Sorry to hear about your site going down plugin conflicts can do that, especially during formatting changes. Don’t worry, you can usually recover the site quickly. Here are the steps to get it back online:
Turn on WordPress Debug Mode (to see the exact error)
This will show you which plugin or file caused the crash.
Steps:
- Go to your hosting File Manager or connect through FTP.
- Open your site’s root folder → usually
public_html/
- Find the file named wp-config.php
- Add or modify these lines:
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
- This writes the error details into a file called:
/wp-content/debug.log
- You can open that file to see the exact plugin or theme causing the issue.
Disable the plugin that caused the crash
Most site crashes happen because a plugin conflicts with your theme or another plugin.
Since the site isn’t loading, you can disable it in one of these ways:
- Log in to cPanel / hosting file manager, go to:
wp-content/plugins/ and rename the folder of the plugin you changed.
Example: rename plugin-name to plugin-name-disabled.
- If you have FTP access, do the same using an FTP client.
Once the folder is renamed, WordPress will automatically deactivate the plugin, and your site should load again.
Note: Got some information from chatgpt.
The reason for the error should be visible in the error log. You can find it in your hosting area. If necessary, the support of your hosting can help you.
Alternatively, you could also enable debugging in WordPress. How to do this is described here: https://wordpress.org/support/article/debugging-in-wordpress/ – also here the support of your hosting can help you if necessary to edit the file accordingly.
In both cases you should be able to see what the cause is in the logfile.
