New wordpress is a blank site

If there is no .htaccess file, add one at the root level (or in the directory where you have wordpress installed)

Create a simple text file (don’t use a rich text editor) with the following:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

and call it whatever you like, then when uploaded rename it .htaccess
give it permissions 644

There should be one, but maybe it couldn’t be created automatically. See if doing so returns the blog to normal display.

(It looks like IIS rather than Apache, so wouldn’t have an .htaccess)

Sorry buddah, it didn’t work. I did try deleting everything (including the database) and starting over… same problem. Could this be happening because I setup my database incorrectly? Just a guess.

Did you install it through CPanel or any other software?

I did not use CPanel or phpMyAdmin. Dotster just has a button that says add new database, choose the type of database (MySQL, MqSQL 5 or MS SQL) and then I’m entering the database name and username/password. I chose MySQL as my database type. Now there is an option to go into phpMyAdmin once I click on the created database, but what I see in there is WAY over my head.

@aabel – See if this article helps you
https://www.velvetblues.com/web-development-blog/my-wordpress-blog-is-blank/

Make sure all the files are uploaded (maybe the server timed out and something is missing)

Plugins and themes are not your issue, since you said you didn’t add any…

The problem could also be in the wp-config file, if there is an empty line added (especially at the bottom) while you were configuring it.

Here is another article mentioning also a possible memory problem, with a fix in wp-settings
https://www.hightechdad.com/2009/06/10/fixing-blank-empty-or-white-wordpress-pages-after-upgrade/

To my knowledge (and I’ve re-uploaded the files now from my home internet connection instead of my work connection just in case that was timing out) all the files are uploaded. Velvetblues.com suggests to upload the .zip file and unpack it on the server… I don’t have the option to do that with FileZilla.

Strangely I found that my wp-config file did not have ?> at the end of it! I just downloaded the newest update yesterday so that troubles me. Is there any word that the newest version is corrupt? Anyway, I made sure there was no carriage return after the ?>

The change in the memory didn’t work. I’m just going to have to pay someone to do this for me I guess. Perhaps I’ll try the guy who wrote the hightechdad post. Thank you for troubleshooting with me. Once I find out the problem I will let yall know.

@aabel – I just downloaded a fresh copy of 2.8.6 and you are right, the closing ?> is missing from the wp-config file!!!
When upgrading, the original file is not overwritten, so my latest version worked just fine. I’ll try to notify this.

Of course, you have renamed wp-config-sample.php into wp-config.php, right?

Another option you could try, is to start with an earlier version, get is running, and then do the automatic upgrade. Maybe it will work that way and there is something faulty with the latest full version download…

Try with 2.8.5 here https://www.ads-software.com/download/release-archive/
but then “upgrade” to 2.8.6 because there is a security fix.

Hope this helps.

Please, disregard my post above. The missing ?> closing tag from wp-config in 2.8.6 is not an error. It was done on purpose, as clarified here
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/335570?replies=3