I’m sure you’ve probably at least heard of Genesis – no, I’m not talking about my blog.  I’m referring to the WordPress theme.  I use the Genesis Framework on nearly every one of my personal sites, and nearly every site I build for clients too!

What is a framework theme?

A framework is where you have the ‘guts’ (for the lack of a better term) that run the theme installed separately on your site, and is referred to from within a child theme.  The child theme is where you get the look and design elements of your site.

So Genesis acts as a framework of files that works behind the scenes, in conjunction with the activated child theme on your site, to give your site the full functions and features of both the Genesis framework, and the design and look from the child theme.

So you need to have both the Genesis framework and the child theme installed in your theme folder for WordPress; but you only activate the child theme.

Upgrading is a breeze with Genesis

If you’ve had a custom theme designed, and for whatever reason your theme stops working with the latest version of WordPress – you either have to pay the web designer more money to upgrade your theme to make it work; or if it’s already a premium non-framework theme, and an upgrade is released, you could lose your customizations when upgrading.  Or you use one of the default themes for WordPress (Twenty-Ten or Twenty-Eleven), and you upgrade – you could easily lose all of your customizations.  It’s a nightmare!

But with the Genesis framework, the framework is what gets upgraded and keeps the theme working properly with WordPress (and keeps up with WordPress’ updates and near functions and features) and your child theme remains untouched – your customizations intact.

Learn more about the Genesis Framework

There is a lot more to know about the Genesis framework.  Why not click here to download The Genesis Guide for Absolute Beginners (PDF – 1.4 MB) to learn more about the Genesis framework, child themes, the SEO functionality of Genesis and more.

To YOUR Success,

P.S. If you would rather let professionals install Genesis and a child theme for you, check out my QuickSourcing™ services – me and my Team can do it for you.

On nearly all my own sites, including nearly all sites I create for clients, I use the Genesis framework with child themes to get the layout and look wanted.

I love the flexibility of Genesis with child themes. They are very well coded, easy to use and so flexible!

I personally own the StudioPress Pro licence, well worth the $299 I paid.  However, the price on that package is going up on January 31, 2012.  If you hurry, you can get 10% off the $299 price!!

This is rare, truly – StudioPress doesn’t put out coupons often.

Buy StudioPress Pro today, and use coupon code TEN to get 10% off.

WordPress is awesome; until it isn’t.  Upgrades can really mess up a site and cause all sorts of weird error messages.  Believe me, at some point since I started using WordPress in 2003, I’ve seen just about every error message WordPress can throw at me.

Yesterday was no exception.  I had a client’s site using the Wishlist Member plugin.  I got a couple emails saying whenever they would try to login, they were redirected to a blank white screen.  What was worse, is that it wasn’t doing that for me, when I was logged in as the admin.

In this case, the site had not been recently upgraded, and there were some upgrades available – so I first backed up everything (never forget this step!) and then I upgraded WordPress, all the plugins and themes.

That fixed it!   Could have been a plugin was using an upgraded version that wasn’t compatible with the out-of-date version of  Wordpress, and that caused a conflict.  Not sure.

Other Causes of the WordPress White Screen of Death

1. Failed upgrades.  

In most cases, this happens if you do not deactivate all the plugins before you upgrade.  I know there’s that handy little Upgrade Now link that WordPress provides, but I for the life of me do not understand why they offer that, without it also backing up your files and deactivating the plugins as they tell you to!

Another way upgrades fail is that not all files are properly copied over.

This is why manually upgrading WordPress is always best.

2. Incompatible Plugins

The second most common reason for the blank white screen is an incompatible plugin.  Sometimes you will get the blank white screen and will be completely locked out of your wp-admin!  Don’t panic – simply log into your site via FTP, or your hosting cpanel file manager, and rename the plugins folder to something like plugins2. This will automatically deactivate all of your plugins. Then rename the folder back to it’s original name:  plugins.

If your issue was an incompatible plugin, you should now be able to log into your wp-admin.

How Re-Activate Your Plugins to Find the Incompatible Plugin

1. Log into the wp-admin area of your site.
2. Right mouse click on another tab in the left column of your wp-admin and open in a NEW TAB.  So you should have two browser window tabs open; one open to the Installed Plugins tab and another to any other area of your wp-admin of your choosing (doesn’t matter).
3. One at a time, click to activate a plugin.
4. Refresh that second browser window tab, to see if you get the blank white screen.  If not, move on to the next plugin and repeat the above steps.  If you do get the blank white screen, you know that the last plugin you reactivated is the culprit.
5. Log into your site via FTP, or your hosting cpanel file manager, and rename the file for the specific culprit plugin to deactivate just that plugin.
6. Refresh your second browser window tab again to see if that fixed the issue.
7. Continue re-activating plugins, following the steps above until all are reactivated (or culprit plugin folders renamed), as there could be more than one incompatible plugin.

3. Incompatible Themes

Sometimes, it’s a theme that is no longer compatible with a new WordPress upgrade. Although this issue usually does not result in the white screen of death, but weird error codes visible on your site.

So if the above two solutions do not eliminate your blank white screen issue, try switching to the Twenty Ten or Twenty Eleven theme and see if that resolves the issue for you.  If you are unable to access your wp-admin to switch themes, log into your site via FTP, or your hosting cpanel file manager, and rename the themes folder to something like themes2.  This will deactivate the current theme; rename the folder back to themes and now the Twenty Ten or Twenty Eleven default theme will be activated.  If the issue is resolved, you know it was your previously active theme.  Either see if an upgrade for your theme is available, or switch to a different permanent theme.

Hope you found this helpful!

Did any of the steps above fix your blank white screen of death WordPress problem?