If you are seeing a 500 error, a white screen, or “too many redirects” here are some things to try in order to fix your WordPress website. If you are web savvy you can usually fix things yourself. If any of the items below are too difficult for you to understand contact us or a professional. If you provide us with all the details we need to access your website we charge $75 per hour. Most jobs only take 1 hour.
- Access your Domain Name and make sure there is an A record pointed to your server or host I.P. and that it is correct. When people purchase domain names not in the same account as their host this can become an issue. Sometimes the host will change the I.P. address of the server and your domain provider cannot know that it has changed. Also, double-check the numbers of the server I.P. to make sure they match. One number out of place will cause an error.
- Access your File Manager. If you see a file called error_log open it by using the Edit button in File Manager. If you do not have an Edit button you may need to download the file to your computer and open it. A standard Text Editor program should make it viewable. Look to see if you can determine the name of any plugin or file that is causing the error. If not, move to the next step.
- Disable all plugins. You can do this through your File Manager. Depending on the type of hosting account you have there are various ways to access your files. Navigate to your public_html (or home in some systems) > wp-content > plugins and rename the plugins folder to something like bak.plugins. This will disable all plugins. If this fixes your problem you can reactivate them by changing the name back to plugins, logging into your dashboard, and then enable your plugins one at a time until you find the problem.
- If that does not work find your .htaccess file. You will have to make sure you have enabled Show Hidden Files (dotfiles). cPanel is one of the most common ways to access your files as of this date. Click on Settings in the upper right side of the File Manager screen and then put a check in Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) to make the .htaccess file visible. Download a backup of this file. Now Delete this file from your File Manager. If this makes your site accessible again log in to your WordPress site. Next, go to Settings > Permalinks in the WordPress Admin Dashboard. Click Save Changes. This will regenerate a new .htaccess file without the errors contained in the old one that you deleted.
- You can also try going to your wp-config.php file. This is found in your public_html or home depending on the configuration. Download a backup to your hard drive just in case you mess up. Next, look for the line that says: define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false); change the word false to true and then save the file. Now look at your website and see if there are any errors being displayed.
There are many other things that can cause issues with WordPress. The above are the most common things I have run into in the past 20 years or so.