Why is my WordPress Site Down? (How to Diagnose and Fix)

How to fix a broken WordPress website

Once you confirm your WordPress website is offline or broken, you need to organize a response. If the site is still online but experiencing slow speeds or other errors, temporarily place your website in maintenance mode to pause access while you work on it.

1. Fix WordPress plugin and theme conflicts

Plugins power functionality for many websites, but sometimes they fail, or two plugins don’t play nicely with each other (or the WordPress theme).

To quickly diagnose if the issue is related to a plugin, disable all plugins using FTP or the file manager. If the website reappears, then the issue is plugin related, and you can reactivate plugins one at a time to pinpoint which plugins are causing the issue.

2. Fix a corrupted update

Sometimes, a theme or plugin update doesn’t work properly. There may be an error in the code, or it might be infected with malware. Rolling back the update is the fastest fix for these issues.

You can also use a plugin like Plugin Detective to find both plugin conflicts and problems from updates.

3. Fix DNS configuration errors

If your domain name system (DNS) information is not configured correctly, no one will be able to find your website, and it will appear to be down. Use a DNS checker to quickly identify if there is an issue with your DNS.

Each web host includes instructions for how to point your website address correctly on their service. Generally, this is done from your client portal and allows you to set zones and records.

4. Fix PHP memory limit issues

If you run into a PHP memory limit issue, it’s the equivalent of your store not having enough staff. PHP workers are bits of code that do the heavy lifting of transferring data between your host and your website visitor.

To fix a PHP memory limit issue, add the following code to your wp-config.php file:

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

5. Fix a corrupted database

If you suspect your WordPress database is corrupted, run a consistency check by turning on the WP_DEBUG feature in your WordPress configuration file.

If errors are detected, repair the database using the built-in repair functionality of MySQL, the database management system (DBMS) for WordPress. Check that your directory and file permissions are set correctly.

6. Combat security attacks

Identify the type of attack that has occurred using security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri to scan your website for malware and vulnerabilities.

Note: Solid Security Pro is provided at no cost to Liquid Web managed WordPress customers.

To troubleshoot this error, you can open the file or files mentioned in the error message and remove the extra space from the files. Also, make sure that the first line in the file is <?php and that there is no space before this line.

Malware

If you’ve identified malware, quarantine infected files to prevent them from spreading to other parts of your website and replace them with clean copies from a backup or a trusted source.

Unauthorized access

Changing your WordPress login, FTP passwords, and database passwords is a quick fix if you suspect unauthorized access.

Once you’ve stopped the unauthorized access, you’ll need to undo the damage. Restoring your website from your latest backup can restore it to a previous state where it worked correctly. In some cases, you may need to revert to an older backup if there was an issue you did not diagnose quickly.

However, reverting means losing any changes, updates, or content added after the backup. You’ll need to update WordPress, your theme, and any plugins again after restoring the backup. If you’re facing a serious security threat that you cannot resolve alone, contact your hosting provider for assistance. If you use shared hosting, you may need to contract outside help. Managed hosting providers can usually provide more help than shared hosting.