I see plugin/theme errors on my WordPress site
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Sometimes when you access your website or try to log in it’s wp-admin panel you may be presented with errors, preventing you from proceeding further. For example:
Warning: An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this server’s configuration. If you continue to have problems, please try the support forums. (WordPress could not establish a secure connection to WordPress.org. Please contact your server administrator.) in /home/customer/www/domain.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/functions.php on line 73If you encounter similar errors, follow the next steps to troubleshoot the problem.
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Step 1: Enable debugging
WordPress has a built-in functionality for investigating PHP problems related to the application or its currently enabled plugins and themes. Turning this functionality on will show all errors and warnings either on the front-end of your website or in local log file. To enable debugging go to Site Tools > Site > File Manager and edit the file wp-config.php that is located in the public_html folder of your WordPress website.
Inside the file add the following two lines before the “/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */” line:
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true); define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);Save the changes to the file and access your website. If there are any PHP errors or warnings, WordPress will display them and you should be able to see them on the problematic pages of the website. A file named debug.log will be created in the public_html/wp-content folder of the website that would also contain any errors and warnings.
Once you identify the cause of the problems of your website and address it, remove the two lines that were added in the wp-config.php file to deactivate the debugging mode again.
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Step 2: Check the error messages on the website for the cause of the problem
Often the cause of the error is a problematic plugin or a theme. If you see any error messages on the website check if they mention the name of any of your currently active plugins or themes. If they do, then you can deactivate the mentioned plugin or change the website’s theme to a different one to attempt to resolve the problem.
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Step 3: Disable all your website’s plugins and change the theme
If you cannot find any specific errors suggesting a particular plugin or a theme, then deactivate all your website’s plugins. If the error is gone, then you can start activating the plugins one by one to determine the one causing the error, delete the problematic plugin and replace it with a new one that provides similar functionalities. If the errors still show up after deactivating all plugins – change the website’s theme.
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Step 4: Restore your website from a backup
If you have recently made any changes to your website then you can use one of the automated backups we create to restore your website from a date when it was working properly.
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Step 5: Contact a developer
If the previous steps don’t work contact a WordPress developer. A developer can assist in configuring your WordPress application properly and resolve any current errors or warnings that appear on it. If you don’t have one, you can check out a few of our trusted partners providing WordPress coding and custom support at our Perks section.