What To Do When Your WordPress Site Goes Down (Step-by-Step)

Source: Dev.to

Initial Checks

1. Check from another device or network – rules out ISP or DNS cache issues.

2. Try incognito/private mode – eliminates browser‑cache problems.

3. Visit your host’s status page – the server itself might be down.

4. Run a curl request to see the raw HTTP response:

   curl -I https://yoursite.com

   • 200 OK but the site looks broken → likely a theme or frontend issue.
   • 500 / 502 / 503 → continue with the troubleshooting steps below.

Accessing Error Logs

With SSH

# Apache
tail -50 /var/log/apache2/error.log

# Nginx
tail -50 /var/log/nginx/error.log

# WordPress‑specific
tail -50 /var/www/yoursite/wp-content/debug.log

Without SSH

Check the error‑log section of your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk, or the host’s custom dashboard).

The log will usually point directly to the problem, e.g.:

• PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size exhausted → memory limit
• PHP Fatal error: Cannot redeclare function → plugin conflict
• Error establishing a database connection → DB issue
• PHP Parse error: syntax error → corrupted file

Common Errors and Fixes

Plugin Troubleshooting

Rename the plugins folder (SSH/FTP)

cd /var/www/yoursite/wp-content
mv plugins plugins_disabled
mkdir plugins

• Reload the site. If it works, a plugin caused the crash.

• Restore the original folder and reactivate plugins one by one via wp‑admin or WP‑CLI:

  # Deactivate all plugins
  wp plugin deactivate --all
  
  # Reactivate individually
  wp plugin activate plugin-name

If renaming didn’t help

1. Open wp-config.php and look for syntax errors (missing semicolons, unclosed quotes).
2. Verify database credentials – they may have changed.
3. Check recent edits to the file; copying a config from another environment often forgets to update host, name, or password.

Database Connection Issues

# Verify MySQL is running
mysqladmin -u root -p status

# Test credentials
mysql -u wp_user -p wp_database

• Check disk space (MySQL can’t write if the disk is full):

  df -h

• Repair tables (temporary line in wp-config.php):

  define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);

  Visit https://yoursite.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php, run the repair, then remove the line from wp-config.php.

Memory Exhaustion

Add (or increase) these constants in wp-config.php:

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');
define('WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT', '512M');

If the problem persists, a plugin or theme is consuming excessive memory; the memory bump is only a stop‑gap.

Theme Troubleshooting

• Switch to a default theme via WP‑CLI:

  wp theme activate twentytwentyfour

• Or rename the active theme’s folder via FTP; WordPress will fall back to a default theme automatically.

File Permissions

Incorrect permissions often cause 500 errors. Apply the standard WordPress permissions:

# Directories
find /var/www/yoursite -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# Files
find /var/www/yoursite -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

# wp-config.php (more restrictive)
chmod 600 wp-config.php

Core File Corruption

Re‑download WordPress core files without touching wp-content:

wp core download --force --skip-content

This safely replaces corrupted core files and fixes issues caused by failed updates or malware.

When to Use Professional Help

If you’re under a time crunch (e.g., a 2 AM outage with a client meeting in a few hours) and can’t methodically test plugins, a service like Fix‑WP can diagnose and repair the site within an hour for a one‑time fee.

No subscription, no retainer—just a backup, a fix, and escrow‑held payment.

Prevention Tips

• Keep plugins updated, but test updates on a staging site first.
• Limit the number of plugins – each adds a potential failure point.
• Monitor database health – watch for autoload bloat and slow queries.
• Use a configuration manager instead of editing wp-config.php manually.
• Automate backups – daily, tested, stored off‑server.

WP Multitool (lifetime $50) offers monitoring modules for database health, slow‑query detection, autoload analysis, and frontend optimization, with zero overhead when disabled.