WordPress frequently recurring: 4GB Memory Exhaustion

Hello Support,

I am a developer managing my own dedicated server via SSH (no control panel limitations). I have a critical bug causing the theme to attempt a 4.29 GB memory allocation, crashing the site.
The Error: “Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 1073741824 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 4295229440 bytes) in …/wp-includes/theme.php…”

I’m pretty sure the crash is caused by the database option _site_transient_theme_roots. If I manually delete this key via SSH (wp option delete _site_transient_theme_roots), the site recovers immediately. However, the problem recurs frequently (about twice a week) when making random yet normal actions in wp panel.

My Server Specs and Configuration:
Hosting: Vultr VPS HFS
OS: Ubuntu 22.04
2 vCPUs
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 128 GB NVMe
Web Server: OpenLiteSpeed (OLS)
Database: MariaDB

PHP:
Version: 8.3
Memory Limit: 1024M
Max Input Vars: 10000
Max Execution & Input Time: 520
Post Max Size: 64M

Also, I’m using LSCache WP plugin, but most of the optimization settings are disabled to prevent conflict between Woodmart optimization settings.

Hello,

Thank you so much for contacting our support center.

To better assist you, could you kindly test the functionality with default WordPress themes such as TwentyTwenty or WooCommerce Storefront? This will help us determine whether the issue stems from our theme or elsewhere.

Regards

Hello,

Thank you for the response.

I previously used the Astra theme on this exact server setup. This error only started happening after I switched to Woodmart theme.

I cannot force the bug to happen on demand (because I’m not sure what triggers it), so leaving the default theme for testing can delay my development deadline for this website.

I have researched about that error on WordPress support and forums, but the solutions I saw weren’t relevant for my stack/setup.

Has your team encountered this ‘Memory Allocation’ error before? If so, how did you solve it, and what were the possible causes?

Thanks.

Hi Erik,

Thanks for the details. The _site_transient_theme_roots key you mentioned is a WordPress core transient, not something our theme writes or manages. That’s why we asked to compare with a default theme to confirm whether the problem is related to WoodMart or something else.

I recommend that you create a staging clone where you can isolate this problem and test it properly without harm to the production website.

Kind Regards

[Author]

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