How to Fix WordPress Error “The site is experiencing technical difficulties”

Since WordPress 5.2.1 we see more people complaining about their WordPress site is now throwing “The site is experiencing technical difficulties” error message when they’re trying to access it.

The error usually occurs after doing upgrade on WordPress core it self or updating installed WordPress plugins in their site or when you’re something something else.

Usually back then, when there’s something wrong with your code, plugins, themes or your hosting configuration WordPress will just throws blank white page screen with little to no information at all about the error.

Ever see Microsoft Windows BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)? Well, this error is actually pretty similar. It indicates that there’s something wrong when WordPress was trying to execute a code or task.

So How to Fix “The site is experiencing technical difficulties” Error

To fix the issue, first we need to investigate what could cause the error message to pop up.

“How can I change my theme when I can’t even access wp-admin?” you said.

It’s pretty simple, you simply need access your site file manager trough cPanel or by using SFTP client such as FileZilla or Cyberduck.

Okay, let’s carry on. Here are a few things that could cause “The site is experiencing technical difficulties” issue:

PHP Memory Limit

Make sure that your site have at least 256M set for PHP memory limit. Having a lower memory limit may cause such error.

There are several ways to change your PHP memory limit. You can try using one of the below methods:

Change it from .htaccess file

Open your .htacess file from your WordPress root directory and then add this code:

php_value memory_limit 256M

Change it from wp-config.php file

Open wp-config.php file from your WordPress root directory and then find this line:

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

Right before the above line, add a new line then add this code:

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');

Change it from php.ini

Some hosting allow you to define a custom php.ini file, it is usually located in the root directory for your WordPress installation.

Simply add this code inside your custom php.ini file:

memory_limit = 256M;

Theme Issue

To see if the theme that you currently use is causing the issue is to simply change the theme to another theme.

Once login to file manager or SFTP client, navigate to your WordPress installation directory and go to wp-content/themes/ directory.

Inside the themes directory, you only need to temporary rename the current active theme directory to something else, for example adding “-OFF” to the end of the theme directory name.

For example, if your active theme directory is called “qaween” then you only need to rename it to “qaween-OFF” then head over to your site url to see if the error still exist.

If the error is gone, then we know that the error is coming from the theme. You just need to investigate further to know which code in your theme that caused it.

Don’t forget to rename the theme directory back to the original name.

Plugin Issue

To check if one of the active plugin is causing the issue, you need to do the same steps that I explained above for checking theme issue.

The difference is you need to navigate to wp-content/plugins direcoty then you’ll have to rename all the active plugin directory one by one and see if one of them is causing the issue. If you can’t remember which plugin is active, you’ll need to rename all the plugin directory name one by one.

If you’re using free plugins from WordPress.org, you can easily downgrade the buggy plugin using WP Rollback plugin which can help you downgrade the plugin to previous version.