How to Put Your WordPress Site in Safe Mode For Quick Troubleshooting
When you run into issues with your WordPress site, you may be tempted to just turn it off entirely and spend hours troubleshooting the problem. But there’s actually an easier way. Putting your WordPress site in safe mode for quick troubleshooting will temporarily turn off all third-party plugins and themes to see if any of them are causing your issues so you can solve them quickly and easily.
Turn on Safe Mode for Quick Troubleshooting
Perhaps back in the day, the most common solution was to deactivate plugins, then work your way down the list until you found the culprit. Or just switch over to the default theme and see if that helped at any. While this is still a good idea that may work for some. For others, having a plugin that takes care of everything is a better and quicker solution.
Safe Mode is a fantastic plugin for when you need to troubleshoot a WordPress site. It’s perfect for when you don’t want any extraneous things – like plugins or themes – getting in the way. Just turn it on, clear your cache, and start fresh!
Safe mode will turn off all of your plugins and activate a default theme to help you get back on your feet.
How To Access Safe Mode for Quick Troubleshooting after Activating the Plugin
After activating the plugin, all you have to do is add “?safe_mode=1″ to the URL of any page, and voila! You’ll be in safe mode for that view only. Of course, like a boss.
The most common pages you would want to check while troubleshooting is:
- The Login Page: http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/?safe_mode=1
- The Theme Management Page: http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/themes.php?safe_mode=1
- The Plugin Management Page: http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?safe_mode=1
Temporary Solution
Maybe you’ve been tinkering with some code and suddenly found yourself looking at a blank screen, or maybe you have no idea what happened to your website. Luckily, when things go wrong with WordPress sites the Safe Mode will come to the rescue. When activated, it temporarily activates either Twenty Twelve, Twenty Eleven, or Twenty Ten. So you’ll want to make sure to keep those themes on your installation even if you’re not using them.
This temporary mode will let you view the problem without making any additional changes and save time on remembering which plugins are active and what theme settings are in place.
Conclusion
When troubleshooting, we often have to be quick. So turn on Safe Mode with a click of a button and get back up and running before you know it!
It’s always good to have several backups in case something goes wrong with your site. Safe Mode lets you choose from one of three available themes to help diagnose the problem. This mode is like a stopgap measure. Giving you a quick look at the issue before any more permanent damage is done and allowing you to quickly change any settings that may be causing it.
For more WordPress, free step-by-step tutorials visit our dedicated WordPress tutorials section (You can find more tutorials like 7 Ways to Fix the ‘Sorry You Are Not Allowed To Access This Page’ WordPress Error) and check our WordPress hosting providers guide if you are still looking for a host to start your blog.
