Topic
Fixes for the errors that take a WordPress site down.
Troubleshooting
The message is deliberately vague because it is shown to visitors. The actual error is in the log, and recovery mode will email you the file and line that failed.
Troubleshooting
A blank screen, an endless spinner, or a page that will not save almost always traces back to a blocked REST API request or a JavaScript error. Work through causes in order of likelihood rather than guessing.
Troubleshooting
Removing malware is the easy half. The half people skip is proving it is gone, and every scanner type is blind to something the others catch.
Website Tools
Putting a proxy in front of WordPress solves real problems and introduces a specific set of new ones — redirect loops, mixed content, cached logged-in pages and a visitor IP that is no longer the visitor.
WooCommerce
Filters fail in three distinct ways: nothing happens, everything disappears, or the results are wrong. Each points at a different layer — the query, the attribute data, or a cache serving a filtered page to everybody.
WooCommerce
Free shipping is a method inside a zone, gated by a requirement. When it does not appear, the customer's address matched a different zone, the minimum was calculated on a different total, or a cached session is holding an old rate.
WooCommerce
Endpoints like /my-account/orders/ are not real pages — they are rewrite rules on top of one page. When they 404 or render blank, the cause is the rewrite table, a missing shortcode or block, or a page assignment.
Troubleshooting
When a site works everywhere except one browser, the site is usually fine. Prove where the fault lives with four tests, then fix the extension, the cache, the certificate or the CSS that only that browser cares about.
Troubleshooting
Mixed content means an HTTPS page is pulling something over HTTP. The padlock disappears, scripts get blocked outright, and the fix is to correct the stored URLs rather than to rewrite them on every request.
Troubleshooting
Two rows in wp_options decide which theme is active. Editing them works, but it is the third thing to try — not the first — and never without a backup.
Troubleshooting
A page that will not scroll is almost never a WordPress fault. Something left a scroll lock switched on, and the cure is to find what opened it rather than to force the page open with CSS.
Troubleshooting
If the page renders publicly but the editor is empty, your content is safe and the editor is what failed. That distinction decides the entire diagnosis, and it takes one browser tab to establish.