Title: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Parse error: syntax error, unexpected

 *  [scanner737](https://wordpress.org/support/users/scanner737/)
 * (@scanner737)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-syntax-error-unexpected-31/)
 * I made ONE tiny change to my comments.php file within WordPress, as soon as I
   did that the entire site crashed and any page I try to go to gives me the same
   error. I didn’t know such a tiny change could disrupt your entire site and every
   page all at once.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [flamenco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/flamenco/)
 * (@flamenco)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-syntax-error-unexpected-31/#post-2235853)
 * It definitely can, believe me, I’ve done it, and I’m pretty experienced. I love
   WP, but sooner or later, if you want to make significant changes, PHP must be
   touched, which has an element of risk.
 * When things have gotten really messed up, I’ve fixed things by getting my original
   theme files and uploading them again via FTP. Hopefully you have a copy of your
   theme files somewhere, and you can re-upload comments.php. That should fix it
   quickly.
 * But no, there’s no absolutely certain way to assure that this won’t happen if
   you edit any PHP file.
 * good luck.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Parse error: syntax error, unexpected’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [parse-error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/parse-error/)
 * [syntax error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/syntax-error/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [flamenco](https://wordpress.org/support/users/flamenco/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-syntax-error-unexpected-31/#post-2235853)
 * Status: not resolved

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