WordPress Says “There Has Been a Critical Error on This Website”? Here’s What to Do

Seeing “There has been a critical error on this website” where your WordPress website used to be is understandably alarming.

The first thing to know is that it does not normally mean your website has disappeared, your content has been deleted or that you need a new website.

It means WordPress has encountered a serious error that has stopped part or all of the website from loading correctly.

Plugins, themes, PHP compatibility problems, memory limits and damaged WordPress files can all cause a critical error. Quite often, the problem appears immediately after something on the website has changed.

The important thing is to identify what caused it rather than start changing things at random.

Below we’ll work through the sensible checks first, followed by what to do if you can’t even access the WordPress dashboard.

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What Does “There Has Been a Critical Error on This Website” Mean?

WordPress displays its critical error message when something has gone sufficiently wrong that it cannot continue running normally.

Behind the friendly error screen there will usually be a more useful technical error explaining what actually failed.

Common causes include:

• a faulty or incompatible plugin
• a plugin conflict
• a theme problem
• a WordPress, theme or plugin update
• an incompatible PHP version
• the website running out of available PHP memory
• custom code containing an error
• damaged or missing WordPress files

The critical error message itself doesn’t tell you which one is responsible.

The job is therefore to find the underlying error and deal with the cause.

1. Think About What Changed Just Before the Error Appeared

Before doing anything technical, ask a simple question:

What happened immediately before the website stopped working?

Did you:

• update a plugin?
• update WordPress?
• update or change the theme?
• install a new plugin?
• add some code?
• change the PHP version?
• move the website to another server?
• change something in your hosting account?

If the website was working at 10:00, you updated one plugin at 10:05 and the critical error appeared at 10:06, that plugin is an obvious place to start.

Sometimes the change isn’t something you’ve done manually. WordPress and plugins can be configured to update automatically, while hosting companies occasionally change server software or PHP versions.

So don’t assume nothing changed simply because you didn’t personally change anything.

2. Check Your WordPress Administrator Email

When WordPress detects certain fatal errors, it can send a message to the website administrator email address.

Look for an email with a subject similar to:

“Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”

Check your spam and junk folders as well.

The email may tell you which plugin or theme caused the error and can include a special link that lets you access WordPress in Recovery Mode.

That can turn a rather vague critical error into something much easier to diagnose.

If no email arrives, don’t assume there isn’t one to send.

The administrator address may be old, WordPress email itself may not be working reliably, or the recovery message may have been rejected or filtered.

3. Try WordPress Recovery Mode

Recovery Mode is a built-in WordPress feature designed for exactly this sort of situation.

If WordPress detects a fatal error caused by something such as a plugin or theme, the recovery email may contain a special login link.

When you follow it, WordPress attempts to let you access the administration area without loading the problematic component normally.

You may then see information identifying the plugin or theme responsible.

Depending on the cause, you may be able to deactivate the offending plugin, change the theme or investigate further without having to access the website files manually.

If Recovery Mode gets you back into WordPress, resist the temptation to simply switch everything back on immediately.

First work out what caused the failure.

4. Was the Critical Error Caused by a Plugin?

Plugins are a common cause of WordPress critical errors, particularly after an update or when two pieces of software stop working happily together.

If you can still access the WordPress dashboard, think carefully about recently installed or updated plugins.

You can deactivate a suspected plugin and test the website again.

If the site starts working, you’ve found a strong clue – but you haven’t necessarily completed the repair.

The next question is why that plugin caused the error.

It might need updating, rolling back to a previous version, reconfiguring or replacing. Alternatively, the real problem may be a conflict with another plugin or the PHP version running on the server.

Blindly deactivating lots of plugins on a live website can also create additional problems, particularly on ecommerce or membership sites.

5. What If You Can’t Access WordPress Admin?

This is where a fairly ordinary WordPress problem starts becoming more technical.

Sometimes the critical error affects both the public website and:

/wp-admin/

You therefore can’t log in to deactivate the plugin that’s preventing you from logging in.

At this point the website can still be repaired, but access may need to be made through your hosting control panel, File Manager, SFTP or FTP.

A problematic plugin can, for example, be disabled by changing its directory within:

/wp-content/plugins/

This prevents WordPress from loading it in the normal way.

The same principle can be used when diagnosing certain theme problems.

If terms such as FTP, File Manager and wp-content mean very little to you, this is a perfectly sensible point to stop.

There is no prize for turning one broken plugin into three different website problems.

6. Could Your WordPress Theme Be Causing the Critical Error?

Yes.

Themes contain PHP code just like plugins do, so an incompatible or damaged theme can cause a fatal error.

This can happen after:

• a theme update
• a WordPress update
• a PHP version change
• editing a theme file
• adding custom code to functions.php
• installing a child theme incorrectly

If the error appeared immediately after changing or updating the theme, that’s an obvious clue.

Testing with a standard WordPress theme can help establish whether the active theme is responsible, but again, do this carefully on a live business website.

Changing themes can affect layouts, widgets, menus and other theme-specific functionality.

7. Check the PHP Version

WordPress itself, your theme and every active plugin rely on PHP.

Older plugins and themes may contain code that isn’t compatible with a newer PHP version. Equally, newer software may require a more recent PHP version than the server is currently running.

This means a website that has worked perfectly for years can suddenly display a critical error after its hosting environment changes.

If the problem started immediately after a PHP upgrade, compatibility should be investigated.

Simply changing PHP versions backwards and forwards isn’t necessarily the right long-term fix, though.

An old plugin that only works on an obsolete PHP version may itself need updating or replacing.

The objective is to get the website working and leave it on a secure, maintainable configuration.

8. WordPress May Have Run Out of Memory

PHP gives a website a certain amount of memory to work with.

Some WordPress operations require more memory than others, and badly behaved plugins can consume far more than they should.

If the available limit is exhausted, WordPress can fail with a fatal error.

Increasing the memory limit can sometimes solve the immediate problem, but it’s worth asking why the site suddenly needs more memory.

If one plugin is consuming an unreasonable amount because something is wrong, continually increasing the limit is treating the symptom rather than the cause.

9. Check the Error Logs

This is often where the real answer is hiding.

Your hosting account may contain PHP or server error logs recording what happened when WordPress failed.

WordPress also has its own debugging system which can be configured to record errors in a log file.

Instead of:

“There has been a critical error on this website”

the log might reveal a specific fatal error and identify the file, plugin or theme involved.

That can change the job from:

“Something has broken WordPress.”

to:

“This particular plugin is calling incompatible PHP code in this particular file.”

That’s considerably easier to fix.

However, error logs are written for developers and server administrators rather than ordinary website owners. They can contain warnings and notices that have nothing to do with the actual failure.

If you’ve found the error log but it looks like somebody has dropped a bowl of alphabet spaghetti onto your screen, don’t worry.

It can still contain exactly the information needed to repair the website.

10. Should You Enable WordPress Debugging?

WordPress has debugging options that can reveal or record more information about PHP errors.

This can be extremely useful when diagnosing a critical error.

However, debugging usually involves editing the site’s wp-config.php file or changing server settings.

On a live business website, detailed PHP errors also shouldn’t normally be left publicly displayed because they can expose information about the site’s file structure and configuration.

So debugging is a useful diagnostic tool – not something to switch on permanently and forget about.

If you’re comfortable working with WordPress files and understand the settings, it can help identify the problem quickly.

If not, the server’s existing error logs may already contain what is needed.

11. Should You Restore a Backup?

Possibly – but don’t automatically make this your first move.

If you know the website broke immediately after a specific change and you have a clean backup from shortly before it happened, restoring that backup can sometimes get the site online quickly.

But there are several things to consider.

If the cause was:

• an automatic plugin update
• a server or PHP change
• an external service
• a compatibility issue
• a problem that existed before the backup was taken

then restoring the website may not actually solve the cause.

The error could simply return.

On ecommerce, membership or frequently updated websites, restoring an older database can also mean losing orders, customer activity, enquiries or content added since the backup was created.

A backup is an extremely useful recovery tool, but it isn’t a substitute for diagnosis.

Where possible, establish what failed first.

12. Does a WordPress Critical Error Mean the Website Has Been Hacked?

Not necessarily.

A critical error simply means WordPress has encountered a serious technical failure.

Plugins, themes, PHP and code problems are all common explanations.

However, if the error appeared alongside other suspicious behaviour – unexpected administrator accounts, strange files, redirects, security warnings or unexplained website changes – then a security problem should also be investigated.

Don’t assume every critical error means you’ve been hacked.

Equally, don’t ignore genuine signs that something else is wrong.

13. Can a WordPress Critical Error Be Fixed Without Rebuilding the Website?

Yes – in the vast majority of cases, that’s exactly what should happen.

A critical error doesn’t normally mean the website needs replacing.

Your pages, images, products and database are usually still there. WordPress has simply encountered something that prevents it from completing the page request successfully.

Once the underlying plugin, theme, PHP, memory, code or server problem is identified, it can usually be repaired and the existing website brought back online.

This is precisely why we’d recommend diagnosing the error before anybody starts talking to you about a new website.

When Should You Stop Troubleshooting It Yourself?

If you’ve checked the administrator email and the problem is obviously a plugin you just installed, you may be able to resolve it yourself in a few minutes.

But there’s a natural point where continuing to experiment becomes riskier than the original fault.

If you:

• can’t access wp-admin
• don’t have or understand FTP/File Manager access
• need to edit wp-config.php
• have found a PHP fatal error you don’t understand
• suspect a plugin or theme conflict
• need to change PHP versions
• are considering restoring the database
• run an ecommerce site where losing new data would matter

then getting somebody to diagnose it properly is usually quicker and safer.

That’s exactly the sort of repair Web Medic is here for.

We can identify what’s causing the critical error, repair the problem and get the existing website working again.

No unnecessary rebuild. No drama. Just find what’s broken and fix it.

WordPress Critical Error – Frequently Asked Questions

Need Your WordPress Critical Error Fixed?

If your website is currently displaying “There has been a critical error on this website”, you don’t need to start again with a new website.

Send Web Medic your website address and tell us what happened.

We’ll find the cause, explain what’s wrong and get your website working again.