The dreaded 500 internal server error. It always seems to come at the about inopportune time and yous're suddenly left scrambling to effigy out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust usa, we've all been there. Other errors that behave similarly that you might accept besides seen include the frightening error establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of expiry. Merely from the moment your site goes downwards, y'all're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it simply looks bad for your brand.

Today nosotros're going to swoop into the 500 internal server mistake and walk you lot through some ways to get your site dorsum online quickly. Read more below about what causes this error and what you can do to prevent it in the future.

  • What is a 500 internal server error?
  • How to prepare the 500 internal server error

Bank check Out Our Ultimate Guide to Fixing the 500 Internal Server Error

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Internet Engineering science Task Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Fault as:

The 500 (Internal Server Error) 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 asking over to the server where the site is hosted. The server takes this request, processes it, and sends dorsum the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP likewise includes what they phone call an HTTP status code. A condition lawmaking is a way to notify you about the status of the request. It could be a 200 status code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone incorrect.

At that place are a lot of different types of 500 status fault codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something unlike. In this case, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected status that prevented information technology from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section half-dozen.6.one).

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

500 Internal Server Error Variations

Due to the various web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server mistake can present itself in a number of different means. But they are all communicating the same thing. Below are merely a couple of the many different variations you might see on the spider web:

    • "500 Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Mistake 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Sorry something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. In that location was an error. Please endeavour once more later. That'southward all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

Y'all might too see this message accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to consummate your request. Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the fault occurred, and anything y'all might take washed that may have caused the error. More information most this error may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you lot might simply 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 even take their own custom 500 internal server error messages, such as this one from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

Here is some other creative 500 server error case 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 vii.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have additional HTTP status codes to more closely point the crusade of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.eleven – Awarding is shutting downwardly on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the spider web server.
  • 500.thirteen – Web server is too busy.
  • 500.fifteen – Direct requests for global.asax are not allowed.
  • 500.19 – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.NET httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does non apply in Managed Pipeline manner.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.Cyberspace impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.l – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution mistake occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error 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 fault occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound rule execution fault occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user enshroud gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Touch on SEO

Unlike 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to cheque back at a later time, a 500 error tin have a negative impact on SEO if not fixed right away. If your site is only down for say 10 minutes and it's beingness crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler volition simply get the page delivered from cache. Or Google might not even have a chance to re-crawl information technology earlier it's support. In this scenario, yous're completely fine.

Still, if the site is down for an extended menstruum of time, say 6+ hours, then Google might see the 500 error equally a site level issue that needs to exist addressed. This could impact your rankings. If you're worried most 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 kickoff troubleshooting when yous see a 500 internal server error on your WordPress site? Sometimes y'all might non even know where to begin. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, but from our experience, these errors originate from two things, the first isuser error (customer-side event), and the 2d is that there is a problem with the server. So nosotros'll dive into a little of both.

Cheque out these common causes and means to ready the 500 internal server error and get back up and running in no time.

1. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a lilliputian obvious to some, but i of the easiest and first things y'all should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply wait a minute or so and reload the folio (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could be that the host or server is just overloaded and the site volition come right back. While you lot're waiting, you could also rapidly endeavour a different browser to rule that out as an result.

Another thing you lot can do is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell you if the site is down or if it's a problem on your side. A tool like this checks the HTTP status code that is returned from the server. If information technology'southward anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" then information technology will return a down indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

Nosotros've also noticed that sometimes this can occur immediately afterwards you lot update a plugin or theme on your WordPress site. Typically this is on hosts that aren't prepare properly. What happens is they experience a temporary timeout right after. However, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you need to practise.

2. Articulate Your Browser Cache

Clearing your browser cache is always another good troubleshooting step before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to articulate cache in the diverse browsers:

  • How to Force Refresh a Unmarried Folio for All Browsers
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Google Chrome
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Mozilla Firefox
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Safari
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Net Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Opera

3. Check Your Server Logs

Y'all should also take advantage of your error logs. If y'all're a Kinsta customer, you can easily run across errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you apace narrow down the upshot, peculiarly if it'southward 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 have a logging tool, you can also enable WordPress debugging mode past adding the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

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

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

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

Y'all can likewise check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are unremarkably located here:

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

If you're a Kinsta client yous can too take advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the total number of 500 errors and see how often and when they are occurring. This can assist you lot troubleshoot if this is an ongoing upshot, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakdown

If the 500 mistake is displaying considering of a fatal PHP error, you can also try enabling PHP error reporting. Simply add together the post-obit code to the file throwing the fault. Typically you lot can narrow down 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 might need to likewise modify your php.ini file with the post-obit:

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connection

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

Below is an example of what an "mistake establishing a database connection" bulletin looks similar your browser. The entire page is bare because no data tin exist retrieved to return the page, equally the connection is not working properly. Not simply does this break the forepart-terminate of your site, but information technology will also prevent you lot from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

Example of error establishing a database connection
Instance of error establishing a database connection

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

  • The nearly common result is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. Your WordPress site uses split up login information to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With and then many moving parts with themes, plugins, and users constantly deleting and installing them, sometimes databases get corrupted. This can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perhaps some data was deleted by accident.
  • You may have decadent files in your WordPress installation. This tin even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Issues with your database server. A number of things could be wrong on the web hosts finish, such as the database beingness overloaded from a traffic fasten or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is actually quite mutual with shared hosts as they are utilizing the same resources for a lot of users on the same servers.

Check out our in-depth mail on how to fix the error establishing a database connection in WordPress.

five. Bank check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-party plugins and themes can hands cause 500 internal server errors. We've seen all types cause them here at Kinsta, from slider plugins to advertizing rotator plugins. A lot of times you should run across the error immediately subsequently installing something new or running an update. This is 1 reason why nosotros always recommend utilizing a staging environment for updates or at least running updates ane past one. Otherwise, if you encounter a 500 internal server error you're of a sudden scrambling to effigy out which one caused it.

A few ways you can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Remember, you lot won't lose any data if y'all simply deactivate a plugin. If you can nonetheless access your admin, a quick mode to do this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Conciliate" from the bulk deportment carte. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Conciliate all plugins

If this fixes the issue y'all'll need to detect the culprit. Outset activating them one by i, reloading the site after each activation. When you see the 500 internal server fault render, you've found the misbehaving plugin. You can so reach out to the plugin developer for aid or mail service a back up ticket in the WordPress repository.

If y'all can't login to WordPress admin y'all can FTP into your server and rename your plugins binder to something like plugins_old. Then check your site again. If it works, so you will need to examination each plugin one by ane. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" and and then rename each plugin folder within of if it, one by one, until you observe it. You could besides try to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

E'er makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to date. And cheque to ensure you 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.

half dozen. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files can go corrupted, especially on older sites. It'due south actually quite easy to re-upload just the cadre of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. Nosotros have an in-depth guide with v different means to reinstall WordPress. And of course, make sure to have a backup before proceeding. Skip to one of the sections beneath:

  • 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

7. Permissions Error

A permissions error with a file or folder on your server can also cause a 500 internal server error to occur. Here are some typical recommendations for permissions when it comes to file and binder 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 always exist given 777, even upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could also be set to 440 or 400 to prevent other users on the server from reading it.

Run across the WordPress Codex commodity on changing file permissions for a more than in-depth caption.

You can easily see your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen below). You could too attain out to your WordPress host support team and ask them to rapidly GREP file permissions on your folders and files to ensure they're setup properly.

File permissions SFTP
File permissions SFTP

8. PHP Memory Limit

A 500 internal server error could also be caused by exhausting the PHP retentivity limit on your server. Yous could try increasing the limit. Follow the instructions beneath on how to change this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in cPanel

If you're running on a host that uses cPanel, you lot can easily change this from the UI. Nether 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 can so click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. So click on "Relieve."

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

Increment PHP Retentiveness Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains various settings you tin can use to modify the server beliefs, correct downwards to a directory specific level. Offset login to your site via FTP or SSH, accept a look at your root directory and encounter if in that location is a .htaccess file in that location.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If at that place is y'all can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Most probable it is set at 64M or below, you can try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in php.ini File

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

php.ini file
php.ini file

If the file was already there, search for the three settings and modify them if necessary. If you just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to exist found you can paste the code below. Yous tin alter of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the higher up didn't work for you, it could exist that your host has the global settings locked down and instead have it configured to utilize .user.ini files. To edit your .user.ini file, login to your site via FTP or SSH, go to your site's root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. You tin can and then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increment PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The last choice is not one we are fans of, just if all else fails you can give it a go. 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 the following code to the height of your wp-config.php file:

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

Y'all can besides ask your host if you're running into memory limit issues. We employ the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to aid clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. You can also utilize your ain custom New Relic central from your own license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

ix. Trouble With Your .htaccess File

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

Normally to recreate this file you tin simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. All the same, if yous're in the eye of a 500 internal server error you most likely tin't admission your WordPress admin, and so this isn't an option. Therefore you can create a new .htaccess file and input the post-obit contents. So upload it to your server.

          # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [50] </IfModule> # END WordPress

Encounter 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 it used to be. Although it'south even so worth mentioning, peculiarly for those using cPanel where there are a lot of i-click CGI scripts still being used. Equally AEM on Stack Overflow says:

CGI has been replaced by a vast variety of web programming technologies, including PHP, various Apache extensions similar 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 Crimson frameworks, and diverse Microsoft technologies.

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

  • When editing, always used a manifestly text editor, such as Cantlet, 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 mode (which you can select in your FTP editor) into the cgi-bin directory on your server.
  • Confirm that the Perl modules you require for your script are installed and supported.

11. Server Issue (Check With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors tin also occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-party plugins, y'all can always check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors tin 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 head.

          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Telephone call to undefined office mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of type WP_Error every bit array in /www/folder/web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

We monitor all client's sites hither at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows the states to be pro-active and start fixing the issue right away. We too employ LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This means that every WordPress site is housed in its own isolated container, which has all of the software resources required to run it (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL). The resources are 100% private and are not shared with anyone else or even your own sites.

PHP timeouts could also occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these crusade 504 errors, not 500 errors. These determine how many simultaneous requests your site tin can handle at a given time. To put it simply, each uncached asking for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

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

Monitor Your Site

If you lot're worried virtually these types of errors happening on your site in the hereafter, you can besides utilize a tool similar updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. It periodically sends an HTTP HEAD request to the URL of your pick. You lot can merely use your homepage. The tool allows you to set up bank check frequencies of:

  • fifteen seconds
  • xxx seconds
  • 1 minute
  • ii minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • x minutes

It will send you an email if and when your site goes down. Hither is an example beneath.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 fault

This can be especially useful if yous're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This tin requite yous proof of how often your site might actually be doing down (even during the middle of the nighttime). That's why we e'er recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make sure to check out our post that explores the superlative 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are always frustrating, but hopefully, now you know a few additional ways to troubleshoot them to quickly get your site support and running. Call back, typically these types of errors are caused past third-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connectedness bug, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP retentivity limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there anything nosotros missed? Maybe y'all have some other tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, permit united states know beneath in the comments.

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