The dreaded 500 internal server error. It always seems to come at the about inopportune time and y'all're all of a sudden left scrambling to figure out how to become your WordPress site back online. Trust us, we've all been there. Other errors that deport similarly that you might accept likewise seen include the frightening error establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of decease. But from the moment your site goes downwardly, you're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it just looks bad for your make.

Today we're going to dive into the 500 internal server fault and walk you through some ways to go your site back online quickly. Read more than beneath almost what causes this fault and what you tin do to prevent it in the hereafter.

  • What is a 500 internal server error?
  • 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 Mistake?

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error equally:

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

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

There are a lot of different types of 500 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something different. In this case, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, department half dozen.half-dozen.i).

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

500 Internal Server Mistake Variations

Due to the various web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server error can nowadays itself in a number of different ways. Only they are all communicating the aforementioned thing. Below are only a couple of the many different variations you might run across on the spider web:

    • "500 Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Fault 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Mistake"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Lamentable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. There was an error. Please try again after. That'due south all we know."
    • "The website cannot brandish the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

You might besides run across this message accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to consummate your request. Delight contact the server ambassador, [email protected] and inform them of the time the mistake occurred, and anything you might accept washed that may have caused the fault. More than data about this mistake may exist available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, y'all might simply run into a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is actually quite common in browsers similar Firefox and Safari.

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

Bigger brands might fifty-fifty have their ain custom 500 internal server fault messages, such as this ane from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

Here is some other artistic 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'due south an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they take additional HTTP status codes to more closely indicate the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.11 – Awarding is shutting down on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the spider web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is also busy.
  • 500.xv – Direct requests for global.asax are non allowed.
  • 500.nineteen – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.Net httpModules configuration does non apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A configuration or inbound rule execution mistake occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite fault occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A global configuration or global rule execution fault occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification handling. An outbound dominion 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 before the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP fault.

500 Errors Impact on SEO

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

Withal, if the site is down for an extended period of time, say 6+ hours, then Google might see the 500 error as a site level issue that needs to be addressed. This could impact your rankings. If y'all're worried about echo 500 errors y'all should figure out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below can assistance.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you start troubleshooting when you see a 500 internal server mistake on your WordPress site? Sometimes you lot might not even know where to begin. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, merely from our experience, these errors originate from two things, the first isuser error (client-side issue), and the 2d is that there is a problem with the server. So we'll dive into a trivial of both.

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

one. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a footling obvious to some, only one of the easiest and first things y'all should effort when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply look a minute or so and reload the folio (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could exist that the host or server is simply overloaded and the site will come up correct back. While you're waiting, y'all could also rapidly endeavour a unlike browser to rule that out as an issue.

Another thing you lot tin can do is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website volition tell y'all if the site is downwards or if it'due south a trouble on your side. A tool similar this checks the HTTP status code that is returned from the server. If it's anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" then it will return a down indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

Nosotros've as well noticed that sometimes this can occur immediately after 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 afterward. However, things ordinarily resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you lot need to practice.

2. Clear Your Browser Enshroud

Clearing your browser cache is e'er another good troubleshooting step before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to clear enshroud in the diverse browsers:

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

3. Check Your Server Logs

You lot should also have advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta customer, you lot can easily see errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you quickly narrow down the upshot, particularly if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

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

          define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', faux );

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

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

Y'all can besides cheque the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are ordinarily located hither:

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

If you're a Kinsta client you tin can as well take advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the total number of 500 errors and run into how often and when they are occurring. This can help you troubleshoot if this is an ongoing effect, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakdown

If the 500 fault is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, yous tin also try enabling PHP error reporting. Just add together the following code to the file throwing the mistake. Typically you lot can narrow down the file in the console tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

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

And you might demand to also modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

4. Fault Establishing a Database Connection

500 internal server errors tin also occur from a database connection error. Depending upon your browser you might run into dissimilar 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" message looks like your browser. The entire page is blank because no data can be retrieved to render the page, as the connection is not working properly. Non only does this break the front-cease of your site, only it will also forestall y'all from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

Example of error establishing a database connection
Example of mistake establishing a database connexion

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

  • The about common issue is that yourdatabase login credentials are wrong. Your WordPress site uses divide login data to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With and so many moving parts with themes, plugins, and users constantly deleting and installing them, sometimes databases go corrupted. This can be due to a missing or individually corrupted tabular array, or perhaps some information was deleted by accident.
  • You may accept decadent files in your WordPress installation. This can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Issues 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 spike or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is actually quite common with shared hosts as they are utilizing the same resources for a lot of users on the aforementioned servers.

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

v. Cheque Your Plugins and Themes

3rd-party plugins and themes can hands cause 500 internal server errors. We've seen all types cause them hither at Kinsta, from slider plugins to advert rotator plugins. A lot of times you should encounter the error immediately after installing something new or running an update. This is one reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging surroundings for updates or at to the lowest degree running updates one by i. Otherwise, if you encounter a 500 internal server fault you're suddenly scrambling to effigy out which i caused it.

A few ways you can troubleshoot this is past deactivating all your plugins. Remember, y'all won't lose whatever information if y'all just conciliate a plugin. If you can still admission your admin, a quick way to do this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the bulk deportment menu. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Conciliate all plugins

If this fixes the consequence y'all'll need to discover the culprit. Beginning activating them one past one, reloading the site after each activation. When you see the 500 internal server mistake return, you've found the misbehaving plugin. You can then reach out to the plugin developer for assistance or post a back up ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you tin can't login to WordPress admin you tin can FTP into your server and rename your plugins binder to something similar plugins_old. Then check your site once more. If information technology works, then you will demand to examination each plugin one by one. Rename your plugin folder dorsum to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, one by ane, until you find it. You could also try to replicate this on a staging site commencement.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Always makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress cadre are up to date. And check to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a conflict with bad code in a plugin, y'all might need to bring in a WordPress developer to fix the outcome.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files can go corrupted, particularly on older sites. It's actually quite easy to re-upload but the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We have an in-depth guide with 5 unlike means to reinstall WordPress. And of class, make sure to take a backup before 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

7. Permissions Error

A permissions error with a file or folder on your server tin also cause a 500 internal server error to occur. Here are some typical recommendations for permissions when information technology 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 be set to 440 or 400 to prevent other users on the server from reading it.

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

You tin can hands see your file permissions with an FTP customer (equally seen below). You lot could also reach out to your WordPress host support team and enquire them to chop-chop 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 exist caused by exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. You could try increasing the limit. Follow the instructions below on how to modify this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increment PHP Retention Limit in cPanel

If you're running on a host that uses cPanel, you 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

You tin and so click on the memory_limit attribute and alter its value. And then click on "Save."

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

Increase PHP Retentiveness Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains various settings yous can use to modify the server beliefs, right down to a directory specific level. Start login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a wait at your root directory and meet if there is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If at that place is you tin can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP retentivity limit. Most likely information technology is set at 64M or below, you tin can try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in php.ini File

If the in a higher place doesn't work for yous might effort editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, go to your site's 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 be plant you tin can paste the code beneath. You can modify of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the above didn't piece of work for you lot, it could be that your host has the global settings locked down and instead have it configured to apply .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 can and then paste in the post-obit code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The concluding option is not one we are fans of, merely if all else fails you tin can give it a become. Offset, 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 post-obit code to the top of your wp-config.php file:

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

You can also enquire your host if you lot're running into retention limit bug. Nosotros apply the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods hither at Kinsta to help clients narrow downward what plugin, query, or script might exist exhausting the limit. You can likewise employ your own custom New Relic key from your own license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta but uses Nginx, just if y'all're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well be that your .htaccess file has a trouble or has get 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 can simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you're in the center of a 500 internal server error y'all most likely can't access your WordPress admin, then this isn't an option. Therefore you can create a new .htaccess file and input the following contents. So upload information technology to your server.

          # Brainstorm WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^alphabetize\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /alphabetize.php [L] </IfModule> # End 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 being caused by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less mutual than it used to be. Although it's still worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts still being used. Equally AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

  • When editing, ever used a evidently 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 yous tin can select in your FTP editor) into the cgi-bin directory on your server.
  • Ostend 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 can likewise occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-political party plugins, you lot can always cheque with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors tin can be difficult to troubleshoot without an expert. Here are but a few common examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP status codes on the server that might have you lot scratching your head.

          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Fault: Call to undefined part mysql_error()...        
          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Cannot utilize object of type WP_Error as array in /www/folder/web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

We monitor all client's sites here at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows us to exist pro-agile and showtime fixing the issue right abroad. Nosotros also utilize 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 non shared with anyone else or fifty-fifty your ain sites.

PHP timeouts could also occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these cause 504 errors, non 500 errors. These determine how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given time. To put it simply, each uncached request for your website is handled past a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already busy on a site, they first to build upward a queue. Once you'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 commodity about PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the future, you can also employ 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 selection. Y'all can just use your homepage. The tool allows you to set check frequencies of:

  • fifteen seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • 1 minute
  • two minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • x minutes

Information technology will send you an email if and when your site goes downwardly. Here is an example below.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 error

This tin can be especially useful if you lot're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This can give you lot proof of how often your site might actually be doing downward (even during the middle of the nighttime). That's why nosotros e'er recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Brand certain to cheque out our post that explores the top 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are e'er frustrating, but hopefully, now you know a few additional ways to troubleshoot them to rapidly get your site back up and running. Remember, typically these types of errors are caused by third-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection bug, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP memory limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there anything we missed? Perhaps yous have some other tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, let us know beneath in the comments.

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