WordPress recovery mode is a core feature introduced since WordPress 5.2. It aims to make it easier for you to fix fatal errors on your site and bring your WordPress site back online quickly. You don’t need to enable this feature manually as it is enabled by default. It will trigger whenever WordPress detects any code that will break your site. The problematic code could be from any plugin or theme you have installed or your own custom code edits.
WordPress will try to automatically pause the code that’s causing problems. WordPress will just show a simple message on the frontend of your site that says
“There has been a critical error on this website” .
If you try to access the WordPress dashboard, you will see following error:
“There has been a critical error on this website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions.”
And it will send you an email about the fatal error on your site and a special link in this email to open your dashboard in recovery mode. Note that is link to access your WordPress dashboard in Recovery mode is active for 24 hours from the time that the email was sent. Don’t worry about that though, a new link will be emailed to you if the error occurs again after it expires.
Once you’re logged into your site in recovery mode, you’ll see the Exit Recovery Mode link with red background on the WordPress toolbar. WordPress will also informs what’s going wrong in the Dashboard. Meanwhile you can check the email that WordPress sent you which also includes details on the error WordPress has caught, whether it is about your plugins, themes or custom codes.
If it was an error due to custom codes edits, you can simply redo the changes you have mode to the files you have just edited. If the fatal error occurs after updating or installing some plugin or theme, you can simply deactivate the plugin or change another theme to quickly bring your WordPress site back online so you can take your time to fix the problem(s) that triggered the error. You may also want to contact your host, theme vendor, plugin developer for assistance with investigating the issue further. Once you’ve fixed the problem, you can click the Exit Recovery Mode link in WordPress dashboard and your site should start working as before again.
