There is nothing horrible than the feeling of losing your entire WordPress blog after preforming a plugin update or instal. A white blank page sends the chills through your body and you sink it in with words like “Oh shit what did I do? Where is my blog and all my posts OH NOOOOooo!! ”
Don’t get me wrong, wordpress plugins are awesome, especially for people who don’t code or don’t have knowledge of coding php, JavaScript etc… they are easy to install and it only requires clicks to get some handy tools installed to help your wordpress blog’s performance, SEO etc…BUT sometimes they can give you a scare of your life time when they carry a glitch. All programmers are not perfect (even tho they should test it before release it<=== that is all i can say about that!!) .
Luckily there is a solution to your problem so relax!. If you just updated or installed one or multiple plugins in your blog and now you have a white page blog steering at your face, don’t worry follow these simple steps.
1- You will need to connect to your server ( if you do have access to it) using Remote Desktop connection ( windows server) OR try to remember your FTP connection’s user name and password when you first installed your blog.
2- After connecting navigate and look for the plugin (that created the problem after update)’s folder and change its name so you can get your blog back online. All the plugins you installed reside in a sub folder called plugins in the main folder called wp-content
wp-content/plugins/plugin_name
3- Change the plugin_name that you just updated TO plugin_name_inactive and then type your blog address in a newer browser window/tab to check if your blog is back online.
In case it didn’t work: You will need to repeat step 2 and step 3 above to every plugin that you updated right before your blog disappeared until you get your wordpress blog back online and hopefully your readers will find their content they are looking for.
Things that you may need to do so you can avoid this situation in the future.
1: ALWAYS Backup your wordpress blog, you got your content that you worked hard for hours and it deserve an insurance policy, so backup your blog ( there are plugins out there for that ex: updraftPlus backups)
2: Always have a connection (backdoor) either RDC to your server or FTP to your site saved up somewhere. You never know when you going to need it.
3: Never jump fast to update or install a wordpress plugins without taking the time to read feedbacks from others on the plugin provider’s page. Take your time and let others find the glitch and report it. Or if it happened to you then report it and let others know. Been there done that!
4: Backup backup backup your blog can’t stress that enough guys!!
I hope this helped you in your Oh Shit moment, click on Twitter, Facebook share buttons you never know who else out there in the same situation like you…help someone else by sharing this post
here is a video that i found on youtube that explains the same technique :