White reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Goldfields Open, the first ranking event of the season and played former schoolmate Jamie Jones. The match went to a decider after White had been 4–2 up and he made a 56 in it, before Jones cleared with 66 to win 5–4. His ranking title gave him entry into the Champion of Champions, where he lost 4–2 to Joe Perry in the first round and he suffered an opening round 6–5 loss to Sydney Wilson, a player ranked more than 100 places lower than White, at the UK Championship. However, at the Gibraltar Open he whitewashed reigning world champion Stuart Bingham to reach his first European Tour final, but was defeated 4–1 by Marco Fu. White played in his first Welsh Open quarter-final after knocking out John Higgins 4–1 and lost it 5–0 to Mark Allen.