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Troubleshooting Common Issues in WordPress

WordPress® is one of the most commonly used blogging applications. While it's extremely popular, there are some common issues that you can fix in a matter of minutes.

Here are some common problems and our recommendations.

My WordPress Website is slow

Cause: Every time a visitor goes to your WordPress blog, the server processes PHP scripts and establishes a database connection—in other words, it's doing a lot of work. The busier your Website is, the slower this process becomes.

Slow page loads are problematic as they discourage visitors from visiting your Website. The usual culprits are improperly configured or misbehaving plugins or using images that are hosted on other, slower servers.

Solutions:

Why is WordPress unable to connect to my database during install?

Cause: If you manually installed WordPress into your hosting account (e.g. did not install it via Value Applications) and are getting an "Error establishing a database connection" message when trying to connect to WordPress, you need to modify your wp-config.php file to work with our Database servers.

Solution: See Why is WordPress unable to connect to my database during install?

My blog keeps coming up as a blank page

Cause: Corrupted themes can cause blank pages to load, particularly if you migrated your blog from another hosting provider.

Solution: Change your theme back to the default, and then reinstall the theme you want to use.

  1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard.
  2. Click Appearance. A default theme is listed.
  3. Click Activate under the default theme. The Appearance page reloads.
  4. Click Activate on the theme you want to use, or choose a new theme.
  5. When you have the theme you want, return to the Appearance page, select the theme you want, and then click Activate.

Cause: Undetermined.

Solution: If you have tried the above procedure, you should enable WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG in wp-config.php file. The contents of the debug.log file can help you and your Website administrator narrow down the problem to a specific plugin, theme, or configuration option that might be causing a problem.

  1. Using your hosting account's editor, make the following changes to your wp-config.php file:
    • Change
      define('WP_DEBUG', false);
      to
      define('WP_DEBUG', true);
    • On the following line, type
      define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
  2. Save your changes.
  3. Using an Internet browser, visit your Website to trigger the debugging log.
  4. Using your hosting account's editor, open /wp-content/debug.log.
  5. Review the contents of the debug log to identify the problem to a specific plugin, theme, or configuration option that might be causing a problem.

For more information, see WordPress.org.

For more information, see Website speed tests

As a courtesy, we provide information about how to use certain third-party products, but we do not endorse or directly support third-party products and we are not responsible for the functions or reliability of such products.

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