5 Most Common WordPress Errors With Solutions

             WordPress is one the most popular CMS platforms which people use for creating their blogs, websites and e-stores as well. Whether you are an Experienced WP Programmer or a newbie who loves to install plugins or widgets, you need to understand that encountering errors is unavoidable. Sometimes it becomes really frustrating when we get some unexpected errors and we don’t know how to solve them! So, if you are also facing some kind of errors in WordPress, this blog post is surely for you as we would be talking of some common WP errors along with their solutions.

1. Lost Admin Password & Email Retrieval Is Not Functioning

Problem: Many times it happens with WP users that their admin password doesn’t work. And when they try to recover the password using “Lost Your Password” feature which helps in getting the new password via email, this also doesn’t work.

Solution: In order to solve this issue, there are 2 alternatives available.

a) Solution via PhpMyAdmin

§  In this method, you need to login your cPanel and click on PhpMyAdmin under Databases

§  Now, select your database

§  Next, you need to go to wp_users and click on “Browse”. Check username and click on “Edit”

§  Now Reset your admin panel password by inserting new value into user_pass

§  After completing all above steps, click the dropdown menu under Function

§  Now choose MD5 from the menu and click on “Go” button appearing at the end of the page.

b) Solution via FTP Another solution to fix this error can be done via FTP. Here are the steps to be followed:

1.     Login to your FTP account using Filezilla or other FTP client

2.     Now download functions.php file by going to root/wp-content/themes/(your current theme)/

3.     Open functions.php file and add following line of code immediate after <?php: wp_set_password(‘YourNewPassword’,1);

4.     Time to upload the edited funtions.php file using FTP

5.     Try to login your WP Admin

2. Display Issues in WordPress Admin Dashboard

Problem: Sometimes WP users also face display issues while browsing their WP Admin dashboard. This is how their dashboard looks like:

Solution: In order to fix this issue, there are 2 alternatives available-

a) Proxy & Firewall First of all, check if the internet connection that you are using is behind firewall or proxy connection. It might be possible that some of these tools are blocking CSS files and not letting them load properly. So, clear all your proxy or firewall cookies/caches and refresh the page.

b) Update WordPress Plugins In case you have installed plugins like ‘Admin Drop Down Menu’ plugin or ‘Lighter Menus’ plugin, then make sure these are updated with latest version. If you face issues in upgrading them, better to deactivate these plugins.

3. Warning: Cannot Modify Header Information – Headers Already Sent By Problem

One of the most common errors that WP users get is- “Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /path/blog/wp-config.php:34)” Generally this error comes either after WordPress upgrade or new WP installation.

Solution: Let’s see how can you fix this issue!

1.     In order to resolve this issue, you need to check your wp-config.php file. So, download this file via FTP

2.     Now open this file and remove all the spaces before <?php

3.     Make sure there are no extra spaces in the file

4.     Initial characters should be <?php and last characters should be ?>

Note: This error can also come from some other files. In order to identify the file name, read the error message carefully.

4. WordPress Admin/ Blog Shows Blank Page Problem

After installation of new theme or WP upgrade, you might encountered with such error. Your blog and admin page shows blank page and you will not be able to access the dashboard.

Solution: In such situation, there are two solutions that can be used:

a) Rename Currently Used Theme Folder

Try to rename the theme folder via FTP which is currently used on your website or blog.

1.     Connect your FTP and go to wp-contents/themes

2.     Now rename the current theme like “twentyten” to “twentyten-test”

3.     Try to login your admin (wp-admin)

4.     Check if the theme is compatible with your WordPress Version

b) Reset Plugin Folder

§  Connect your FTP and go to wp-contents

§  Now rename “plugins” folder to “plugins-test”

§  Create a new folder with a name- “plugins” and move data from “plugins-test” to “plugins”

§  Login WP Admin and activate each plugin one by one.

§  Also, check if your plugins are compatible with your WordPress version.

5. Fatal Error Undefined Function Is_network_admin() Problem

Problem: After WordPress upgrade, you might get this Fatal error.

Solution: Since this error comes after version upgrade, we suggest you all to try a manual update process. Take a look at the manual upgrade steps:

Manual Update

This error is caused by a fail WordPress version upgrade. Try a manual update.

1.     Firstly, download latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org. This would be in zip format, so unzip it.

2.     Now take a complete backup of your current WordPress and database.

3.     Deactivate all your plugins iv. Rename  wp-includes and wp-admin directories to any name you want.

4.     Now upload each file from new wp-content folder to existing wp-content directory. Replace and overwrite existing files. Make sure you don’t delete any folder or file in this process.

5.     Upload remaining files of new WordPress to the root of existing all new loose files from the root directory of the new version to your existing root directory.

6.     Remove .maintenance file from WP directory via FTP

7.     After following all above steps, now login to your admin panel where you will get a link like http://yourwebsite.com/wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php. Please click on this link and follow the instructions. This process will update your site’s database which will be compatible with latest version.