The Ultimate Guide to Troubleshooting WordPress Issues

Introduction

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WordPress is an incredibly powerful and flexible platform, but with great power comes the potential for frustrating issues. Whether you‘re running a small personal blog or a large business site, odds are you‘ll eventually run into problems with your WordPress site.

A survey of over 1,000 WordPress users by Wordfence found that 67% had experienced a website outage and 73% had dealt with a plugin conflict. Meanwhile, WordPress support company WP Buffs reports that over 50% of the issues they handle are due to outdated plugins, themes, and WordPress versions.

While there‘s no way to completely avoid WordPress troubles, knowing how to effectively troubleshoot common problems can greatly reduce downtime and headaches. In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll equip you with a step-by-step troubleshooting process to resolve issues quickly, plus tips to prevent them in the first place.

Even if you have zero coding knowledge, you‘ll learn how to methodically track down the cause of problems and implement solutions – no developer skills required! Let‘s dive into the proven WordPress troubleshooting process trusted by experts.

Step 1: Reproduce the Issue

The first step in solving any WordPress issue is determining exactly what the problem is. It‘s tempting to dive right in and start making changes if your site is down, but that often leads to additional issues.

Instead, open up your site in an incognito browser window and try to replicate the exact issue. This allows you to experience your site as an external visitor, without any cached pages or cookies, to confirm the issue isn‘t localized to just your browser.

Try performing the same actions that triggered the issue on a different browser, device, and network if possible. For example, if a specific page is giving you an error, try loading that URL on your phone over a cellular network.

If the issue disappears, it‘s likely isolated to something on your local computer like a browser extension. But if you and others experience the same problem across devices, you can rule that out and proceed with troubleshooting.

Pro Tip: Use a website monitoring tool like Uptime Robot to automatically test your key pages every 5 minutes from multiple locations. If your site goes down, you‘ll be immediately notified, and you‘ll have a log of when the downtime started.

Step 2: Deactivate Plugins & Themes

If you can consistently reproduce the same issue, the most likely culprit is a compatibility problem with one of your plugins or your theme. With over 50,000 free WordPress plugins available and thousands of themes, not all play nicely together.

According to WP Engine, 95% of all bugs their customers report end up being plugin or theme related. So before you assume the worst, methodically test if a plugin or theme is the cause:

  1. Go to your Plugins page in your WordPress dashboard and deactivate all plugins. Don‘t delete them yet in case you need to reactivate them later.

  2. Check your site thoroughly to see if the issue still occurs. If the problem disappears, you know it‘s plugin-related.

  3. Re-activate plugins one by one, checking your site each time. When the issue returns, the last plugin you activated is the likely cause.

  4. If deactivating plugins doesn‘t help, go to Appearance > Themes and switch to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-One.

  5. Again, test your site with the default theme to see if the problem is resolved. If so, your original theme is the issue.

Pro Tip: Use a plugin like Health Check to quickly toggle between your default theme and plugins to test for conflicts. It allows you to troubleshoot while keeping your live site unaffected.

Step 3: Update Everything

If deactivating plugins and switching themes doesn‘t pinpoint the issue right away, the next step is to ensure everything is up-to-date. Using outdated versions of WordPress core, plugins, or themes leaves your site vulnerable to bugs and security holes.

Updates often patch issues, so new versions may resolve problems even if they weren‘t identified as a conflict. Go to Dashboard > Updates to see if any updates are available for WordPress itself and any plugins/themes.

Be sure to create a complete backup of your site before starting updates in case anything goes wrong. You can use a free plugin like UpdraftPlus or your web host‘s backup option if available.

After each update, test your site thoroughly to catch any new issues. While updates typically fix more problems than they create, there are times a new version introduces a compatibility issue. If you suspect an update caused a new problem, you can roll back to the previous version until a fix is released.

Pro Tip: Configure automatic updates for plugins and themes if your host offers it or use a plugin like Easy Updates Manager. This ensures you always have the latest bug fixes and security patches. You can still skip updates on mission-critical extensions if you prefer to update manually.

Step 4: Test Your Web Hosting Environment

If updating everything didn‘t do the trick, there‘s a chance your WordPress hosting environment itself is the issue. Your site‘s performance and functionality rely heavily on the server resources and configuration your host provides.

Some common hosting-related issues include:

  • Exceeding usage limits – If your hosting plan caps your storage, bandwidth, or CPU usage, exceeding those limits can take your site down or cause errors. Check your hosting account panel to see if you‘re hitting limits.

  • Incompatible software versions – WordPress requires specific minimum PHP and MySQL versions to run properly. Older unsupported versions can cause errors.

  • Overly aggressive security rules – Some managed WordPress hosts have security systems that mistakenly block legitimate plugins and actions as potential threats. Check with your host to see if anything is being flagged.

The easiest way to rule out hosting as the cause is to test your site in a local development environment on your own computer. You can use a free tool like Local by Flywheel or XAMPP to run WordPress locally.

If your site works perfectly locally, but not on your live server, something is likely misconfigured in your hosting environment. Contact your web host‘s support for help diagnosing server issues.

Pro Tip: Use New Relic‘s free server monitoring tool to keep an eye on uptime, page load speeds, slow database queries, and other performance metrics. Identifying hosting issues early can help prevent bigger problems.

Step 5: Diagnose Coding & Database Errors

If you‘ve made it this far with no solution, there‘s a good chance a coding error or database issue is the culprit. This is where things can get tricky for non-developers, but there are still some things you can check.

First, if you or someone else has recently made customizations to your theme or plugins, review those changes carefully. A single misplaced character or syntax error in code can break parts of your site.

Common coding mistakes include:

  • Missing semicolons ; at end of PHP lines
  • Unclosed HTML tags like
  • Incorrect file permissions
  • Unescaped characters in SQL queries

    • If possible, revert any recent file changes and re-test your site. If you can‘t track down a specific change, re-uploading fresh copies of WordPress core and your parent theme may help.

    You can also use free plugins like Query Monitor or Debug Bar to help identify PHP errors and slow database queries without diving directly into code. They add helpful diagnostic info to your WordPress admin area.

    Your wp-config.php file in your WordPress root directory also has options to enable debug mode and logging to capture errors:

    define( ‘WP_DEBUG‘, true );
    define( ‘WP_DEBUG_LOG‘, true );

    With these enabled, PHP errors and warnings will be saved to a debug.log file in your /wp-content/ directory. Reviewing the log can help pinpoint problem code. Just be sure to turn debug mode off when you‘re done!

    Pro Tip: Use an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) program like Visual Studio Code when editing WordPress files. IDEs have built-in syntax highlighting and error checking to help catch mistakes as you code.

    Step 6: Get Help From Support & Community

    If you‘re still stumped after following the troubleshooting steps above, don‘t despair! The WordPress community is vast, and chances are someone has encountered and solved the same issue before.

    Some of the best resources for personalized WordPress help include:

    Official Support Forums
    WordPress.org has a massive library of free support forums where you can search for threads on specific errors and post your own troubleshooting questions. With over 100,000 active topics, there‘s a wealth of knowledge available.

    Theme & Plugin Support
    If you‘ve narrowed an issue down to a specific theme or plugin, go directly to that developer first. Premium themes and plugins include dedicated support, while most free ones offer limited support on WordPress.org or GitHub.

    Facebook Groups
    Many WordPress experts and power users hang out in Facebook groups dedicated to WordPress help. Try searching for groups focused on your specific use case, like WooCommerce or Elementor. Just be sure to read and follow any group rules before posting.

    Slack Communities
    Slack is a popular platform for development discussion. There are several WordPress-focused Slack workspaces where you can ask troubleshooting questions and get advice from seasoned pros. A few to check out are Make WordPress, Advanced WordPress, and Post Status.

    When requesting support, be sure to include as much detail as possible about the issues you‘re experiencing and the troubleshooting steps you‘ve already taken. Include screenshots or screen recordings if you can!

    The more context you can provide upfront, the faster others will be able to jump in and offer relevant guidance. And always be polite and respectful of those volunteering their time to help.

    Pro Tip: If you need professional help, look for a WordPress development company that offers one-off support services to fix specific issues. Some reputable options are Codeable, Maintainn, and UP Support. Just be sure to have a budget in mind, as developer rates average $100/hour.

    Bonus Tips to Prevent Common WordPress Problems

    Now that you know how to effectively troubleshoot WordPress issues, let‘s briefly cover some best practices to prevent problems from popping up in the first place!

    • Keep everything updated. New WordPress versions are released quarterly, and most themes and plugins update every 1-3 months. Don‘t ignore those nudges to update, as they often contain critical patches.

    • Choose plugins wisely. The official WordPress.org plugin directory shows when a plugin was last updated and if it‘s compatible with your WordPress version. Avoid plugins that haven‘t been updated in over 6 months and have poor reviews.

    • Delete inactive plugins. Deactivated plugins can still leave behind code and settings that cause issues. If you no longer need a plugin, delete it completely.

    • Use a staging site. Set up a private staging version of your site (most web hosts offer this) to safely test updates and changes before pushing them to your live site. Breaking things in staging is far better than bringing down your public site!

    • Limit user permissions. Use WordPress roles to restrict user access to only the permissions they need. An Author doesn‘t need access to install plugins, for example. This reduces the risk of accidental (or malicious) breaking changes.

    • Harden WordPress security. Use a security plugin or service to protect your site against malware and hacking attempts that could cause downtime. Look for features like login attempt limiting, malware scanning, and a firewall.

    • Monitor uptime & performance. Use a free service like ManageWP, Jetpack, or UptimeRobot to automatically monitor your site‘s availability and performance metrics like load time. You‘ll get notified immediately if your site goes down or slows to a crawl.

    Conclusion

    While dealing with a broken or misbehaving WordPress site is never fun, it‘s a rite of passage for every WordPress user. By arming yourself with a solid troubleshooting process and knowing where to turn for help, you‘ll be able to overcome issues faster and with less frustration.

    Remember, the key is to diagnose methodically, testing one thing at a time to isolate the root cause. Start with the most common culprits like plugins and themes before moving on to more technical possibilities.

    Document your issue thoroughly to make the most of support and community resources, and always be backing up your WordPress site regularly in case you need to roll back.

    You‘ve got this! Follow this guide, and you‘ll be able to troubleshoot WordPress like a pro in no time.

    Additional Resources:

    • Troubleshooting Tips & FAQ – WordPress.org
    • 18 Most Common WordPress Errors & How to Fix Them – Kinsta
    • Troubleshoot & Fix WordPress Not Sending Emails – WPBeginner
    • How to Fix Your Connection Is Not Private Error – WPExplorer