit Errors.

So, you must identify why you’re getting this critical error. It’ll help you navigate to the right solution.

The Parse Error/Critical Error appears when something isn’t written correctly in PHP. It could be a missing bracket, an extra comma, or even a wrong character. Since WordPress runs on PHP, even a small syntax error can break your site.

To fix it, access your site files using FTP or File Manager. Go to the file and line number shown in the error message. Check the code around that area and look for missing semicolons, mismatched brackets, or typos.

If you’re unsure what the correct code should be, restore the file from a recent backup. That way, you can bring your site back without digging too deep into the code.

In the future, use a code editor that supports syntax highlighting, like VS Code. This editor helps you spot mistakes before you save the file. To quickly identify and fix WordPress issues, look at the following screenshot to understand how VS Code highlights the PHP syntax:

TIP: Always double-check any code before adding it to your WordPress site. A quick review can save you from breaking your site and spending hours fixing WordPress issues.

SSL/HTTPS Mixed Content Errors

Mixed content is also one of the common WordPress issues. When your site has an SSL certificate and loads over HTTPS, your browser expects all content (images, scripts, styles) to be secure. If anything still loads over HTTP, you’ll see a warning saying the site isn’t fully secure. This is called a mixed content error.

These errors usually show up after switching your site from HTTP to HTTPS. Though the main pages are secure, some links inside your theme, plugins, or content may still use the old HTTP format.

To fix this, use a plugin that forces HTTPS across your site. For example, the Really Simple Security plugin can automatically update most URLs and redirect everything to HTTPS without you needing to touch any code.

However, Hosted users can use the Force HTTPS Redirect feature by going to cPanel → Domains → Domains.

If you still see the warning, you may need to update some URLs manually. Use Better Search Replace to find and replace http://yourdomain.com with https://yourdomain.com in your database. This ensures all links point to the secure version.

Also, check if external files, such as fonts or scripts, are being loaded from non-secure sources. Update those links or find secure versions of the same resources. Once everything loads over HTTPS, the browser’s padlock icon will appear, indicating that your site is fully secure.

Plugin & Theme Conflicts

If your site breaks or starts acting strangely after updating or installing a plugin or theme, you’re likely dealing with a conflict. This can cause layout issues, error messages, or even stop your site from loading properly.

These problems usually happen when a plugin or theme doesn’t work well with another one or isn’t fully compatible with your current WordPress version. Even a small coding difference can lead to big issues.

To fix this, the first step is to deactivate all plugins. You can do this from the Plugins → Installed Plugins page on your dashboard.

If you can’t access the admin area or your hosting account, connect your website’s server using FTP and rename each plugin’s folder inside the public_html/wp-content/plugins. This turns off that specific plugin.

Then, check if your site loads as expected. If it does, the problem was plugin-related. So, you must find an alternate plugin or update the current one.

However, if the issue isn’t fixed, try switching to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-One by navigating to Appearance → Themes from your WordPress dashboard. If the site starts working, the conflict is with your current theme.

Once you know what’s causing the issue, you can look for an update or alternative that works better. Also, keep everything updated, including your plugins, themes, and WordPress core, because updates often include bug fixes and improvements that help prevent conflicts.

Other Common WordPress Issues

In addition to the above-mentioned WordPress issues, you may get the following errors. If so, click on the error below to find out how to resolve it:

• WordPress Stuck In Maintenance Mode
• WordPress Not Sending Emails
• WordPress Not Working After Migration
• WordPress Changes Not Showing
• 502 Bad Gateway Error in WordPress

FAQS

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