Having trouble getting installed? Read this first

[charles@getsocietypress.org]

If your install didn’t go smoothly, the 90% case is one of these four things. Work through them before filing a new topic — it’s faster, and if you still need help, your topic will be that much more specific.

**1. HOSTING REQUIREMENTS**
Check /requirements/. SocietyPress needs PHP 8.1+, WordPress 6.0+, and MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6+. If your host is on PHP 7.4, the installer won’t run — and your host is also overdue for an upgrade.

**2. INSTALLER 404 OR TIMEOUT**
sp-installer.php needs to be at your domain’s document root, not in a subdirectory. If it times out downloading the bundle, your host’s PHP max_execution_time is probably set to 30 seconds — ask support to bump it to 300, or use the manual install path instead.

**3. DATABASE CREDENTIALS**
The installer asks for database name, user, password, and host. You create these in cPanel’s “MySQL Databases” tool first. If you haven’t done that yet, the installer will fail at the “connecting to database” step.

**4. WHITE SCREEN AFTER ACTIVATION**
Usually a PHP memory limit under 128 MB. Ask your host to bump it, or add this line to wp-config.php:

define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );

Still stuck? Start a new topic in this forum. Include:
– Your hosting provider
– Your PHP and WordPress versions
– The exact error message (copy-paste, don’t retype)
– Whether you used the installer or manual upload

The community here has seen most things. Someone will help.

— Charles

[Author]

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