WordPress is an amazing platform used quite widely all over the world. There isn’t a web developer or designer out there that hasn’t heard about it, and all for quite a number of reasons. WordPress has proven to be very effective, easy to use, and, for some people, an invaluable asset and a tool for a successful business.
However, there are some common errors that can seriously affect your conversion rates and the overall feel and functionality of your website. With the virtually endless sea of plugins and themes, it can sometimes be challenging to stay on top of it all. Like with any other learning process, if you’re new to WordPress, you’re bound to find some bumps on the road. Luckily, the WordPress community is ever-growing and you can easily reach out and get some help for any kind of problems you may encounter.
Learning through errors is an integral part of mastering a certain skill, so in order to help you understand WordPress development, we’ve searched the internet and we’ve made a list of some of the most common errors and their solutions. These are just some basic things you should keep an eye out for.
403 Forbidden Error
This error is one of the most annoying errors usually encountered by new WordPress users. Error 403 is shown when you don’t have appropriate permissions for specific pages. It appears in several different instances, and it’s most often caused by a poorly configured plugin or corrupt .htaccess file.
In order to fix it, backup your site, as you should do before any significant changes are made, and try temporarily deactivating all of the plugins you’re using. If the error goes away, start activating your plugins one by one to deduce which one is causing the problem. If this didn’t help you may want to download your .htaccess file and delete it from the server.
Image Upload Issue
Image upload issues happen sometimes when you’re trying to put the image on WordPress. The image is shown broken in the library, and this can be quite annoying. The issue occurs usually because of bad file permissions. The upload directory should have the correct file permissions in order for WordPress to properly store your files.
To deal with file permissions for uploads you need some kind of FTP client. With it, you get access to the upload directory and to the file permissions for that directory. Here, you will get a detailed dialogue box where you get to set up all the needed permissions in order to prevent the issues from occurring again.
White Screen of Death
The very annoying error that can happen sometimes is the white screen of death – WSOD. It sounds quite theatrical, but it’s not a very big deal, and it has happened to most WordPress developers and designers at least once in their careers. Basically, instead of opening the website, you get a blank, white screen with no additional info about the error. It can be caused by various things like a poorly coded theme, a problem with the hosting server, or an issue with some of the plugins.
Like with much of the other issues related to WordPress, you should get an FTP client like Filezilla and log in to the server. Here you should be able to find the folder with plugins, which you should edit, and after that, you should be able to log in with all of the plugins disabled.
If the issue is related to the PHP memory limit, you can easily extend it by adding a line of code in the wp-config.php file. And if none of this helped, you need to change your theme, as it probably is what’s causing the WSOD.
Error Establishing a Database Connection
This error is the one that makes quite a lot of trouble for new WordPress users. To put it simply – this means that your website can’t connect to your database. This could happen for a number of reasons. One of those reasons could be that your website has been hacked, it could also mean that your Web Host is having some problems or there’s an error with the wp-config.php file.
In order to deal with this issue, and its causes, there are a few steps you can consider. Contact your hosting provider to see if they have a problem, or if your database has already consumed all the resources and has been shut down. Scan your website for hacking attacks and contact your WordPress team to ensure everything is as it should be, and lastly – make sure all the correct parameters in your wp-config.php file are done properly. Double-check your name, user name, password, and hosting information.
White Text and Missing Buttons
Sometimes the buttons from a visual editor on your WordPress site are just missing. You try to type and you can’t see what you’re typing because the color of the text has changed to white. This is a very common issue and it can occur for a number of reasons, but you don’t need to worry as it is quite easy to deal with this problem.
The first thing you should do is clear your browsing data and cache, as this can sometimes cause visual editor issues. Update the plugins you may be using for your buttons and try to disable them to see if those are the cause of your problems. And of course, you can always add a line of code in the wp-config.php file that will reset your buttons to the previous functional version.
Syntax Error
It sounds scary, but a syntax error is usually nothing serious to worry about. It happens because the part of a code is placed incorrectly or contains the error itself. It could be a misplaced character or it could be the wrong modification of the code.
Luckily, this error shows which file it appears in, as well as which line of the code is wrong. Sometimes it doesn’t show the exact line so make sure you double-check it with your FTP client and check before and after the indicated line.
404 Page Not Found Error
Error 404 happens when the user is unable to get access to a single post on their website and the rest of the sections and website elements are working properly. This issue is quite common and it usually occurs because of the Permalink settings.
According to our expert sources from Websitesdelivered, this issue can be dealt with very quickly as you only need to save changes to your permalink settings from your WordPress dashboard. This helps rewrite old rules and it solves page issues for all of the other 404 Errors that you may not have noticed yet.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, a list of the most common errors WordPress developers encounter. Some of these are quite easy to solve, and others are a bit more time-consuming, but what they all have in common is that there are various ways to solve them, and there is a different approach for each and every single one of these errors. The most important thing to keep in mind is not to panic, as the answer is probably very simple.