White screen of death on WordPress

WordPress suppresses PHP fatals in production, so a plugin conflict after an auto-update produces a blank admin and front end with nothing written to the browser at all.

Why it happens on WordPress

WordPress suppresses PHP fatals in production, so a plugin conflict after an auto-update produces a blank admin and front end with nothing written to the browser at all.

The fix on WordPress

Set WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG to true with WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY false in wp-config.php, reload the page, then read wp-content/debug.log for the fatal and the file that raised it. Recovery Mode emails also contain the plugin name when fatal-error protection triggers.

If that didn't fix it

WordPress has its own failure mode, but White screen of death has a wider set of causes. The most common one overall is: A PHP fatal error in a plugin or theme after an update.

Read the PHP error log for the fatal at that timestamp, then deactivate the named plugin by renaming its folder over SFTP.

Check your own domain

The probe records both the status code and the response size. A 200 with a near-empty body is the exact signature of this failure and is invisible to status-only checks.

Frequently asked questions

Why does White screen of death happen on WordPress?

WordPress suppresses PHP fatals in production, so a plugin conflict after an auto-update produces a blank admin and front end with nothing written to the browser at all.

How do I fix White screen of death on WordPress?

Set WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG to true with WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY false in wp-config.php, reload the page, then read wp-content/debug.log for the fatal and the file that raised it. Recovery Mode emails also contain the plugin name when fatal-error protection triggers.

What does White screen of death mean?

PHP hit a fatal error with display_errors off, so the page rendered as blank white with an HTTP 200 or 500. Nothing is visibly broken to a status-only monitor, which is what makes it dangerous.