My WordPress site is down
The site shows an error, a white screen or doesn't load at all. Find out what is actually failing first, and the rest goes faster.
- Articles
- 9
- Updated
- Written by
- The developers at PXL
What do you see?
The tag shows the access you need.
- Hosting panel
“Error establishing a database connection”
WordPress can't reach its database. The fault is in the login details in wp-config.php, the database server or the database itself.
- FTP
“There has been a critical error on this website”
A plugin or theme has crashed the site. How to find which one and get the site back up, even when you can't get into wp-admin.
- FTP
The site is completely white
No error message, just a blank page. The causes are the same as for a critical error, but WordPress doesn't show the message.
- FTP
“Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance”
An update stopped halfway. Delete the .maintenance file, and check which update did not finish.
- FTP
“Allowed memory size exhausted”
PHP has run out of memory. You can raise the limit in wp-config.php, but also find out what is using all that memory.
- FTP
500 error on a WordPress site
“Internal Server Error” tells you little. On WordPress it can be a plugin, a mistake in .htaccess or the memory limit.
- Hosting panel
502, 503 and 504 errors
The server doesn't respond in time. It can be too much traffic, bots or a problem at your hosting provider.
- Browser
Is the site down for everyone, or just me?
Check whether the problem affects everyone before you start troubleshooting. If it's only down for you, the cause is your own network or a firewall that has blocked you.
- Browser
The website and email disappeared at the same time
Start by checking whether the domain has expired. How to check, and how long you have to renew it.