Howdy, I finally fixed it. I searched everywhere for the solution. Some of them are very nice and technically sound. However, they all didn’t work for me.
The good point is, right before the crash I had the backup of the site database. So I think this piece of advice is never obsolete: you have the database, you can rebuild your site in no time, you lose your database, you lose every bit of it.
In my case, I just deleted everything and installed a fresh WP, edited the file wp-config file to match the current database. With a little effort, the site is running again (since all the themes, plug-ins, plug-in settings are still there in the database).
However I came up with some solutions for the White screen of Death, maybe it would be useful to you should you ever come up with this problem.
The list is arranged in order of most common to least common, as from our experience.
1. Incomplete upload of core WordPress files.
If you have just installed or upgraded WordPress and it just shows you that White Screen of Death, you might not have uploaded all of the core files. And even if you are sure that all files are uploaded, its good to upload again just to be sure.
We had this problem, for example, when dealing with a bad web host which repeatedly timed out and didn’t give any indication that files were being selectively uploaded.
Your FTP client could also be at fault.
To ensure complete upload of files, one simple method is to upload the entire zipped directory and then unpack it on the server.
2. Theme files are not uploaded.
If you are upgrading your blog, be sure not to overwrite the wp-content directory. But if theme files have been deleted, you will need to upload them or switch to the default theme to see your blog. Additionally, when moving your blog, be sure to keep the wp-content directory, or at least your theme files.
3. Incompatible Plugins.
Plugins have very limited compatibility and do not function with all versions of WordPress. So before upgrading or installing a plugin, check for full compatibility. Additionally, not all plugins play nice with one another. So you might have to disable or delete any new plugins to restore your website.
4. Bad, Corrupt, or Incomplete Theme Files.
Sometimes, the problem lies with the theme. If you’ve just set a new theme or edited your theme and noticed this error, then go back and undo whatever you did.
5. WP config file
Believe it or not, your wp-config.php file could be the culprit. Colin McNulty, who spent half a day finding the problem on his blog, rants:
You getting it yet? Yep, it’s an empty line. That’s all it is. 1 single solitary NewLine at the bottom off the file, right after that ?> a Carriage Return & Line Feed in programmers speak. That’s it. You hit the Enter key in one wrong place and the whole pack of cards comes tumbling down! Shocking, just shocking.
So, if you are editing your wp-config file, beware! Avoid any unnecessary empty lines. Colin McNulty also advises us to beware of “nefarious spaces”, because who knows what they’re capable of!
6. Permissions
Depending on your web host, if your files do not have sufficient permissions, then your pages will not be shown. And you’ll get an instance of the Blank Page of Death. For information, on changing permissions, see the WordPress Documentation Changing File Permissions.
7. Not a clue…
If you’ve tried everything and have not been able to find a solution, you might just have to restore your blog from a backup, or simply reinstall WordPress. But before you do so, you might want to try Andrew Ooi’s fix below.
Make WordPress Tell You What’s Going On!
We didn’t even think of this one, but ex-PHP programmer Andrew Ooi did. On his blog, he explains the process of forcing WordPress to give error reporting, thus giving you an alternative to the mysterious blank page.
In a video tutorial, he explains the process of creating an error reporting file called tester.php with the following code:
<?
ini_set(‘display_errors’,’1′);
ini_set(‘display_startup_errors’,’1′);
error_reporting (E_ALL);include(‘index.php’);
?>
