How do you clear a WordPress fatal error caused by a plugin?

If the error names a file inside wp-content/plugins, that plugin is the first place to look. Rename its folder so WordPress cannot load it, then load the site again. On WordPress 5.2 and newer, recovery mode may email the admin a link that lets you in without FTP. Use that link if you have it. The folder method below is for when you do not.

These steps match a current WordPress admin. The note was first published on November 19, 2016. The failure itself has not changed. A plugin, or the theme, throws a fatal error while WordPress is loading, and the front end is a white screen or a short message that includes the word plugins and a file path.

Recovery mode first

WordPress will often email the site admin when a plugin crashes. The message includes a recovery link. Open it, sign in, and deactivate the plugin named in the email. If the email never arrived, or the error happens before WordPress can send one, use FTP or the host’s file manager.

The plugins folder

1. Connect to the account with SFTP or the host’s file manager. You want the directory that contains wp-content, not a random folder higher up.
2. Open wp-content and rename plugins to plugins-off. WordPress will boot without plugins. If it still fails, the theme is the next suspect. Rename the active theme’s folder inside wp-content/themes so WordPress falls back to a default theme. You may need to upload a default theme if the account has none.
3. When the site loads, rename plugins-off back to plugins, but rename each plugin directory inside it so the folder name does not match the original, for example by adding -off. Reactivate your theme if you changed it. The site should load with every plugin inactive.
4. Restore one plugin folder name at a time and reload the site, with the browser cache cleared. The plugin you restored just before the error returns is the one that is broken.
5. Leave that folder renamed, or deactivate and delete the plugin from the dashboard once you can get in. Deleting from the dashboard lets the plugin run its own uninstall. Deleting the folder in SFTP skips that. If the plugin came from a developer you can reach, tell them what the error said.

Do not install a replacement plugin from a search result just because the name sounds similar. That is how a second copy of the same problem arrives. If you want the behavior written for this site, that is custom plugin work, and it belongs in a web application or rescue scope.

The host can also do the file rename if you cannot. ParsonsHosting is the hosting company next to this studio, and WordPress hosting is where that request starts. The repair of the theme or the plugin is Steelbridge work.