My site shows a critical error or a white screen

How do I use the recovery email?

1. Find the email. It goes to the administrator email set in WordPress, which may be an old staff address. Check junk folders too.
2. Note which plugin or theme it names. WordPress includes this when it can tell.
3. Select the recovery link. It opens your login page with a note that Recovery Mode has started. The link expires, so use it soon.
4. Log in with your usual WordPress username and password.
5. Read the notice at the top of the dashboard. WordPress pauses the faulty plugin or theme for your session only, so you can work safely.
6. Deactivate the faulty part. For a plugin, go to Plugins and select Deactivate under it. For a theme, go to Appearance, then Themes, and switch to a default theme.
7. Select Exit Recovery Mode in the toolbar.
8. Check the site in a private window. Visit the home page, a few inner pages, the login page, your contact form, and checkout if you have a shop.

Expected result: the site loads again, perhaps without whatever that plugin did.

Turning a plugin off is a stopgap. If you need it for forms, booking or a shop, the real fix is an update, a replacement or a code change. Tell your web company which plugin failed.

The short version

• A plugin, theme or server change crashed. Your pages and orders are usually still there.
• Find WordPress’s “technical issue” email, use its recovery link, and deactivate what it names.

What actually happened?

WordPress runs your theme and every plugin each time a page loads. If one of them hits a serious fault, the page can’t finish. Older versions showed an empty page, nicknamed the “white screen of death”. Since version 5.2, WordPress shows a short message instead and emails the admin address. WordPress explains this in its guide to Recovery Mode.

The usual trigger is an update: a plugin or theme update, or a change to the server’s PHP version that an older plugin can’t handle. The email usually names the plugin and the file that failed, which is the quickest clue.

Why does it matter?

A crash usually hits every page, including your contact form and checkout. Until it’s fixed, visitors see an error instead of your business. Treat it as urgent, like an outage.

What are the common mistakes and edge cases?

• Reinstalling WordPress to “start fresh”. It rarely fixes a plugin crash and can make things worse.
• Deleting plugins in a panic. Deactivating keeps their settings. Deleting can lose them.
• Updating everything else at once. If one update broke the site, more updates hide which one.
• Editing theme files. One missing character in a code file causes this exact error.
• Only the admin area is blank. Same causes. Try the recovery email first.
• The recovery email never arrives. WordPress notes the crash can happen before the plugin that sends your site’s email loads. Mail sent straight from the server is also often filtered as spam.
• Other messages. “Error establishing a database connection” and “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” are different problems. WordPress’s common errors guide covers them, and both usually need your host.

When there’s no recovery email and no way to log in, a site manager can switch the faulty plugin off from the server side, for example by renaming its folder in the hosting file manager or using the host’s tools. They take a backup of the current state first, so nothing is lost if the wrong thing gets changed. That’s a job for your host or web company, not a first step for a business owner.

What if this didn’t work?

• The site is back but something’s missing: a feature from the plugin you turned off may be gone. List what’s missing and send it to your web company.
• The error came back: the fault may be in another plugin, the theme, or the server settings. A developer can turn on the debug log described in WordPress’s debugging guide to see the exact line.
• You can’t log in at all: see how to log in or reset a forgotten password.
• The whole site won’t load, with no message: see why is my website down.

How long does it take?

When the email names the plugin, switching it off is one click on the Plugins screen. Finding a lasting fix depends on the plugin: an update may already exist, or it may need a replacement or code work. Your web company can tell you once they’ve looked.

How does E-3 handle this?

On sites in E-3’s website care, updates are tested on a staging copy first. E-3 checks every site it hosts every 5 minutes, and our team gets an alert if one goes down. When a critical error appears, a person at E-3 finds the plugin or theme that failed and fixes it.

If you see an error on a site we maintain, please don’t use the recovery link or turn off plugins yourself. Just tell us, so we can fix it without undoing other work. Send:

• the page address and a screenshot of the message;
• when you first saw it;
• which plugin the WordPress email names (please don’t forward the recovery link itself);
• anything that changed recently.

Call 814-399-4655 if the error is on your home page, contact form or checkout. For anything else, email support@e3help.me or use the Get support form.

Related questions

• Do you keep my WordPress site and plugins updated?
• Is my website backed up, and can you restore it?
• How do I undo a website change?