{"id":556,"date":"2025-12-18T14:29:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/?post_type=manual_kb&#038;p=556"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:29:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:29:33","slug":"how-to-check-for-errors-in-wordpress-cms","status":"publish","type":"manual_kb","link":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/knowledgebase\/how-to-check-for-errors-in-wordpress-cms\/","title":{"rendered":"How to check for errors in WordPress CMS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"translation-block translation-block-merged\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your website is not working properly, you will see <strong>a white page<\/strong> or <strong>a 500 error<\/strong> message. When you use a WordPress CMS, it very often means a problem related to the script or the plugins used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There can be many reasons, where the most common conflict occurs at the level of the plugins used, i.e. two try to perform similar operations or have not been adapted to the version of <em><strong>&#8220;WordPress&#8221;<\/strong><\/em> you are using or the PHP version you are using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_86 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/knowledgebase\/how-to-check-for-errors-in-wordpress-cms\/#Diagnostics_%E2%80%93_WP_DEBUG\" >Diagnostics &#8211; WP_DEBUG<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/knowledgebase\/how-to-check-for-errors-in-wordpress-cms\/#Diagnostic_information\" >Diagnostic information<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/knowledgebase\/how-to-check-for-errors-in-wordpress-cms\/#Failed_update\" >Failed update<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Diagnostics_%E2%80%93_WP_DEBUG\"><\/span>Diagnostics &#8211; WP_DEBUG<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n<div id=\"mybox-668080598\" class=\"mybox-content mybox-entity-placement\"><div class=\"early-access-banner-inpost\">\r\n  <div class=\"banner-left-inpost\">\r\n    <div class=\"icon-box-inpost\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/square-info-icon.svg\" alt=\"Info\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"text-box-inpost\">\r\n      <span class=\"label-inpost\"><span class=\"translation-block translation-block-banner-text\">Early access<\/span><\/span>\r\n      <h4><span class=\"translation-block translation-block-banner-text\">Still need help?<\/span><\/h4>\r\n      <p><span class=\"translation-block translation-block-banner-text\">Contact our customer service team.<\/span><\/p>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <div class=\"banner-right-inpost\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/panel.mybox.com\/helpdesk2\/v\/list\/\" class=\"banner-button-inpost\"><span class=\"translation-block translation-block-banner-text\">Message us<\/span><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"translation-block translation-block-merged\"><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first step you should take is to activate the debugging mechanism built into <em><strong>WordPress<\/strong><\/em> . This means that by modifying a parameter in the <strong>wp-config.php<\/strong> file that you will find in the root directory of your website ( <strong>public_html<\/strong> by default), the script itself will attempt diagnostics to show you at what stage the problem appears and what may be causing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By default, this option is disabled and when you open <strong>the wp-config.php<\/strong> file for editing, you will see a parameter with the following value:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To run diagnostic mode, change the value to<strong> false<\/strong>, save your <strong>changes, and upload the file to the server:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Diagnostic_information\"><\/span>Diagnostic information<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, refresh your website in your web browser and check what types of errors appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we have <strong>deprecated<\/strong> errors, they usually won&#8217;t cause your website to crash. They only say that some of its elements use methods that may have already been withdrawn.<br>Similarly, if we have messages marked as <strong>warning<\/strong>. Then it is also worth paying attention to them, but they are not critical errors that could immobilize your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Fatal error<\/strong> &#8211; if they appear marked in this way in the list of received messages, it is a signal that the matter should be dealt with definitively, e.g. by deactivating the plugin that is in the message description. In a situation where you do not have access to the <em><strong>&#8220;WordPress&#8221;<\/strong><\/em> panel, all you have to do is log in to FTP and there, by default, under <strong>the path domain\/public_html\/wp-content\/plugins<\/strong> , you will find the directory of a given plugin and change its name, for example, by adding &#8220;1&#8221;, i.e. <strong>plugin_directory<\/strong> you change to <strong>plugin_directory1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Failed_update\"><\/span>Failed update<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are using the automatic update option or if the white page appeared after you ordered the update from the WordPress backend, log in to <strong>FTP<\/strong> and check if there is a <strong>.maintenance<\/strong> file in the root directory, i.e. <strong>domain name\/public_html<\/strong>, which is generated by <em><strong>&#8220;WordPress&#8221;<\/strong><\/em> and is responsible for temporarily deactivating the system for the duration of the update. Once successful, WordPress automatically deletes the file. When an update error occurs, you need to delete the file manually.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","manualknowledgebasecat":[25,58],"manual_kb_tag":[543,2179,2938,2939,2940,2942,2943,2944,2945],"class_list":["post-556","manual_kb","type-manual_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","manualknowledgebasecat-hosting","manualknowledgebasecat-web-applications-cms","manual_kb_tag-white-screen-of-death","manual_kb_tag-wordpress-config-file","manual_kb_tag-wordpress-errors","manual_kb_tag-debugging-wordpress","manual_kb_tag-wordpress-debug-mode","manual_kb_tag-plugin-conflicts","manual_kb_tag-deactivate-plugin","manual_kb_tag-rename-plugin-directory","manual_kb_tag-failed-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manual_kb\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manual_kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/manual_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manual_kb\/556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"manualknowledgebasecat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manualknowledgebasecat?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"manual_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybox.com\/help\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manual_kb_tag?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}