---
title: Intermittent critical error that fixes itself
description: "Your WordPress site sometimes shows 'There has been a critical error' and then starts working again on its own, with no deploy or plugin change behind it.…"
url: "https://homerunner.io/docs/why-does-my-wordpress-site-show-there-has-been-a-critical-error-intermittently-a/"
updated: "2026-10-26"
category: General
---

# Intermittent critical error that fixes itself

Your WordPress site sometimes shows 'There has been a critical error' and then starts working again on its own, with no deploy or plugin change behind it.

**Why this happens.** An error that appears and clears by itself is usually not a fault in your site's code. The common cause is a request that takes longer than the server's PHP time limit and is killed mid-page. WordPress reports this as a critical error.

**How to diagnose it.** Check the PHP error log for lines reading 'PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of N seconds exceeded in wp-includes/class-wpdb.php'. That message means the page was still waiting on a database query when the time limit ran out. It points at how long queries are taking on the server, not at a broken plugin or theme.

Still stuck? [Contact the HomeRunner team](https://homerunner.io/contact/) with your site address and what you tried, and we take it from there.