Help, I have a WordPress Emergency and my Site is Broken:
You have a WordPress Emergency and something drastic has happened. Maybe you have been compromised and hacked. You may have the great White Screen of Death, or maybe your admin area has stopped loading properly and everything is now a mess.
First thing to do is realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train and we can usually help rescue you out of this issue with minimum problems.
This page is here to help you with some tips that I will add to as I come across them. You can also call me at 250-885-2888 between the hours of 8am and 8pm PST Monday to Saturday to help with Your WordPress Emergency. You can also contact me via the form at the bottom of this page that gets sent right to me wherever I am at.
Help, my site was hacked:
If you have been hacked, your site is spamming, or you have been delisted by Google you need to contact me ASAP as there are no real quick tips to solve this. Call me at 250-885-2888 from 8am to 8pm PST Monday to Saturday. I will answer if I can; if not leave a message and I will return your call ASAP. Or fill out the form below I will see it almost immediately on my phone or iPad.
White Screen of Death:
Help, I have the White Screen of death or my Admin area has scrambled or I cannot access my site at all though the URL! Use the tips below to regain access:
If you have access to your admin area try the following:
Here are the first steps you need to take if any of the above has occurred.
- Stop and breathe. It is only a mild panic attack, you have not lost your data.
- Think for a second. Did these events occur right after doing an update to either WordPress core files or updating a plugin?
- Most often these things occur after updating a plugin, often times we are not sure which one though because we have just updated more than one and usually several were done at once.
- If you have access to your admin start by disabling all plugins and see if the problem is solved. Then turn them on one at a time until the problem returns and now you have the culprit.
- Once you find the plugin that is causing issue you may have to revert to an older version or contact the author and let them know about a new bug.
One of the biggest causes here is that plugins and themes that where once compatible sometime become incompatible with updates. Hopefully you have made a backup up your site to restore back to the starting point if necessary.
If you Do Not have access to your admin or site you need to do the following:
- Stop and breathe. It is only a mild panic attack, you have not lost your data.
- Think for a second. Did these events occur right after doing an update to either WordPress core files or updating a plugin?
- Most often these things occur after updating a plugin, often times we are not sure which one though because we have just updated more than one and usually several were done at once.
- Now connect to your site via FTP. Go to the following directory: yourdomain/wp-content/plugins
- Now rename the directory plugins to plugins-broke
- Access your site admin; you should be able to get into it now.
- What this does is effectively turns off all your plugins in one shot for you. Once you have access go to the ftp site and rename the directory back to plugins.
- Now you can go to the installed plugins for your site. All of them will be disabled and you can then turn them on one at a time to find the problem one.
Questions? Let me know by calling or filling out the form below. Thanks.
John Overall
WordPress Specialist