The dreaded 500 internal server error. Information technology always seems to come at the almost inopportune time and you're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust united states of america, we've all been in that location. Other errors that bear similarly that y'all might take also seen include the frightening error establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of expiry. But from the moment your site goes down, you're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention information technology merely looks bad for your brand.

Today nosotros're going to swoop into the 500 internal server error and walk yous through some ways to get your site back online apace. Read more below nearly what causes this mistake and what you can do to forestall it in the future.

  • What is a 500 internal server fault?
  • How to fix the 500 internal server fault

Check Out Our Ultimate Guide to Fixing the 500 Internal Server Error

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Net Engineering Chore Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error as:

The 500 (Internal Server Mistake) status code indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

When you visit a website your browser sends a request over to the server where the site is hosted. The server takes this asking, processes information technology, and sends back the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP also includes what they call an HTTP condition code. A status code is a way to notify you about the status of the request. It could be a 200 status lawmaking which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone wrong.

At that place are a lot of different types of 500 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something unlike. In this example, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the asking(RFC 7231, section six.6.i).

500 internal server error in WordPress
500 internal server error in WordPress

500 Internal Server Mistake Variations

Due to the various spider web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server error tin present itself in a number of different ways. Just they are all communicating the same thing. Below are just a couple of the many unlike variations you might run into on the spider web:

    • "500 Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Mistake"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Mistake"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Fault"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Pitiful something went incorrect."
    • "500. That'southward an error. There was an fault. Please attempt again after. That's all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this asking. HTTP ERROR 500."

Yous might also meet this message accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your asking. Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might take done that may have caused the error. More data about this fault may be bachelor in the server mistake log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you might but come across a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is actually quite common in browsers like Firefox and Safari.

500 internal server error in Firefox
500 internal server error in Firefox

Bigger brands might fifty-fifty take their own custom 500 internal server fault messages, such equally this one from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server mistake

Here is another creative 500 server error example from the folks over at readme.

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

Even the mighty YouTube isn't safe from 500 internal server errors.

500 internal server error on YouTube
500 internal server error on YouTube

If it's an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have additional HTTP condition codes to more than closely point the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting down on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the spider web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is too decorated.
  • 500.xv – Direct requests for global.asax are not immune.
  • 500.xix – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module non recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.NET httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline style.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.Cyberspace impersonation configuration does non apply in Managed Pipeline way.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A configuration or entering rule execution error occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite mistake occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global rule execution mistake occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification handling. An outbound rule execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound dominion execution error occurred. The rule is configured to be executed earlier the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Bear on on SEO

Dissimilar 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance manner and tell Google to cheque back at a later on time, a 500 fault can accept a negative touch on on SEO if non stock-still correct away. If your site is only downwardly for say 10 minutes and it's being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will only go the page delivered from cache. Or Google might not fifty-fifty have a risk to re-crawl it earlier it's support. In this scenario, yous're completely fine.

Nevertheless, if the site is down for an extended catamenia of time, say 6+ hours, then Google might run across the 500 error equally a site level issue that needs to be addressed. This could touch on your rankings. If you're worried about repeat 500 errors you should figure out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below can help.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you first troubleshooting when you see a 500 internal server error on your WordPress site? Sometimes you lot might not even know where to begin. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, only from our experience, these errors originate from ii things, the kickoff isuser error (customer-side result), and the second is that at that place is a problem with the server. So we'll dive into a little of both.

Check out these common causes and ways to fix the 500 internal server error and go dorsum up and running in no time.

1. Endeavor Reloading the Page

This might seem a little obvious to some, but one of the easiest and get-go things y'all should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to just expect a minute or then and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could be that the host or server is simply overloaded and the site will come up right back. While you're waiting, you could also speedily effort a different browser to rule that out as an outcome.

Some other affair you lot tin practice is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website volition tell you lot if the site is downward or if information technology'southward a problem on your side. A tool like this checks the HTTP status code that is returned from the server. If information technology'south anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" then it volition return a downwards indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've too noticed that sometimes this can occur immediately after you update a plugin or theme on your WordPress site. Typically this is on hosts that aren't ready properly. What happens is they feel a temporary timeout right later on. Withal, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you need to do.

ii. Clear Your Browser Enshroud

Clearing your browser enshroud is ever another practiced troubleshooting step before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to clear cache in the various browsers:

  • How to Forcefulness Refresh a Single Folio for All Browsers
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Google Chrome
  • How to Articulate Browser Enshroud for Mozilla Firefox
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Safari
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Internet Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Opera

3. Bank check Your Server Logs

Yous should also take advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta client, you can easily see errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help y'all rapidly narrow downwards the issue, especially if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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Check error logs for 500 internal server errors
Check error logs for 500 internal server errors

If your host doesn't accept a logging tool, yous can also enable WordPress debugging mode past calculation the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

          ascertain( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

The logs are typically located in the /wp-content directory. Others, similar hither at Kinsta might have a dedicated folder called "logs".

WordPress error logs folder (SFTP)
WordPress error logs binder (SFTP)

You can also check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are commonly located hither:

  • Apache: /var/log/apache2/error.log
  • Nginx: /var/log/nginx/mistake.log

If you're a Kinsta client you lot can also take advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakup of the total number of 500 errors and come across how often and when they are occurring. This can help you troubleshoot if this is an ongoing result, or possibly something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response assay 500 error breakdown

If the 500 error is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, y'all tin also endeavour enabling PHP fault reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the mistake. Typically you can narrow downwards the file in the console tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

          ini_set('display_errors', i); ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1); error_reporting(E_ALL);

And you lot might need to also modify your php.ini file with the post-obit:

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connection

500 internal server errors can also occur from a database connexion error. Depending upon your browser you might see different errors. But both will generate a 500 HTTP status code regardless in your server logs.

Below is an example of what an "error establishing a database connection" bulletin looks like your browser. The entire page is blank because no information can be retrieved to render the folio, every bit the connection is not working properly. Non only does this intermission the front-stop of your site, but it will besides prevent you lot from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

Example of error establishing a database connection
Example of error establishing a database connectedness

So why exactly does this happen? Well, here are a few common reasons below.

  • The well-nigh common result is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. Your WordPress site uses separate login information to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With so many moving parts with themes, plugins, and users constantly deleting and installing them, sometimes databases get corrupted. This tin can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or mayhap some information was deleted past accident.
  • Yous may have corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Bug with your database server. A number of things could be incorrect on the web hosts stop, such as the database being overloaded from a traffic fasten or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is really quite mutual with shared hosts equally they are utilizing the aforementioned resources for a lot of users on the same servers.

Check out our in-depth mail on how to gear up the mistake establishing a database connexion in WordPress.

5. Check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-party plugins and themes can easily cause 500 internal server errors. Nosotros've seen all types cause them hither at Kinsta, from slider plugins to ad rotator plugins. A lot of times you should see the error immediately later installing something new or running an update. This is ane reason why we ever recommend utilizing a staging environment for updates or at to the lowest degree running updates ane by one. Otherwise, if you encounter a 500 internal server error y'all're suddenly scrambling to effigy out which one caused it.

A few means you lot tin can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Call back, you lot won't lose any data if you simply deactivate a plugin. If you lot can still access your admin, a quick way to practise this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the bulk actions bill of fare. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the issue yous'll need to observe the culprit. Start activating them one by one, reloading the site after each activation. When you see the 500 internal server error render, you've found the misbehaving plugin. Yous tin can then reach out to the plugin developer for aid or postal service a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you can't login to WordPress admin y'all can FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something like plugins_old. Then check your site again. If it works, then you will demand to test each plugin ane by one. Rename your plugin folder dorsum to "plugins" so rename each plugin binder within of if information technology, ane by one, until yous discover information technology. You could also endeavor to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Ever makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are upwards to date. And cheque to ensure y'all are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a conflict with bad code in a plugin, you might need to bring in a WordPress programmer to fix the issue.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files can get corrupted, peculiarly on older sites. It's actually quite like shooting fish in a barrel to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. Nosotros accept an in-depth guide with v different ways to reinstall WordPress. And of form, make sure to take a fill-in earlier proceeding. Skip to one of the sections below:

  • How to reinstall WordPress from the WordPress dashboard while preserving existing content
  • How to manually reinstall WordPress via FTP while preserving existing content
  • How to manually reinstall WordPress via WP-CLI while preserving existing content

vii. Permissions Fault

A permissions fault with a file or folder on your server tin as well cause a 500 internal server error to occur. Here are some typical recommendations for permissions when it comes to file and folder permissions in WordPress:

  • All files should be 644 (-rw-r–r–) or 640.
  • All directories should be 755 (drwxr-xr-x) or 750.
  • No directories should ever be given 777, fifty-fifty upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could also exist set to 440 or 400 to prevent other users on the server from reading information technology.

See the WordPress Codex article on changing file permissions for a more in-depth caption.

Y'all can easily see your file permissions with an FTP customer (as seen below). You could also reach out to your WordPress host support team and ask them to quickly GREP file permissions on your folders and files to ensure they're setup properly.

File permissions SFTP
File permissions SFTP

eight. PHP Retentivity Limit

A 500 internal server fault could also be caused by exhausting the PHP retention limit on your server. You could endeavour increasing the limit. Follow the instructions below on how to change this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increase PHP Retentiveness Limit in cPanel

If yous're running on a host that uses cPanel, you lot can hands change this from the UI. Under Software click on "Select PHP Version."

Select PHP version
Select PHP version

Click on "Switch to PHP Options."

Switch to PHP options
Switch to PHP options

Yous tin can then click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. So click on "Salvage."

Increase PHP memory limit in cPanel
Increase PHP retentiveness limit in cPanel

Increase PHP Memory Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains diverse settings you can use to modify the server behavior, right down to a directory specific level. First login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a wait at your root directory and encounter if in that location is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If at that place is you lot can edit that file to add together the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Most likely it is ready at 64M or below, you can try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in php.ini File

If the above doesn't work for you might endeavor editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, go to your site's root directory and open up or create a php.ini file.

php.ini file
php.ini file

If the file was already there, search for the three settings and alter them if necessary. If you just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be found y'all can paste the lawmaking beneath. You can alter of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

Some shared hosts might besides require that you add together the suPHP directive in your .htaccess file for the in a higher place php.ini file settings to work. To do this, edit your .htaccess file, also located at the root of your site, and add together the post-obit code towards the top of the file:

          <IfModule mod_suphp.c>  suPHP_ConfigPath /domicile/yourusername/public_html </IfModule>

If the above didn't work for you, it could be that your host has the global settings locked down and instead accept information technology configured to apply .user.ini files. To edit your .user.ini file, login to your site via FTP or SSH, become to your site'southward root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. You tin can then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Retention Limit in wp-config.php

The last option is not one nosotros are fans of, merely if all else fails you tin can requite it a become. First, log in to your site via FTP or SSH, and locate your wp-config.php file, which is typically in the root of your site.

wp-config.php file
wp-config.php file

Add together the post-obit code to the top of your wp-config.php file:

          define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '128M');

Yous can also enquire your host if you're running into memory limit problems. We utilize New Relic and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to help clients narrow downwards what plugin, query, or script might exist exhausting the limit. You can also utilise your own custom New Relic central.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

ix. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta just uses Nginx, but if you're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem or has become corrupted. Follow the steps below to recreate a new i from scratch.

First, log in to your site via FTP or SSH, and rename your .htaccess file to .htaccess_old.

Rename .htaccess file
Rename .htaccess file

Usually to recreate this file you can just re-save your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you're in the centre of a 500 internal server fault y'all most likely tin't access your WordPress admin, and then this isn't an option. Therefore you can create a new .htaccess file and input the following contents. Then upload it to your server.

          # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^alphabetize\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # Finish WordPress

See the WordPress Codex for more examples, such as a default .htaccess file for multisite.

10. Coding or Syntax Errors in Your CGI/Perl Script

500 errors beingness caused by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than information technology used to be. Although it's withal worth mentioning, peculiarly for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts still beingness used. Equally AEM on Stack Overflow says:

CGI has been replaced past a vast diverseness of spider web programming technologies, including PHP, various Apache extensions like mod_perl, Java of various flavors and frameworks including Java EE, Struts, Spring, etc, Python-based frameworks like Django, Ruby on Rails and many other Ruby frameworks, and various Microsoft technologies.

Hither are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

  • When editing, e'er used a plain text editor, such as Atom, Sublime, or Notepad++. This ensures they remain in ASCII format.
  • Ensure correct permissions of chmod 755 are used on CGI scripts and directories.
  • Upload your CGI scripts in ASCII way (which you can select in your FTP editor) into the cgi-bin directory on your server.
  • Ostend that the Perl modules yous require for your script are installed and supported.

11. Server Issue (Cheque With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors tin can as well occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with tertiary-party plugins, you tin can always cheque with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can be hard to troubleshoot without an expert. Here are just a few common examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP status codes on the server that might have you scratching your caput.

          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal fault: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of type WP_Error equally assortment in /www/folder/web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

We monitor all customer's sites here at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows us to be pro-agile and offset fixing the issue right away. We also utilize LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This means that every WordPress site is housed in its ain isolated container, which has all of the software resources required to run it (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL). The resources are 100% private and are non shared with anyone else or fifty-fifty your ain sites.

PHP timeouts could likewise occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these cause 504 errors, not 500 errors. These decide how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given time. To put information technology simply, each uncached request for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already busy on a site, they start to build upward a queue. Once you lot've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push out older requests which could consequence in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth article about PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the future, you can as well utilize a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. It periodically sends an HTTP Head request to the URL of your choice. Yous can simply use your homepage. The tool allows you lot to set check frequencies of:

  • 15 seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • 1 minute
  • 2 minutes
  • five minutes
  • x minutes

It will transport yous an email if and when your site goes down. Hither is an example below.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 error

This can be especially useful if you're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This can requite you proof of how oft your site might actually exist doing down (even during the centre of the night). That'south why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make sure to bank check out our postal service that explores the top nine reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are always frustrating, but hopefully, at present you lot know a few additional means to troubleshoot them to quickly go your site back up and running. Recall, typically these types of errors are caused by tertiary-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection issues, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP memory limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there anything we missed? Perhaps you have another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, let us know below in the comments.

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