Blank or Partially Rendered Pages

If at any time you encounter a blank page in the WHMCS system then this indicates a fatal PHP error is occurring. This page explains the common causes of such problems, how to identify and subsequently resolve them.

General

Error display is turned off by default for security so in order to see what error is occurring, you need to enable error display. First please ensure display_errors is enabled in the server's PHP configuration and enable the Setup > General Settings > Other tab > Display Errors option, then reproduce the blank page problem.

You should now see an error output to the screen. We have collected some of the most most common errors and their causes, refer to the appropriate page in the following sections:

If you are unable to access the admin area to enable this option, or you are running version 4 and earlier add the following line to your WHMCS configuration.php file instead and then reproduce the blank page problem. Once testing is complete, be sure to untick the option or remove the $display_errors line again from that file so that clients aren't getting warnings or errors.

$display_errors = true;

Often the error message will be explanatory enough for you to identify what the issue is. Common problems are errors in custom modules, hook code, template customisations & variables, or entirely missing/non-updated files.

Client Area Only

If the admin area is loading correctly and only the client area is blank this suggests the template folder missing or the /templates_c folder invalid path/not writeable.

To resolve this:

Re-select template under Setup > General Settings and clicking Save Changes.
Ensure the templates_c has the appropriate permissions/CHMOD and ownership values so it's writeable by the script (usually CHMOD 777).
If the /templates_c directory has been moved to a custom location ensure the path is correct in the configuration.php file. Your server admin/hosting provider will be able to confirm this.

Admin Login Page Only

The admin login page does not involve templates, so seeing a blank page here suggests a problem with the Ioncube configuration on your server. You can download the Ioncube Loader Wizard from http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php and upload to your whmcs directory, then visit it in your browser. Your server admin/hosting provider will need to resolve any errors it identifies.

If it reports Ioncube is installed correctly please ensure display_errors is enabled in the server's PHP configuration as this may be suppressing out error messages WHMCS is trying to output with the display_errors line in the configuration.php file detailed above.

Problematic custom widgets may also cause a blank page. Try removing any non-standard files from the /modules/widgets directory.

Admin Area Only

Blank pages in just the admin area are caused by renaming the 'admin' directory but not specifying the name name in the configuration.php file. Ensure this has been done as described in our documentation.

Redirect Pages Only

When blank pages are only occurring on redirect pages such as shopping cart redirect to payment gateway page, or upon client/admin login this means a blank space is being output by the configuration.php or an action hook file.

Review the configuration.php file and ensure there are no blank spaces or carriage returns outside the <?php and ?> tags. The same goes for the files in the /includes/hooks directory.

Blank Pages Elsewhere

If blank pages are occurring on all pages, please try all the above steps, particularly enabling display_errors. If none of the above resolves the issue review any custom files in the following locations and ensure there are no blank spaces or carriage returns outside the <?php and ?> tags:

/configuration.php
/includes/hooks/
/modules/admin/
/modules/addons/
/modules/registrars/
/modules/servers/
/modules/widgets/
/lang/
/lang/overrides/
/admin/lang/
/admin/lang/overrides/

It may be necessary to remove any custom files from these locations temporarily, if doing so resolves the issue then you can add them back one-by-one until the problem re-occurs, you can then contact the vendor of the offending file for a fix.

If none of the steps on this page fix the problem then please contact our support team for assistance. In your support ticket please include the attempts you have made to resolve the issue, instructions to reproduce the blank page and FTP/SFTP access.

Documentation