Debugging the White Screen of Death in WordPress

Few things are more panic-inducing than loading your WordPress site and seeing nothing but a blank white page. No error message, no clue — just emptiness. The White Screen of Death (WSOD) has plagued WordPress developers for years, and I have dealt with it more times than I can count.

Enable Debug Mode First

The very first thing I do is enable WordPress debug mode. Open your wp-config.php and add these lines before the “That is all” comment:

define( "WP_DEBUG", true );
define( "WP_DEBUG_LOG", true );
define( "WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY", false );

This writes errors to wp-content/debug.log instead of displaying them on screen. Nine times out of ten, the log file will point you straight to the culprit — usually a fatal error in a plugin or theme.

The Plugin Isolation Method

If the log does not give you a clear answer, the next step is plugin isolation. Rename your wp-content/plugins folder to plugins-disabled. If the site loads, you know a plugin is the problem. Rename it back and then disable plugins one at a time until you find the offender.

Check PHP Memory Limits

Sometimes the WSOD is simply a memory exhaustion issue. Add this to wp-config.php:

define( "WP_MEMORY_LIMIT", "256M" );

I have seen this solve WSOD issues on sites with heavy page builders or large media libraries. If your host restricts PHP memory, you may need to update php.ini or contact them directly.

Theme Conflicts

If disabling plugins does not help, switch to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-Four via WP-CLI:

wp theme activate twentytwentyfour

If the site comes back, your theme has a fatal error. Check the theme functions.php for recent changes, syntax errors, or incompatible function calls.

Key Takeaway

The WSOD is almost always a PHP fatal error. The systematic approach — enable logging, isolate plugins, check memory, test theme — will solve it every time. Keep WP_DEBUG_LOG enabled on staging environments so you catch these issues before they hit production.