Click on Update Everything, or you might get an email in the morning saying that something was automatically updated, and now you see an error message or a blank page. If your site stops working after an update, disable the most recently updated plugin or theme via FTP or the hosting control panel by renaming the folder. If that doesn’t work, restore the backup from before the update. Your site is almost never truly gone, because your content is still in the database. Below, you can read what I do when a WordPress update fails, from the simplest to the most involved steps. This article is part of WordPress Management: The Complete Guide.
What will you see after the update?
An update usually breaks your site because a new version of a plugin, theme, WordPress core, or PHP is no longer compatible with the rest of your installation. What you see already tells you a lot about where to look for that incompatibility.
| What do you see? | Usually means | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| “A critical error has occurred on this site” | PHP error in a plugin or theme | A critical error has occurred |
| A blank, white page | Fatal error without notification | white screen of death |
| “Temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance” | Update Stopped Midway | stuck in maintenance mode |
| The plugin works only partially, or the update stops | Incomplete update | Re-upload the plugin or wp plugin install plugin-name --force |
| Site works, but the layout is broken | Cache of Page Builder CSS | First clear the cache |
| Checkout or form is not working | Plugin conflict in a single function | How to Update WooCommerce Without Breaking Your Checkout |
No matter what the symptom is, the recovery steps below remain the same.
Step 1: Find out which update it was
The fastest way to find the cause is to check what was last updated. The first thing I check is the inbox of the administrator’s email address. When a fatal error occurs, WordPress sends an email saying something like “Your site has a technical problem,” and it often specifies exactly which plugin or theme caused the error. If you can still log in, check under Plugins which plugins have recently been updated.
If that doesn't provide a clear answer, I'll check the error log. On most servers, there's a file error_log in the folder where the error occurs. In the error message, you'll see a path like wp-content/plugins/plugin-name/, and that folder name is your suspect. If there's no log, turn on debug mode. First, make a copy of wp-config.php and place the lines above the comment line that says you should stop editing. Place WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG on true and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY on false, so that your visitors won't see the error messages. The errors will then appear in wp-content/debug.log. Turn it off again when you're done. For more information, see Enable debug mode.
Step 2: Disable the plugin or theme
To disable a plugin without access to the admin panel, simply rename the folder. Think of it like a blown fuse. You don’t reset the power for the whole house to yesterday’s settings; instead, you find the device that caused the short circuit and unplug it.
- Can you still log in, or do you have the recovery mode link from the email? If so, just deactivate the plugin via Plugins.
- Can't access it? Open the file manager in your hosting control panel or connect via (S)FTP.
- Go to
wp-content/plugins/and rename the folder containing the suspect plugin, for example, toplugin-name-off. WordPress will then disable it. - Not sure which one it is? Rename the entire folder.
plugins, put it back, and activate the plugins one by one. - Was it a theme update? Rename the theme folder, and WordPress will fall back to an installed default theme, such as Twenty Twenty-Five.
- Clear the cache—for example, in LiteSpeed Cache—and check the site.
At the command line, type wp plugin deactivate plugin-name The same applies to WP-CLI. Always keep a default theme installed; otherwise, WordPress won't have anything to fall back on.
Step 3: Roll back—first that one update, and only then make a backup
Disabling a feature is a last resort, because most of the time you’ll want it back. Don’t reach for the backup right away. Usually, just one plugin is the culprit, and with a full backup, you’ll throw away everything that’s happened since then.
Restore a single plugin or theme
For plugins and themes from the official WordPress repository, use WP Rollback. To restore a premium plugin, download the previous version as a ZIP file and upload it via Plugins > New Plugin > Upload Plugin, then select "Replace." Sometimes WordPress has already taken care of it. Since version 6.3, it automatically reverts a failed manual update of a plugin or theme, and since 6.6, it also reverts an automatic plugin update that results in a fatal error. If the issue is related to PHP, temporarily switch to a different version cPanel > Select PHP Version and read Update PHP Version. It's rarely necessary to restore WordPress core itself. If you do need to, you can do so using the WP Downgrade plugin or by modifying the folders wp-admin and wp-includes to replace it, and only temporarily.
Restoring a Full Backup
Restoring a backup is the right choice if you can’t figure out what’s broken, if multiple things are broken at the same time, or if the update modified your database. Just be aware that orders, form submissions, comments, and posts made after the backup was taken will be lost. For a WooCommerce online store, I therefore first export the new orders or restore only the files. When Managed WordPress Hosting You do this from the hosting control panel, but the current state isn't automatically saved, so be sure to make a backup yourself first. You can find instructions on how it works in Restore a backup. For minor errors on a page, there is undo changes.
After Recovery: Prevent It From Happening Again
Disabling or reverting a plugin is a temporary solution, not a permanent fix. If you leave it that way, you’ll miss out on security updates. Check the changelog or the support forum to see if the issue is known, and wait for a fix. Test the new version first on a staging environment and in the meantime, put Turn automatic updates on or off for that plugin only. If a plugin is no longer being updated, replace it with an alternative. You can find out how to choose one in the Guide to Plugins and Themes. In addition, I always work on things one at a time instead of all at once, and I make a backup beforehand. How to set up those backups is explained in the Guide to Backup and Migration. That way, you'll know right away which update is causing the problem. If you have an online store, test the checkout process after every update, or leave that to WooCommerce Management.
With our shared hosting plans, you have everything you need to resolve this on your own. cPanel includes File Manager, SSH, and WP-CLI, so you can rename a plugin folder without needing a separate FTP program. You can restore a backup for free using JetBackup 5—either for files or databases—and you can create a staging environment by cloning your installation in Installatron. If you’re on Surver Cloud, please contact support. If you’d rather not handle this yourself, Surver will restore the site within WordPress Management and from now on, we'll perform the updates for you every month. Read more Updating WordPress Safely and the maintenance checklist.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm not receiving a recovery mode email. What should I do?
First, check your spam folder and make sure the administrator's email address is listed under Settings > General is still correct. If you can't access the admin panel, rename the plugin folder using File Manager or FTP as described in step 2.
My site keeps showing “Temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.” What should I do?
Delete the file .maintenance in the root directory of your WordPress installation. That file is left behind if an update stops halfway through. I'll cover other messages that appear after an update in Troubleshooting WordPress Errors.
Can Surver restore my site after a failed update?
Yes, Surver does that as part of the maintenance subscription. As a hosting customer, you can also restore a backup yourself at no cost using JetBackup 5 in cPanel. If you have any questions, please email our support team.
