How to fix the GoDaddy white screen of death

If your website displays a blank white webpage and is hosted by GoDaddy you have what is referred to as the “GoDaddy white screen of death.” The GoDaddy white screen of death is a very common issue with websites hosted by GoDaddy. The blank white webpage issue with websites hosted by GoDaddy occurs on websites that have WordPress installed on them. It is most commonly linked to the fact that GoDaddy does not appropriately update PHP, or mention the fact that they provide outdated versions of PHP, therefor causing issues with your website and the current version of WordPress. The GoDaddy white screen of death can occur on every website you have hosted with GoDaddy that uses the WordPress content management service. In some cases you may be able to access your website for a certain amount of time only to eventually be greeted by a blank white webpage.

The GoDaddy white screen of death has caused many problems for many GoDaddy customers. It restricts access and traffic to the website, it can make you lose your work, and it can harm your SEO and rank on Google search results pages.

How to fix the GoDaddy white screen of death

• The most common way to fix the GoDaddy white screen of death is to contact support (https://www.godaddy.com/help?ci=) and demand them to update your PHP (or ask nicely). GoDaddy primarily uses outdated and obsolete versions of PHP that do not work alongside newer versions of WordPress as they are released. This is the most adequate way to fix the GoDaddy white screen of death and should take a few hours to completely fix your problem. You can use the GoDaddy chat support system or give them a call by using the support number usually provided at the top of their website: 1 (866) 463-2339.

Aside from an outdated version of PHP there are a number of given reasons why the GoDaddy white screen of death can occur.

• GoDaddy web hosting cannot handle your WordPress theme. You might want to change your theme and see if this is the issue. If this is the issue you should consider changing your WordPress theme to one that GoDaddy web hosting can appropriately handle or switch hosting providers to another service.
• GoDaddy web hosting cannot handle a plugin. You might want to disable plugins to see if this is the issue. If you found this to be the issue you should replace your faulty plugin or move your website to a hosting provider that is able to handle simple WordPress plugins.
• Gzip compression is enabled, but the /tmp directory is full (meaning the webpage output can’t compress and stops before sending it back to browser). This typically happens to all customers on a shared server, rather than a single customer. If this is the issue you must contact GoDaddy support.
• An opcode cache is in use (eAccelerator, APC, or other), however a script in WordPress is not suitable for caching. If this is the issue you must contact GoDaddy to add an exception to the .ini file to explicitly not cache files on your website.
• You might be hitting PHP’s memory_limit; that is, your WordPress site plus plugins create executable code that is too large to fit in the allotted memory space. GoDaddy may have specified a lower setting than you need.
• GoDaddy might be running suhosin or some other PHP security extension that might be blocking the execution of a script. If this is the issue you must contact GoDaddy and demand them to fix this.