Problems
How bad a problem is, the rules behind it, and step-by-step fixes for the problems that take a site down or stop its email.
Last updated:Browse the docs Problems
- Problem priority What Urgent, Important, Notice and Info mean, and how a problem's priority sets a page's status. urgent, important, notice and info
- Rules The four rule sets a page check runs, what each one looks for, and how to switch one off. four rule sets per page
- WordPress failure signatures The error screens WordPress and PHP show instead of your page, like a database or critical error. database, install screen, critical error, PHP and white screen
- Hosting & error pages Error, default and suspended pages your host, Cloudflare, web server or proxy shows instead of your site, and certificates browsers block. 5xx, default and suspended pages, Cloudflare and certificates
- Site doesn't answer Why a page gives no answer at all, and how to fix each cause, from a stopped server to a missing DNS record. timeouts, DNS and TLS
- Error status What a 404, 403, 500, 502, 503 or 508 means when a page answers with an error, and how to fix each one. HTTP 400 and higher
- Cloudflare errors What Cloudflare's 5xx and 1xxx error pages mean, like 521, 522, 525, 526 and 1016, and how to get the site back. Cloudflare 5xx and 1xxx
- Database connection error How to fix "Error establishing a database connection" in WordPress, from a database server that's down to a wrong password. wp-config.php and MySQL
- Critical error How to fix "There has been a critical error on this website" and PHP errors in WordPress, with or without the recovery email. recovery mode and PHP errors
- White screen How to fix a blank WordPress page, the white screen of death, when there's no error message to go on. hidden PHP errors
- Stuck in maintenance How to fix WordPress when it stays on "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance" after an update. the .maintenance file
- Redirect loop How to fix ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS, when an address keeps redirecting and never reaches a page. ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS
- Email records How to fix missing MX, SPF and DMARC records, so email reaches your domain and yours stays out of spam. MX, SPF and DMARC
The fixes start from what you see, name the usual causes and give the steps for each one. Not sure you can do it yourself? Every fix ends with a section for your developer or host.
Looking for something smaller, like a redirect that could be better? Each check has its own fixes under Checks.