No error, no warning, no clue. Just a blank white page where your website used to be. Here is what actually happened, how to make the hidden error show itself, and how to get your site back, step by step.
The white screen of death (WSOD) is a PHP fatal error with the lights off. Some piece of code, nearly always a plugin, a theme, or a script that ran out of memory, crashed while your page was loading. Because the server is set not to show errors to visitors, which is the correct setting for a live site, you get a blank page instead of an explanation.
Your pages, posts, orders and images are still in the database. Nothing is lost. The frustrating part is only that the cause is invisible, so the whole fix comes down to one move: make the error visible, then switch off whatever it names.
One quick check first: if your "white screen" actually contains the sentence "There has been a critical error on this website", that is a different flavour of the same crash, and WordPress has probably already emailed the admin the culprit's name. Follow our critical error guide instead, it has a faster route.
Read the error log in your hosting control panel, or switch on WordPress debug logging, and the blank screen turns into a named error. In most cases the failing file path points at one plugin: rename that plugin's folder over FTP and the site comes back. If the log says memory is exhausted, raise the memory limit in wp-config.php.
All of that, spelled out for non-technical owners, in steps 1 to 6 below.
Work from the top. Most white screens are solved by step 4. Before you change anything on the server, take a backup or ask your host to snapshot the site.
Two minutes here can save an evening. Open the site in a private browsing window or another browser: if it loads there, the white screen is a caching problem, not a crash. Clear your browser cache, and if you use a caching plugin or your host has a "clear cache" button, press it.
Then map the damage: is the whole site white, or only some pages? Does yoursite.co.uk/wp-admin still open? A working dashboard makes everything easier, go to Plugins and deactivate whatever you installed or updated most recently. If the dashboard is white too, carry on.
The white screen is an error with its message suppressed, so your first real job is to read that message. Your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk or your host's own panel) has an Errors or Logs section. Open it and find the most recent line starting with PHP Fatal error: it names the exact file that crashed.
No log access? Add these three lines to wp-config.php just above the line that says "That's all, stop editing", reload the blank page once, then read the new file wp-content/debug.log:
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);Remove the lines again when you are done. Whatever the log says, the folder name after wp-content/plugins/ or wp-content/themes/ is your culprit for steps 4 and 5.
"Allowed memory size exhausted" is the classic white screen cause: WordPress simply ran out of working memory, often after a new plugin or a page builder update. Add this line to wp-config.php, above the "stop editing" line:
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');If the site comes back, you are done for today, but treat it as a warning: something on the site is heavier than it should be. If the screen stays white, your hosting plan may cap memory below 256M, ask your host, or move to the plugin steps below.
Connect over FTP or open the hosting File Manager, go to wp-content/plugins/ and rename the culprit's folder, for example some-plugin-name to some-plugin-name.off. WordPress instantly deactivates a plugin it cannot find, and the site should load again.
If the log did not name a single culprit, rename the whole plugins folder to plugins.off. Site back? Rename it back to plugins, then reactivate plugins one at a time in the dashboard until the screen goes white again: the last one you activated is the offender. Replace it, or roll it back to its previous version.
When the fatal error path points at wp-content/themes/your-theme/, the theme is crashing, and with a white screen it is very often a stray character pasted into the theme's functions.php. If you edited that file just before the screen went white, undo the edit first.
Otherwise make sure a default WordPress theme (for example Twenty Twenty-Four, free from wordpress.org) is present in the themes folder, then rename your broken theme's folder. WordPress falls back to the default theme and the site comes back up, unstyled but alive, so you can fix or replace the theme calmly.
Interrupted update: if the site went white during an update, or says "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance", the update never finished. Delete the file called .maintenance in the site's root folder over FTP, then re-run the update.
PHP version: if your host recently upgraded PHP and the log complains about deprecated or undefined functions, switch the site back to the previous PHP version in the hosting panel. That buys you time; the real fix is updating the outdated plugin or theme.
Corrupted core: if the failing path is in wp-admin/ or wp-includes/, download the same WordPress version from wordpress.org and re-upload those two folders. Never overwrite wp-content or wp-config.php.
And if none of that holds: restore the most recent backup from before the white screen, then update carefully.
Take a backup before changing files, even a quick snapshot from the hosting panel. Do not delete plugin folders, rename them. Do not reinstall WordPress from scratch, your content lives in the database and wp-content. And do not leave the site white for days while you research: visitors bounce, and Google notices an unreachable site surprisingly fast.
Send us your site address and what happened just before it went white. We diagnose free of charge, quote a fixed price before touching anything, and usually have white screens fixed the same day. If we can't fix it, you pay nothing.
Get your site back todayTell us the address and what happened right before the screen went white (an update, a new plugin, a hosting email). We reply fast, in English.