WordPress — The website is experiencing technical difficulties.

First, do not panic. For­t­u­na­te­ly, sources of errors can be found quick­ly on Word­Press.

Analyze errors #

First, we need to find the error.

Activating the error messages (debug mode)

Open the Word­Press con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on file (wp-config.php), this is loca­ted in the root direc­to­ry of Word­Press.

Add the fol­lo­wing lines and check that they are not alre­a­dy pre­sent:

// Debug Modus aktivieren
define('WP_DEBUG', true);

// Ausgabe der Debug Meldungen deaktivieren
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY',false); 

// Schreiben der Debug Meldungen ins Log-File
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG',true); /

Call page again

Now open the page that gene­ra­tes the error again. When you open the page, the gene­ra­ted error mes­sa­ges are now writ­ten to the Word­Press log file.

Analyze the WordPress log file

Now you can easi­ly open the log file of Word­Press.

Noti­ces: They tell you what you should and should not do.

War­nings: Occur during the run­time of the code, but do not inter­rupt the pro­cess.

Error: Also occur during the run­time of the code and cau­se an inter­rup­ti­on.

What is inte­res­t­ing for you are the errors, becau­se the­se have cau­sed your web­site to no lon­ger func­tion as desi­red.

Troubleshoot #

Now that you have found the error, you can start fixing the error mes­sa­ge, “The web­site is expe­ri­en­cing tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties”.

Atten­ti­on: befo­re you go any fur­ther, be sure to back up your web­site and data­ba­se.

Errors can only occur in the fol­lo­wing are­as:

• Word­Press (Core)
• The­me
• Plug­in
• Data­ba­se

Howe­ver, you can alre­a­dy exclude the data­ba­se, other­wi­se you would get ano­ther error mes­sa­ge (Error estab­li­shing a data­ba­se con­nec­tion).

If you take a clo­ser look at the error mes­sa­ges, you will see that behind the error mes­sa­ge is the path to the file that gene­ra­ted the error. Often the­re are also seve­ral files here, this is a call stack. Look at all the files until you come to a “plug­in” or “the­me” path.

From the path, you can tell if it’s a plug­in, the­me, or Word­Press core issue.

In case of plug­ins, you will find a file in a sub­fol­der of “wp-con­­ten­­t/­­plu­g­in­s/”. If it is a the­me, howe­ver, the file is loca­ted in a sub­fol­der of “wp-con­­ten­­t/­­the­­mes”.

Error due to a plugin

Errors crea­ted by a plug­in can for­t­u­na­te­ly be easi­ly fixed by dis­ab­ling the plug­in. Sin­ce you pro­ba­b­ly don’t have access to the backend of Word­Press, you can sim­ply disable the plug­in manu­al­ly.

Atten­ti­on: Deac­ti­vat­ing the plug­in also means that it can no lon­ger be used. Among other things, this can trig­ger dis­play errors. It can also lead to data loss. We the­r­e­fo­re advi­se you to cont­act an expert before­hand. We will be hap­py to assist you with the repair.

Chan­ge to an FTP pro­gram of your choice (e.g. File­zil­la). Now con­nect to your ser­ver. Then chan­ge to the plug­in direc­to­ry (wp-con­­ten­­t/­­plu­g­ins). To deac­ti­va­te the plug­in, you just have to chan­ge the name of the fol­der. (e.g. from abc to !abc).

Ren­aming the direc­to­ry deac­ti­va­tes the plug­in. Set­tings that were saved in the data­ba­se are retai­ned.

Now, try to log in via your Word­Press admin panel. If you still get an error mes­sa­ge, the­re is ano­ther error. Then you should take ano­ther look at the log file.

Error due to a theme

If the error is gene­ra­ted by a the­me, the pro­blem is usual­ly that your the­me is no lon­ger up to date. (Or you have work­ed on it yours­elf, in which case you should also have the expe­ri­ence to find the error, if not, feel free to cont­act us).

Atten­ti­on: Deac­ti­vat­ing the the­me also means that it can no lon­ger be used. Among other things, this can trig­ger dis­play errors. It can also lead to data loss. We the­r­e­fo­re advi­se you to cont­act an expert before­hand. We will be hap­py to assist you with the repair.

You now have the fol­lo­wing opti­ons:

• Look for an update for the the­me
• Tem­po­r­a­ri­ly disable the the­me

Look for a theme update

Most­ly, the deve­lo­pers offer paid updates so that the the­mes can still be used.

If you are not sure which the­me you are using, you can look it up in the “style.css” in the the­me fol­der (wp-con­­ten­­t/­­the­­mes/). Most of the time you will also find a link to the deve­lo­per.

Once you have found an update, you can sim­ply upload it to your ser­ver via FTP.

If ever­y­thing work­ed, you can now log in again via your WP log­in.

Temporarily disable the theme

Alter­na­tively to the update, you can sim­ply deac­ti­va­te the the­me. This is useful if you want to install a new the­me or if no update is offe­red any­mo­re.

To deac­ti­va­te the the­me, sim­ply con­nect to your ser­ver using an FTP pro­gram of your choice (e.g. File­zil­la). Now chan­ge to the the­me direc­to­ry (wp-con­­ten­­t/­­the­­mes). Now you can rena­me the fol­der of your the­me and thus deac­ti­va­te the the­me (e.g.: abc to !abc).

Complete repair #

To com­ple­te the repair, you should disable the debug mode of your Word­Press ins­tance. To do this, open the con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on file of Word­Press, wp-config.php. Chan­ge or add the fol­lo­wing lines to disable the debug mode.

// Debug Modus aktivieren
define('WP_DEBUG', false);

// Ausgabe der Debug Meldungen deaktivieren
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY',false); 

// Schreiben der Debug Meldungen ins Log-File
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG',false); /

I hope this litt­le gui­de could help you to find and fix your error. If not, we can help you fur­ther. Plea­se feel free to cont­act us at any time.

If the tuto­ri­al hel­ped you or you have any ques­ti­ons, feel free to lea­ve a com­ment.