How to fix a critical error in WordPress

Encountering a “critical error WordPress” message on your site can be alarming, especially if it suddenly locks you out of the dashboard or takes your site offline. For bloggers, business owners, or freelancers who manage their own WordPress websites, this message often appears without warning and with no clear explanation. The good news? Most critical errors are fixable.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through what a WordPress critical error is, why it happens, and most importantly, how to fix it. We’ll also show you how having a backup plugin can be a lifesaver during moments like these.

• Understand what causes the “critical error WordPress” message
• Learn step-by-step how to fix the issue without losing your site
• Discover the most common sources of the problem: plugins, themes, or corrupted files
• See why regular backups are essential and how UpdraftPlus can protect you
• Get answers to common errors like “WordPress there has been a critical error on this website”

A critical error in WordPress usually means something on your site is breaking PHP execution, preventing pages from loading properly. When this happens, WordPress may display the following message:

“There has been a critical error on this website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions.”

This generic alert indicates that WordPress has entered recovery mode. It often relates to one of the following:

• A faulty or recently updated plugin
• A broken theme or incompatible theme update
• Corrupted WordPress core files
• PHP memory limits or configuration issues

If you’re seeing this, it means WordPress has detected a fatal error and has paused parts of your site to protect it from further damage.

Before trying to fix the error, it’s vital to create or restore a working backup of your site.

Without a backup, you risk making things worse or losing your content entirely. The safest approach is to use a backup tool like UpdraftPlus, which allows you to back up and restore your WordPress site with just a few clicks.

A single plugin or theme update can break your site. That’s why having a recent backup isn’t optional it’s your safety net when critical errors strike

If your site is still partially accessible or you’re using managed hosting, check whether a recent backup exists. If not, UpdraftPlus makes it easy to schedule automatic backups so you’re never caught off guard again.

When WordPress detects a critical error, it often sends an email to the admin address. Look for a message with the subject:

“Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”

Inside, you’ll find a special link to access recovery mode, where you can disable faulty plugins or themes.

If you didn’t receive the email:

• Make sure your hosting provider allows email sending
• Check your spam folder
• If you can’t access the email, skip to the next step

Before diving into plugin folders, it’s worth checking the PHP error log – this is often your quickest route to identifying the root cause. You’ll usually find the error log in the root directory of your site (or in a folder named something like /logs/). Look for entries marked “Fatal Error” – these often mention the exact plugin or theme file causing the issue. If it points to a specific plugin or theme, you can delete it via FTP and later reinstall a fresh copy.

If error logs aren’t available or don’t clearly show the issue, use FTP (e.g. FileZilla) or your hosting control panel’s file manager to access your site’s files. Navigate to:

/wp-content/plugins/

Rather than renaming each individual plugin folder (e.g. changing elementor to elementor-disabled), it’s faster to rename the entire plugins folder to something like plugins-old. This will deactivate all plugins at once.

Then:

1. Create a new folder in /wp-content/ called plugins.
2. Try reloading your site. If it loads successfully, the issue lies with one of your plugins.
3. Move plugins one-by-one from plugins-old back into the new plugins folder, refreshing the site after each move.
4. When the site breaks again, you’ve found the problematic plugin. Delete it and install a fresh copy if needed.

If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly way to access and manage debug logs from the WordPress dashboard, Debug Log Manager is a great tool worth installing once your site is accessible again.

Sometimes the theme is the culprit, especially after an update. To test this:

• Go to /wp-content/themes/
• Rename your current theme folder (e.g., astra to astra-old)
• WordPress will automatically switch to a default theme like twentytwentyfour

If your site loads after this change, the theme is likely the issue.

If you suspect the error is due to insufficient memory, you can try increasing your PHP memory limit.

If you have debugging enabled, check your PHP error log for a message like this:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted

This means your site has run out of allocated memory, which can lead to critical errors or timeouts.

To increase the limit:

1. Open your wp-config.php file.
2. Add or edit the following line just above the comment that says /* That's all, stop editing! */:

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

This allocates more memory to PHP processes, which can often resolve crashes or timeout issues. If it doesn’t help, you may need to increase the limit at the server level using php.ini or .htaccess, or contact your hosting provider for assistance.

If none of the above resolves the issue, some of your core files might be corrupted. You can reinstall WordPress without affecting your content:

• Download the latest version from wordpress.org
• Extract the files and delete the wp-content folder
• Upload the remaining files via FTP, overwriting the old ones

This refreshes your core files without touching themes, plugins, or uploads.

Here’s how you can reduce the chances of seeing this message again:

• Always back up your site before installing updates (UpdraftPlus makes this easy)
• Test updates on a staging environment if available
• Keep plugins and themes up to date, but do so one at a time
• Avoid using outdated or unsupported plugins/themes
• Use a quality hosting provider that offers server-level backups and error logs

Fixing a critical error is much easier when you have a full backup of your site. Instead of trying to reverse-engineer the problem, you can simply roll back to a working version.

A critical error in WordPress can feel like a nightmare, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right steps, a calm approach, and a reliable backup, you can recover your site quickly and confidently.

Keep this guide handy and remember: prevention is the best cure. Install UpdraftPlus, make regular backups part of your routine, and you’ll always have a safety net when things go wrong.