Title: WordPress critical error message
Last modified: August 19, 2026

---

# WordPress critical error message

 *  Resolved [samdinho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sambodinho/)
 * (@sambodinho)
 * [2 weeks, 2 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-critical-error-message-3/)
 * Since the last update (4.28.2) [my website](https://ethicalrevolution.co.uk) 
   got the dreaded ‘There’s been a critical error on this website’ message on all
   pages. As such I’ve disabled Relevanssi for the time being and the issue is fixed.
    -  This topic was modified 2 weeks, 2 days ago by [samdinho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sambodinho/).
      Reason: typo

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Mikko Saari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msaari/)
 * (@msaari)
 * [2 weeks, 2 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-critical-error-message-3/#post-18996929)
 * Can you please provide the actual PHP error message here? With that, we can probably
   solve this problem, but without it, there’s nothing we can do.
 * You can find the error message in the server PHP error log. Your hosting provider
   can help you find out where that is if you don’t know.
 *  Thread Starter [samdinho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sambodinho/)
 * (@sambodinho)
 * [2 weeks, 2 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-critical-error-message-3/#post-18996976)
 * Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I’ve just checked the log file
   and there is nothing referring to Relevanssi. There are references to another
   plugin so I’ve now disabled that one and re-enabled Relevanssi and the site is
   still working. Confusing though as to why disabling Relevanssi brought my site
   back online in the first place (which was why I assumed Relevanssi must have 
   been causing the issue).
 *  Thread Starter [samdinho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sambodinho/)
 * (@sambodinho)
 * [2 weeks, 2 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-critical-error-message-3/#post-18996983)
 * Actually it looks like the lines that caused the error don’t refer to a specific
   plugin at all:
 * [19-Aug-2026 06:01:40 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 
   bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2097160 bytes) in /home/ethicalrev/public_html/
   wp-includes/class-wpdb.php on line 3118
   But it was disabling Relevanssi that 
   brought it back online.
 *  Plugin Author [Mikko Saari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msaari/)
 * (@msaari)
 * [2 weeks, 2 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-critical-error-message-3/#post-18997159)
 * Ah, I see. You’re out of memory. That’s a bit tricky one, as it doesn’t really
   tell where the actual problem is. Relevanssi in itself shouldn’t be a memory 
   hog, but running searches can require some amount, especially if the search is
   not well configured and the site is big. However, when not doing a search, Relevanssi
   uses hardly any memory – on my test site, the front page is 10.1 megabytes, Relevanssi
   or not.
 * If you have some kind of programming error where Relevanssi is running searches
   on every page load, that would explain it, but that’s hard to come by on accident.
   Do you have any custom PHP code related to searching or Relevanssi?
 *  Thread Starter [samdinho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sambodinho/)
 * (@sambodinho)
 * [2 weeks, 2 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-critical-error-message-3/#post-18997500)
 * I don’t think so. And I agree with you in that I don’t think Relevanssi is taking
   much memory up. I wonder if a Relevanssi search just happened to be the straw
   that broke the camel’s back on this occasion. There is another plugin (now diasabled
   and reported to author who is going to issue a fix) that appears to have built
   up the excess memory usage. I wonder if it was going through that process and
   about to reach the memory limit anyway when a search just happened to tip it 
   over the edge. Thank you for such swift response anyway.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fwordpress-critical-error-message-3%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
to reply to this topic.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/relevanssi/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3529670)
 * [Relevanssi - A Better Search](https://wordpress.org/plugins/relevanssi/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/relevanssi/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/relevanssi/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/relevanssi/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/relevanssi/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/relevanssi/reviews/)

 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [samdinho](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sambodinho/)
 * Last activity: [2 weeks, 2 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-critical-error-message-3/#post-18997500)
 * Status: resolved