How to Troubleshoot WordPress Troubleshooting in 2025

If you’ve ever stared at a white screen, a 500 error, or the dreaded “There has been a critical error on your website” message, you’re not alone.

Troubleshooting WordPress can feel overwhelming, especially when your site breaks without warning and you’re left scrambling to figure out what went wrong. Whether it’s a rogue plugin, a server glitch, or a line of faulty code, WordPress issues can cost you time, traffic, and peace of mind.

But here’s the good news: most problems follow patterns, and once you know how to spot them, you can fix them fast.

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to troubleshoot WordPress errors like a pro. From enabling debug logs and reviewing PHP settings to using WP CLI and performance monitoring tools, you’ll get clear steps, practical tips, and powerful tools to bring your site back to life.

Let’s fix what’s broken.

Why You Should Learn WordPress Troubleshooting

WordPress makes it easy to build a site, but when something breaks, most users freeze.

That’s why learning WordPress troubleshooting isn’t just a nice-to-have skill; it’s essential. Whether you create a blog on WordPress, manage client websites, or build WordPress plugins using AI, knowing how to quickly diagnose and fix problems can save you hours of stress and hundreds of dollars in support costs.

Here’s why it matters more than ever:

1. WordPress errors are inevitable. Even the best-maintained sites eventually run into issues such as plugin conflicts, theme bugs, corrupted databases, and PHP errors. You can’t avoid them forever, but you can prepare to handle them with confidence.
2. If your website goes down, every minute counts. Learning how to troubleshoot WordPress quickly, checking logs, disabling plugins, and using WP CLI means you can get your site back up without waiting for a developer or support ticket response.
3. If you build or manage websites for others, clients expect you to handle everything, including those mysterious errors that pop up at the worst times. Knowing how to troubleshoot WordPress errors makes you more valuable, more reliable, and more trusted.
4. When something breaks, you shouldn’t feel helpless. By learning how to troubleshoot WordPress issues, you gain control, and you can make smarter decisions about your hosting, plugins, themes, and site structure.

What are The WordPress Troubleshooting Basics

Before you start diving into logs, deactivating plugins, or tweaking PHP settings, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of WordPress troubleshooting. These are the go-to basics that every developer, freelancer, or site owner should have in their toolkit, because most issues can be solved by mastering just a few core concepts.

Enable WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG

Your WordPress site is configured to show fatal errors in order to ensure a flawless experience for your visitors. But for troubleshooting, you must enter the debug mode.

For this, enable WP_DEBUG in your wp-config.php file to turn on debug mode. This setting will display PHP errors and warnings right on your screen, giving you immediate feedback on what’s going wrong.

You should also enable WP_DEBUG_LOG and direct those errors to a log file. This log is your breadcrumb trail, showing you exactly what’s happening behind the scenes and making it easier to track down the issue.

Add these lines to your wp.config.php file using a WordPress code editor:

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

Access Error Logs

Debug logs are just the start of WordPress troubleshooting because they let you know what’s broken and what should be fixed. You need to pay attention to these types of error logs.

1. Error Logs – See exactly what caused a crash or failure
2. Access Logs – Understand what users or bots were doing during the error
3. Server Logs – Track PHP, Apache/Nginx, and database-level issues

You can find them in your hosting dashboard of cPanel under the name “Logs” or “Error Logs.” Alternatively, if you have enabled the debug mode, you can download the file “debug.log” from the /wp-content/ directory.

Users of InstaWP don’t have to juggle between multiple platforms, plugins, or hosting dashboards to get access to vital WordPress error logs and diagnostic data. Everything you need for effective WordPress troubleshooting is built right into the platform.

1. Activity Logs Viewer: Access categorized logs, including Error Logs, Access Logs, Debug Logs, and Command Logs, all in one place using the built-in Activity Log Viewer. No need to dig through your cPanel or guess what’s causing the issue.
2. Performance Scanner: Not sure why your site is slow or acting up? The Performance Scanner identifies heavy plugins, slow database queries, and performance bottlenecks that may be dragging your site down.
3. Vulnerability Scanner: Proactively scan your entire WordPress installation, including themes and plugins, for known security threats. If something is outdated or exposed, you’ll get notified before it becomes a problem.

Together, these tools eliminate the guesswork and make troubleshooting WordPress errors a smooth, focused process, especially when paired with InstaWP’s staging and rollback capabilities.

No extra plugins. No switching platforms. Just everything you need to troubleshoot WordPress, in one place.

Did you know InstaWP lets you spin up a clean WordPress sandbox in seconds? This means you can replicate your live site’s environment, test issues safely, and troubleshoot problems without risking downtime or errors on your production site.

These logs are crucial; they provide the lowdown on what’s breaking and why. 

Create a Staging Copy

Tempted to fix things directly on your live website? Don’t.

The best practice is to create a WordPress staging environment or a WP sandbox, where you can safely test changes without risking user experience or SEO rankings. By working on a staging copy, you can experiment with changes, identify and fix issues, and ensure everything works smoothly before deploying updates to your live site. This approach helps prevent downtime and avoids disrupting your users’ experience.

With InstaWP, you can create a staging copy or disposable sandbox in seconds.

Create a Site Backup Before You Troubleshoot

Before you change anything, even in staging, make sure you have a full website backup of your website.

When you’re deep into WordPress troubleshooting, it’s easy to disable the wrong plugin, remove a critical file, or overwrite a configuration that breaks your site further. A WordPress site backup acts as your safety net; if something goes wrong, you can always restore things to how they were.

Make sure you take a backup of all these aspects.

• Your WordPress database (posts, pages, user data, settings)
• All files in /wp-content/ (themes, plugins, media uploads)
• Core WordPress files (for complete recovery)

InstaWP users don’t have to rely on third-party backup plugins or manual exports. Every WordPress sandbox site and staging environment can be backed up and even restored with a click.

• Automatic Backups: InstaWP creates regular backups for your managed sites
• Snapshots: You can create an instant snapshot before testing or troubleshooting
• Rollback Anytime: Made a mistake while troubleshooting? Just restore from your saved snapshot and start over

Pro tip: Make it a habit to create a backup before any major update, plugin install, or performance tweak, especially when you’re troubleshooting WordPress errors.

Because nothing feels better than having a reset button when things go sideways.

We bet you didn’t know InstaWP’s pay-as-you-go WordPress site plans let you test fixes and configurations without paying for unused resources. Start small, troubleshoot your WordPress site on a Sandbox plan from $2/month, then upgrade only if needed.

Check for Cache Conflicts (Browser + WordPress)

Sometimes, the issue isn’t your site; it’s your cache.

One of the most overlooked causes of confusion during WordPress troubleshooting is caching. You might fix an error, tweak a setting, or update a plugin, but nothing changes on the front end. The reason? Your browser or WordPress is still showing an outdated version of the page.

Let’s break down the two main types of cache and how to deal with them while troubleshooting WordPress errors.

1. Clear Your Browser Cache

When your browser stores static versions of your website (like CSS, JavaScript, or even entire pages), it’s meant to help things load faster. But if you’ve just updated something on your site, especially a plugin, layout, or script, your browser might keep showing the old version.

This can lead you to believe your fix didn’t work… when it actually did. Clear your browser cache and do a hard refresh (Ctrl + Shift + R or Cmd + Shift + R) to see the latest version of your site.

2. Clear Your WordPress Cache

Even after clearing the browser cache, if your changes still don’t show, the issue might be server-side. That’s where WordPress caching comes in, handled by either a plugin or your managed cloud hosting provider.

WordPress cache stores pre-generated versions of your pages so they load faster for all users. But while troubleshooting WordPress issues, this can be misleading — it may look like the problem persists, even when the fix is already in place.

Fix it:

• If you’re using a WordPress caching plugin , look for the “Clear Cache” or “Purge All Caches” option in the WordPress admin bar.
• If you’re on a managed WordPress host like InstaWP, use their dashboard tools to flush server-level cache.

• Clear any CDN cache if you’re using Cloudflare or similar services.

We always recommend clearing both browser and WordPress cache as step one in any WordPress website troubleshooting workflow. It avoids unnecessary confusion and ensures you’re looking at the real version of your site.

Disable All Plugins to Rule Out Conflicts

If your WordPress site suddenly crashes, loads incorrectly, or shows a critical error, the culprit is often a plugin. Conflicts between plugins, or between a plugin and your theme or WordPress version, are among the most common causes of site issues.

That’s why one of the first things we recommend when troubleshooting WordPress errors is to temporarily deactivate all installed plugins.

Deactivating all plugins resets your site’s behavior to a “clean” state. If the issue disappears, you know it was caused by a plugin. You can then reactivate them one by one to pinpoint the exact cause.

The traditional approach is to go to WP Admin > Plugins → Installed Plugins, select all plugins using the checkbox, choose Deactivate from the Bulk Actions dropdown, and click Apply.

This will work if you have one or two sites with limited plugins to manage. When you have 100+ sites with multiple plugin, you need smart solution and it’s site management of InstaWP. Just build your site with it or connect your live site with InstaWP using the best WordPress staging plugin.

Get the Advanced Site Management functionalities at $2 per month, and you’re all set to do bulk plugin/theme installation or deactivation with a single click.

Just select the sites, click on ‘ Bulk Edit‘.

Select the ‘Plugin‘ tab, and you can deactivate all the plugins installed on the selected sites in one go. No need to logon to the WP Admin to the individual site.

If you’re not on a managed site plan, then InstaWP streamlines plugin deactivation. It lets you run WP CLI commands on multiple sites.

Select the Run Command option and run this command:

wp plugin deactivate --all

This command disables all plugins instantly, even if you can’t access the WordPress dashboard

When troubleshooting WordPress, don’t skip this step. Most “mystery bugs” are just plugin conflicts waiting to be revealed, and InstaWP gives you the perfect place to isolate them safely.

Use a WordPress Default Theme

If disabling plugins doesn’t solve the problem, your theme might be the root cause. Many WordPress troubleshooting scenarios, like layout issues, broken menus, or full-on crashes, can be traced back to poorly coded or outdated themes.

That’s why it’s smart to temporarily switch your active theme to a default one like Twenty Twenty-Four. This helps you isolate whether the problem lies in the theme itself or somewhere else.

Some themes add their own custom functions, scripts, or template overrides. These can clash with plugins, custom code, or even new WordPress updates. If your site suddenly breaks after a theme update, or if you’ve just installed a new theme, this step becomes essential.

To switch to WordPress’s default theme:

• Go to Appearance → Themes
• Click Activate on a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-One or Twenty Twenty-Four)

You can also use the WP CLI command to activate the default theme.

wp theme activate twentytwentyfour

This command force-switches your site to the default theme — useful if you’re locked out of the admin dashboard.

Switching themes on multiple client live sites through the first option can be daunting. This is when you should switch to managed site plans of InstaWP, where you get the bulk & selective theme update feature.

How to Troubleshoot WordPress: Common Errors and How to Fix Them

Alright, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of WordPress troubleshooting with a few real-world scenarios. Here are the top 3 common problems and how to tackle them like a pro.

Error 1: There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website

This issue is so common that it doesn’t even need an explanation, agree? Let’s figure out what to do when you face this error:

Start by checking the debug logs. 

If you’ve got WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG enabled (and if not, enable them promptly), head over to your /wp-content/ directory and find the debug.log file. This file is where WordPress keeps a record of errors and warnings. 

How to Fix:

Via SFTP: Connect to your site via SFTP. Go to /wp-content/plugins/ or /wp-content/themes/, and rename the directory of the problematic plugin or theme. This will deactivate it and help you figure out if it’s the source of the issue.

Using WP CLI: Prefer command lines? Use the wp plugin deactivate <plugin-slug> –skip-plugins –skip-themes command via WP CLI. Replace <plugin-slug> with the plugin’s slug, and voilà! You’ve deactivated the troublemaker with a few keystrokes.

Error 2: White Screen of Death or 500 Error Page

The White Screen of Death (WSoD) or a 500 error page can feel like your site’s way of giving you the silent treatment. Well, here’s how you can make it speak again.

Look for recent error messages. They’re your breadcrumbs leading to the source of the problem.

The errors leading to Error 500 pages are often PHP-related. Access your PHP error logs, which can usually be found in your hosting control panel or via FTP. 

How to Fix

Use SFTP to navigate your site’s files and fix issues based on the error messages. If you’re using InstaWP, leverage the Code Editor for direct edits. 

Getting a different error code than 500? The common error codes listed table below can guide you in identifying and resolving issues to maintain your WordPress site’s functionality.

Additionally, you can read this detailed WordPress troubleshooting guide on how to fix these errors.

Error 3: Slow WordPress Websites

When your website is slow, your traffic and search engine ranking will go down. A slow website can be a serious drag, both for users and for your patience. So, we are going to introduce six useful tools (WordPress plugins) to debug slow websites in this section.

1. Query Monitor: Identify slow queries affecting performance.

Query Monitor is a powerful debugging tool for WordPress that helps you identify and analyze slow database queries affecting your site’s performance. By providing detailed information on query execution times, it allows you to pinpoint performance bottlenecks and optimize your database interactions effectively.

Features:

• Detailed Query Analysis: View execution times, database calls, and query details.
• Performance Metrics: Identify slow queries and their impact on site performance.
• Hook and Action Insights: Monitor WP hooks and actions for better debugging.
• Customizable Views: Filter queries by type and context for more focused troubleshooting.

2. Code Profiler: Locate slow plugins and their impact.

Code Profiler is a WordPress tool designed to identify slow plugins and their impact on site performance. By analyzing the execution time of various code components, it helps you can detect performance issues and optimize or replace inefficient plugins.

Features:

• Execution Time Tracking: Tells how long plugins and code segments take to run.
• Performance Impact Reporting: Identify which plugins or functions are slowing down your site.
• Detailed Code Analysis: Get insights into function execution and resource usage.
• Optimization Recommendations: Receive suggestions for improving code efficiency.

3. AAA Options Optimizer: Find and optimize unnecessary options.

AAA Options Optimizer is a plugin that helps you find and optimize unnecessary WordPress options. Cleaning up redundant or outdated options streamlines your database and enhances site performance.

Features:

• Option Cleanup: Identify and remove unnecessary database options.
• Performance Improvement: Boost site speed by optimizing database queries.
• User-Friendly Interface: Simple and intuitive dashboard for managing options.
• Automatic Optimization: Schedule regular cleanups to maintain optimal performance.

4. WP Cron Control: Review and manage cron entries to improve performance.

WP Cron Control provides tools to review and manage scheduled cron jobs in WordPress. By monitoring and optimizing cron entries it helps improve site performance and ensures that scheduled tasks run efficiently.

Features:

• Cron Job Management: View and manage scheduled cron jobs and tasks.
• Performance Monitoring: Track the execution time and frequency of cron jobs.
• Error Logging: Detect and troubleshoot issues with cron job execution.
• Optimized Scheduling: Adjust and optimize cron schedules to prevent performance degradation.

5. Log HTTP Requests: Track and analyze outbound queries.

It is a tool for tracking and analyzing outbound HTTP requests made by your WordPress site. It helps diagnose issues related to external API calls and integrations that could affect site performance.

Features:

• Request Tracking: Monitor and log all outbound HTTP requests.
• Performance Analysis: Analyze request times and detect bottlenecks.
• Error Reporting: Identify and troubleshoot issues with external connections.
• Detailed Logs: Access detailed information about each request, including URL and response status.

6. Asset CleanUp: Remove unused JS/CSS files that may slow down the site.

Asset CleanUp is a WordPress plugin that helps you remove unused JavaScript and CSS files from your site. By eliminating unnecessary assets, it improves page load times and overall site performance.

Features:

• Asset Removal: Identify and delete unused JS and CSS files.
• Performance Enhancement: Reduce page load times by cleaning up assets.
• Selective Loading: Control which assets are loaded on specific pages.
• User-Friendly Interface: Easy-to-use dashboard for optimizing assets.

Common PHP & WordPress Settings for Debugging

When troubleshooting WordPress, having the right PHP and WordPress settings can make all the difference. These settings enable you to catch and address issues efficiently, ensuring your site remains functional and performant. So, when there is an issue, you must check if the value configured for these settings is correct.

1. max_execution_time

When troubleshooting WordPress, adjusting PHP settings like max_execution_time and memory_limit can resolve common issues. The max_execution_time setting controls how long a PHP script is allowed to run before timing out. 

If you encounter errors or incomplete processes, increasing this limit can help. For instance, setting it to a bigger duration (i.e., 60 or even 300 seconds) in your php.ini file can prevent scripts from timing out during complex operations.

2. memory_limit

The memory_limit setting determines the maximum amount of memory a PHP script can use. If your site experiences errors related to memory limits, such as the “Allowed memory size exhausted” error, increasing this limit can help. 

Adjusting memory_limit to 256M or higher in php.ini provides more resources for script execution, ensuring smoother performance and fewer memory-related issues.

These values can be easily set for your sites built with or connected to InstaWP from the PHP Config tab.

Essential Tools for WordPress Site Security and Management

Whether you want to check plugins/Theme conflicts or want to understand if your site’s health is good, you will need WordPress troubleshooting and security tools/techniques. 

1. Use a Troubleshooting Plugin

You can choose the Health Check and Troubleshooting Plugin for this purpose.

Developed by WordPress.org, this plugin helps you troubleshoot issues by allowing you to disable all plugins and switch to a default theme for your user session. It’s a powerful tool to isolate the problem.

How to Use?

Activate the plugin and go to the Troubleshooting tab in the Site Health section. Click on “Troubleshoot” to disable all other plugins and activate only the one you want to test. 

For instance, if you’re troubleshooting Contact Form 7, you can enable it while disabling all other plugins. This isolation lets you identify if the issue is with the specific plugin or theme without affecting your site’s overall functionality. You can then re-enable plugins or themes one at a time to pinpoint the cause.

Note: If you prefer not to use plugins, you can manually deactivate all plugins and switch to a default theme from the WordPress admin dashboard. However, make sure to do so in WordPress Staging in order to preserve your site’s experience.

2. Use a Vulnerability Scanner

InstaWP offers an in-built vulnerability scanner that instantly scans your site for known security vulnerabilities in core files, plugins, and themes. Running regular site scans identifies risks before they can be exploited, ensuring timely updates and fixes.

3. Use a Performance Monitoring Tool

You can use Page Insight for it. It is a vital tool for assessing and enhancing your website’s performance. It provides detailed reports on various aspects of your site’s speed and usability, pinpointing areas that need improvement to ensure a smoother user experience.

4. Verify Checksums while Troubleshooting 

When a WordPress site is compromised, attackers often modify core files, plugins, or themes, which can lead to security vulnerabilities or functionality issues. Verifying checksums is a key step in identifying these unauthorized changes.

In case you don’t know, Checksums are unique values calculated from the contents of a file. They act like a digital fingerprint, allowing you to verify that a file has not been altered. WordPress provides tools to check these checksums for core files and plugins to ensure they have not been tampered with.

How to Verify Checksums?

Step 1 – Run the command wp core verify-checksums to check core files.

This command verifies the integrity of WordPress core files. If a core file has been modified, the command will show discrepancies between your file’s checksum and the expected checksum from the WordPress repository.

Running wp core verify-checksums might reveal errors if files like wp-activate.php have been tampered with. You can then manually review or restore these files to their original state.

Step 2 – Run the command wp plugin verify-checksums— all to check plugins.

As you can guess, it compares the checksums of your plugin files against the expected values from the plugin’s original source.

Note: This method may not cover third-party or premium plugins. For these, you may need to manually compare files or use additional tools.

Step 3 – Manual Verification

If the automated tools don’t cover certain plugins or themes, you can manually download fresh copies from the WordPress repository or vendor and compare their checksums with those on your server.

• Download the latest version of the plugin or theme.
• Compute the checksum of the downloaded files using tools like md5sum or sha256sum.
• Compare these checksums with those on your server.

WP CLI Cheatsheet for Quick WordPress Troubleshooting

When managing a WordPress site, WP CLI can be an invaluable tool for handling various administrative tasks efficiently. Whether you need to clean up spam comments, perform bulk updates, or manage maintenance modes, WP CLI commands allow you to execute these actions swiftly through the command line. 

Here’s a quick table of some essential WP CLI commands that you might find helpful for different scenarios:

Task	WP CLI Command	Description
Delete Spam Comments	wp comment delete –spam	Removes all comments marked as spam.
Search and Replace a String	wp search-replace ‘old-string’ ‘new-string’	Updates old strings to new strings in the database.
Activate Maintenance Mode	wp maintenance-mode activate	Activates maintenance mode on live sites.
Delete Inactive Plugins	wp plugin delete $(wp plugin list –status=inactive –field=name)	Deletes all plugins that are currently inactive.
Delete Revisions	wp post delete $(wp post list –post_type=revision –format=ids) –force	Permanently deletes all post revisions.
Update Core, Plugins, and Themes	wp core update <br> wp plugin update –all <br> wp theme update –all	Updates WordPress core, all plugins, and all themes.
Deactivate All Plugins	wp plugin deactivate –all	Deactivates all plugins on the site.

Useful WP CLI Packages

1. wp doctor check –all

When You Need It: Use this package when you suspect underlying issues with your WordPress setup but aren’t sure where to start.

How to Use: Run wp doctor check –all to execute a series of diagnostic checks that cover common symptoms and issues. This will help you pinpoint potential problems and guide your troubleshooting efforts.

2. wp profile stage –all

When You Need It: Ideal for when your site is running slow, and you need to identify performance bottlenecks.

How to Use: Execute wp profile stage –all to analyze and pinpoint what’s slowing down your WordPress site. This command provides detailed performance metrics, helping you optimize the slowest components.

3. wp code-profiler run

When You Need It: Use this package when you suspect that slow plugins or inefficient code are affecting site performance.

How to Use: Run wp code-profiler run to profile your WordPress site’s code and identify slow plugins and functions. This tool offers insights into code execution times, enabling you to target and optimize problematic areas.

Note: If you are using InstaWP, you can simply save these WP CLI Commands in your dashboards and run them for all your WordPress websites as and when you want.

WordPress Troubleshooting with InstaWP

Remember, the key to mastering WordPress troubleshooting is practice and familiarity with these essential tools and commands. And InstaWP has all the tools and techniques to equip you for troubleshooting WordPress issues efficiently and effectively. 

Though we have covered most of these tools, here’s a quick summary:

1. WordPress Staging Tool: Duplicate your live environment for testing.
2. Command Library: Add and manage custom WP CLI commands.
3. Configurations: Set default WordPress options and plugins.
4. Versions: Rollback changes with snapshots.
5. PHP Settings: Manage PHP configurations for debugging.
6. Code Editor: Edit code directly from InstaWP.
7. Logs Viewer: Access and review logs.
8. DB Editor: Manage your database with Adminer.
9. SFTP & SSH Access: Access and manage files and the server directly.

Ultimate Troubleshooting Toolkit for WordPress Agencies! 

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