A Comprehensive Guide to Fixing and Preventing Deadly WordPress Errors

The Ultimate Guide to Fixing Deadly WordPress Errors

WordPress fatal errors occur when your website is unable to perform certain actions or codes. These errors can be caused by plugin incompatibility, insufficient server resources or file corruption.

WordPress Fatal Errors can break the functionality of your website, often taking it offline and displaying the message "A fatal error has occurred on your website" to visitors.

What is a WordPress Fatal Error?

WordPress fatal errors occur when a website's PHP code encounters an unrecoverable problem that causes the entire PHP script to terminate unexpectedly. These errors stop the website from functioning, disrupting its normal functionality and rendering it inaccessible to both administrators and users.

WordPress fatal errors can be caused by a variety of reasons, including PHP version issues, theme and plugin incompatibilities, and corrupted WordPress core files.

Some fatal errors display an error code or message to help identify the cause of the problem. However, there are also cases where no error message is displayed, which makes troubleshooting more difficult.

Most Common WordPress Errors

Here are some common WordPress errors:

1. Internal server error This error indicates that the server was unable to fulfill the request and is usually caused by conflicting plugin or theme functionality or corrupted browser cache.
2. Error establishing database connection This is a serious error indicating that WordPress cannot connect to the database. It may be caused by incorrect credentials, database corruption or server issues.
3. White Screen of Death (WSOD) This is a plain white screen with no error message, usually caused by a PHP or database error.
4. memory exhaustion error This error typically occurs when a plugin or script exceeds the default allocated memory limit.
5. 403 Prohibition error This issue occurs when the server believes that the user does not have permission to access the specified URL.
6. 404 Not found This error occurs when a visitor tries to access a page that does not exist, usually due to a broken link or a deleted page.
7. Image upload error This error may be encountered when uploading images through the media library.

How to Fix WordPress Fatal Errors (9 Ways)

There are nine ways you can fix WordPress fatal errors:

1,Increase PHP memory limit

If you see an error message like "Fatal Error: Allowed xxx bytes of memory size exhausted", there is not enough memory. This problem can be solved by increasing the memory limit.

The method of operation is as follows:

• Log in to your hosting provider's control panel or FTP client.
• Visit the wp-config.php File. Right-click on the file and select the Edit option.

• exist wp-config.php file, look for the following line:define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');
• Remove the memory from the 256M increase to 512M maybe 1024MThe

2,Remove and re-add core WordPress files

If a fatal error occurs due to corruption, modification or deletion of WordPress core files, then you need to delete the current WordPress installation and reinstall a new one. Do this by following the steps below:

• surname Cong WordPress.org Download the latest WordPress zip file.

• Log in to your hosting provider's control panel or use an FTP client to access the root directory.
• Deletes all the files in the site's root directory except for the wp-config.php all documents other than the file. It is also possible to keep wp-content folder to retain custom content, themes and plugins.

• Upload the downloaded WordPress file to the server.

If there are regular site backups, you can also try restoring the backup file to see if that resolves the error.

3,Increase maximum upload file size

When uploading large files to your website, you may see the error "Maximum upload size for this site has been exceeded". This is usually because the hosting provider has limited the file upload size. You can increase the limit by following these steps:

• In the Hosting Control Panel, navigate to "PHP Options".
• Open the Options section.
• Scroll down and find upload_max_filesize Setting.
• As needed, from upload_max_filesize Select a new limit from the drop-down menu next to Options.

4,Use the default theme

Custom themes are a common cause of fatal WordPress errors. If the error occurs after installing or updating a theme, try switching to a default theme such as Twenty Twenty-Two, Twenty Twenty-Three, or Twenty Twenty-Four.

• From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to "exterior condition" > "thematic".
• Select a default theme and click "activate".

If you don't have access to the WordPress admin dashboard, you can switch themes using an FTP client or the hosting control panel:

• interviews wp-content Folder.
• Find and rename the theme folder to prevent WordPress from accessing the custom theme and force it to switch to the default theme.
• Log in to the WordPress admin panel to see if the error still exists.

5,Deactivate all plugins

Plugins also often cause fatal WordPress errors. One of the effective ways to resolve such errors is to deactivate all the plugins and then reactivate them one by one to find out which plugin is causing the problem.

• Navigate to the WordPress backend "plug-in (software component)" > "Installed plug-ins".
• Check the checkbox at the top of the plugin list to select all plugins.
• Click the "Batch Operation" button and select the "Deactivate" option.

If you can't access the WordPress admin panel, you can deactivate the plugin via the FTP client or the hosting control panel:

• interviews public_html > wp-content > plugins Folder.
• Rename the plugins folder to deactivate all plugins.

6,Clear website cache

Cached data stored on the server can become outdated and bloated, affecting site performance and loading the latest changes.WP Engine follows the steps below to clear the site cache:

• Access from the hosting control panelCachingThe
• Click "Clear all caches"Perform a cache cleanup.

• Clear your browser cache and reload the site to see if the error still exists.

7. Checking for malware

Since WordPress is a widely used content management system, it is often the target of cyber attacks. Your website may experience serious errors due to malware infections.

To check if your website is under malware attack, you need to install a security plugin. Try plugins like All-in-One WP Security, Wordfence or Sucuri.

Most WordPress security plugins offer one-click malware scanning, and you can even schedule regular scans. If malware is found, you'll be notified so you can take the appropriate steps to remove it from your site.

8. Contacting hosting provider support

If none of the solutions in this guide can fix your WordPress fatal error, professional help may be required. The best way to do this is to contact the support team of your hosting provider directly. Explain the problem and they will help you solve it and find out the cause.

9. Checking the error log

If you are not a complete novice, you can try to fix WordPress fatal errors on your own before contacting the support team. Checking the error logs stored on the server is an effective way to do this.

Error logs contain detailed information about the various errors encountered by the site, including the exact time and date, the error message, the file and line number where the error occurred, and so on. These details are invaluable for diagnosing obscure errors.

To access these logs, you need to use an FTP client or a hosted control panel.WordPress writes errors to the logs located in the WordPress installation's wp-content in the directory debug.log Documentation.

Summary:

WordPress fatal errors can be caused by a variety of reasons, including plugin incompatibility, insufficient server resources, or file corruption. These issues can be effectively resolved by increasing the PHP memory limit, deleting and re-adding core files, using the default theme, deactivating all plugins, clearing the cache, checking for malware, contacting your hosting provider's support, and checking the error logs to ensure that the site is functioning properly and securely. Regularly maintaining and updating the website and monitoring it with security plugins can help prevent and quickly resolve these fatal errors.