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General Discussion

Posted by J A McRae
J A McRae
4,566 Points

My Portfolio WordPress site is still blank (after "Activating a Custom Theme" video)

Need some troubleshooting help here - can't figure out what I'm missing. Have followed all the available videos in the Building Templates for Wordpress chapter - but where Zak says 'And now you Should see This is the header. This is the front-page.php. This is the footer" I'm seeing nothing. And if if view my source code I see nothing either. :(

I've checked & rechecked my typing. I even went and copied the get_header() function from an existing WordPress theme to be sure I had no typos. I am able to visit a different wordPress site on my same localhost, so I know that localhost is working I am able to work in the Dashboard and Theme sections of my Portfolio site, so I know my database and MAMP are functioning. I did try to switch over to the default WordPress theme and still got blank screens, so I'm confident it has nothing to the actual theme files I'm building for the course, but must involve my WordPress install? If I can work fine with my site when in the Dashboard, what reasons could there be that I can't see files generated by the themes?

  • I've visited my permalinks page, thinking that might be it
  • I've even set my entire site to permissions 777 just to eliminate permissions as an option
  • deleted even the default plugins

I'm sure it's something simple, but can't work out what it might be.

1 Answer

J A McRae
J A McRae
4,566 Points
J A McRae
J A McRae
4,566 Points

I have since done a completely fresh install of WordPress on my localhost folder.

  • tested it before I moved in the Portfolio themes folder I built in the tutorial (works!)
  • moved in the theme files I built in the tutorial and activated that theme (works! - i see "This is the header This is the front-page.php file This is the footer" as expected.

So I can conclude it was the WordPress install. But what could it be that would cause the "white screen of death" on content pages, but not when working in the Admin pages? And would affect all themes.
I understand if this is beyond the scope of my membership, but I did want to followup since I brought up the question in the first place.

JA

Carrie Gildersleeve
Carrie Gildersleeve
9,609 Points
Carrie Gildersleeve
Carrie Gildersleeve
9,609 Points

Did you ever find the causality to the "white screen of death"? I am currently working through the same issue.

J A McRae
J A McRae
4,566 Points

Sorry Carrie, I never returned to the issue. Reinstalling WordPress solved the problem, so I know it wasn't in the theme files that I was creating here to take the course. And honestly I was too lazy to continue to try to eliminate possibilities in the WordPress install. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me one day ;)