Troubleshooting WordPress

Nile Flores@blondishnet

http://blondish.net

Objective

To make you more aware of what to do when things seem to go wrong with WordPress.

Always Backup Your Site

Before upgrading plugins or themes, backup your website.

Schedule backups regularly.

Areas of Possible Troubleshooting WordPress

1. Database2. Plugins3. Themes4. Content

Basic Steps to Troubleshooting WordPress

❏ Disable All Plugins❏ Disable your theme and revert to Default Theme

(example: Twenty Fifteen)❏ Check the site❏ Enable your plugins one by one to find the issue❏ Enable your theme

Okay, so those steps didn’t work...

Now what?

Google is your friend

Search Google to find out if someone has had a similar problem.

Google didn’t help...

What now?

Seek out forums

❏ https://wordpress.org/support❏ https://facebook.com/groups/AllAboutWP❏ http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/❏ http://wpquestions.com (paid)

So… now that you know basics

Let’s go over some common WordPress problems that may pop up.

Common WordPress Problems

❏ White Screen of Death❏ Syntax Error❏ Out of Memory❏ 500 Internal Server Error❏ Missing Sidebar❏ Stubborn Maintenance Mode❏ Error Establishing Database Connection

White Screen of Death❏ Memory exceeded on PHP

❏ Error with a plugin (in some cases, you may get an actual error

output message, and this would be different from the white

screen of death)

❏ Failed installation or upgrade in /wp-admin folder

❏ Error with caching in the case you run a cache plugin

http://bit.ly/1EjHC5E

Syntax

Usually means there’s either something extra, something missing, or just something wrong with your HTML, or even PHP.

Out of Memory

You either ran through your database resources quickly or you didn’t have much to work with.

Try increasing the memory by placing the following in your wp-config.php -

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

500 Internal Server Error

❏ Could come up from a code error in a plugin or theme

❏ Could be the web host, and not always a WordPress related issue

Missing Sidebar

Odd enough, a lot of people who dabble in code, forget to close their HTML tags when in the text editor while creating a post or page.

Stubborn Site Maintenance

Sometimes after upgrading a plugin or theme, the temporary maintenance gets stuck.

Remove the .maintenance file from the root of your WordPress install via FTP or your web host’s File Manager.

Error Establishing Database Connection

Could be a crashed PHP table. Have your web host reset it. Go in an repair and optimize it.

Don’t want to fool around with code. No problem! Try WP-Optimize.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-optimize/

Not savvy enough to troubleshoot?

Don’t give up!

Hire someone to do it for you. There are plenty of people out there that can help solve your issue.

Any Questions?

Nile Floreshttp://blondish.netPlease subscribe to my newsletter. :)

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