How to Find and Access WordPress Error Logs? A Comprehensive Guide 2025

In the digital era of website management, encountering errors is mandatory. Whether you’re a blogger, seasoned developer, or novice WordPress user, understanding how to find and access WordPress error logs can make it easy to fix any WordPress error.

This informative guide will walk you through the best-proven methods to easily access WordPress error logs and provide valuable insights and practical solutions to help you diagnose and easily resolve issues.

What is an  Error Logs? When can WordPress Error Logs Help?

Error logs are like a list of error messages and are the most important diagnostic tool on your WordPress website. WordPress error logs record crucial information about errors, warnings, and other events happening behind the scenes of your WordPress website and the dates and times they occurred. To harness the power of error logs, follow these steps:

When can WordPress error logs help?

If you are facing problems with your WordPress website, checking the WordPress error logs of your website can help you easily find the cause of the issue, such as plugin conflicts, site performance errors, site crashes, or a white screen of death. Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page.

Enable WordPress Debug Mode Using Plugin

WordPress will not log any errors because debugging is off by default in WordPress. If you can still log into your WordPress dashboard, you can enable debug mode using the plugin in the WP dashboard.

To enable WordPress debug mode, you need to install the WP Debugging plugin.

Once you activate the plugin, the WP Debugging plugin automatically activates WordPress debug mode; after that, error messages on your website will now be logged. Where you can easily find the cause of the issue,

Enable WordPress Debug Mode Using Code

WordPress comes with its own debugging system, where you can easily identify code errors in themes, plugins and core software

To Activate Debug Mode: Enabling the WordPress debug mode can provide more detailed error information. 

To do this, open the `wp-config.php` file again and find the line that says, “That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing!” Just before this line, go ahead and add the following code: Check out how to find wp-config.php 

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);`. Change “false” to “true” to enable the debug mode.

How do I access the WordPress Error Logs?

Once you have activated the WordPress error log using any of the above methods, any future errors that occur on your website will be recorded in the error log.

Whenever an error occurs, the errors are stored in the error log. The first time you enable and check the error log, it will be empty.

So that means you have to wait until the error occurs; when the error occurs, it will automatically be stored in the error log file.

To access the WordPress Error Logs, you will need access to the FTP client or the File Manager. You can easily access the error log using one of these 

Here we use File Manager; log in to your hosting cPanel Dashboard. Once you open File Manager, navigate to the wp-content folder and click on it. Inside the folder, you will see the debug. This file contains crucial information about errors, warnings,

Step-1 The first step is to access your website’s files through the File Manager. 

Step-2 Locate the File Manager in the Files section.

Step-3  Next, select public_html, click on it, and select the “wp-content” folder.

Step-4 In the “wp-content” folder, locate the “debug.log” you will need to download, view, or edit it.

In an error log file, you can easily inspect error messages along with the date and time when they occurred.

Once you inspect the error log, you will know what error is occurring on your WordPress site.Generally, this is a list of major errors that keep happening on WordPress sites.

• “There Has Been a Critical Error on Your Website”
• Fix HTTP Error When Uploading Images to WordPress
• How to Fix an Error Establishing a Database Connection WordPress

Note: In the WordPress Error Log,  the times displayed are UTC, not your local time.

Once you know about the error on your site. If you don’t understand something, you can ask for help from your web hosting provider.

Once you have fixed an error on your WordPress site, please disable Debug Mode.If you do not do this then it will affect your website.

Deactivate WP Debugging plugin

If you are enabling WordPress debug mode using code, you need to do this
Change WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG lines from true to false

Conclusion

Understanding how to access WordPress error logs is a valuable skill. These logs serve as your insight into the inner workings of your WordPress site, helping you identify and resolve errors efficiently. Whether you choose to enable debug mode through a plugin or by editing code, accessing error logs via FTP or cPanel’s File Manager, this guide has equipped you with the knowledge needed to navigate the world of WordPress errors.

FAQ- Section on WordPress Error Logs