The dreaded 500 internal server error. Information technology ever seems to come at the most inopportune time and you're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust u.s., we've all been there. Other errors that acquit similarly that you might have too seen include the frightening error establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of death. But from the moment your site goes down, you're losing visitors and customers. Non to mention information technology simply looks bad for your make.

Today we're going to swoop into the 500 internal server mistake and walk y'all through some means to get your site back online chop-chop. Read more below about what causes this fault and what you can do to prevent it in the future.

  • What is a 500 internal server mistake?
  • How to set the 500 internal server mistake

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Fault?

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

The 500 (Internal Server Error) condition code indicates that the server encountered an unexpected status that prevented information technology 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 back the requested resource (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 y'all about the condition of the request. It could be a 200 status lawmaking which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status lawmaking which means something has gone wrong.

There are a lot of different types of 500 condition mistake codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something unlike. In this case, a 500 internal server mistake indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section six.vi.1).

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 fault can present itself in a number of different ways. But they are all communicating the aforementioned thing. Below are just a couple of the many different variations you might see on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Mistake"
    • "500 Internal Server Mistake. Lamentable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. There was an error. Delight try again later on. That's all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

You might also see this message accompanying it:

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

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you might but meet a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is actually quite mutual in browsers similar Firefox and Safari.

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

Bigger brands might even have their own custom 500 internal server fault messages, such equally this i from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

Here is another creative 500 server mistake 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 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have boosted HTTP status codes to more closely indicate the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.xi – Awarding is shutting downwardly on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Spider web server is too busy.
  • 500.15 – 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 use in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does non utilise in Managed Pipeline manner.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not 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 fault occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A global configuration or global dominion execution error occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification treatment. An outbound rule execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound rule execution error occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP fault.

500 Errors Touch on on SEO

Unlike 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to check dorsum at a later on time, a 500 fault tin can take a negative impact on SEO if not fixed right away. If your site is simply downward for say 10 minutes and it's beingness crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will simply get the folio delivered from cache. Or Google might not even accept a chance to re-crawl it before it'southward dorsum up. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

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

How to Ready the 500 Internal Server Mistake

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

Check out these common causes and ways to set the 500 internal server mistake and go back up and running in no time.

i. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a little obvious to some, but one of the easiest and first things you lot should effort when encountering a 500 internal server error is to only wait 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 right back. While you're waiting, you could as well quickly endeavor a different browser to rule that out as an issue.

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

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've also 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 set up properly. What happens is they experience a temporary timeout right afterward. However, things unremarkably resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all y'all need to practise.

2. Clear Your Browser Cache

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

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

3. Check Your Server Logs

You should also take advantage of your mistake logs. If you're a Kinsta client, you can easily meet errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you apace narrow downwardly the issue, especially if information technology'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 have a logging tool, y'all can likewise enable WordPress debugging mode by calculation the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

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

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

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

Yous tin also check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are commonly located here:

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

If you're a Kinsta client you can also take advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakup of the total number of 500 errors and see how often and when they are occurring. This can assistance you troubleshoot if this is an ongoing upshot, or peradventure 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 fault, y'all can too effort enabling PHP error reporting. Simply add the post-obit code to the file throwing the fault. Typically you tin narrow downwards the file in the console tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

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

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

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connection

500 internal server errors tin also occur from a database connection error. Depending upon your browser you might run across different errors. But both will generate a 500 HTTP status lawmaking regardless in your server logs.

Beneath is an instance of what an "error establishing a database connection" message looks like your browser. The entire page is blank considering no data tin be retrieved to return the page, every bit the connectedness is not working properly. Not but does this break the forepart-end of your site, merely information technology will too prevent you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The most mutual issue 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 can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perchance some data was deleted by blow.
  • You may have corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This tin can fifty-fifty happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Bug with your database server. A number of things could exist incorrect on the web hosts end, such every bit the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from besides many concurrent connections. This is really quite mutual with shared hosts as they are utilizing the aforementioned resource 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.

5. Bank check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-political party plugins and themes tin can easily cause 500 internal server errors. Nosotros've seen all types cause them here at Kinsta, from slider plugins to ad rotator plugins. A lot of times you should encounter the mistake immediately later installing something new or running an update. This is one reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging environment for updates or at least running updates ane by one. Otherwise, if you lot encounter a 500 internal server error you're of a sudden scrambling to figure out which one acquired it.

A few ways you can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Remember, you won't lose whatever data if y'all simply conciliate a plugin. If yous can still access your admin, a quick way to do this is to scan to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the bulk actions carte. This volition disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the outcome yous'll need to find the culprit. Start activating them i by one, reloading the site after each activation. When yous see the 500 internal server mistake render, you've found the misbehaving plugin. Y'all can then reach out to the plugin developer for help or mail a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you tin can't login to WordPress admin yous tin FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something similar plugins_old. And so check your site again. If it works, and then you volition demand to test each plugin one by ane. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" so rename each plugin binder within of if it, one by 1, until you lot observe information technology. Y'all could also endeavor to replicate this on a staging site beginning.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Ever makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to date. And check to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If information technology turns out to be a conflict with bad lawmaking in a plugin, yous might need to bring in a WordPress developer to set up the effect.

vi. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files can get corrupted, particularly on older sites. It's actually quite easy to re-upload just the cadre of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We accept an in-depth guide with v unlike ways to reinstall WordPress. And of course, make sure to take a fill-in earlier 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

vii. Permissions Error

A permissions error with a file or folder on your server can besides crusade a 500 internal server mistake 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 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.

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

You tin can easily see your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen below). You could likewise accomplish out to your WordPress host support squad 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 Retentiveness Limit

A 500 internal server error could likewise be caused by exhausting the PHP retentiveness limit on your server. You could try 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.

Increment PHP Memory Limit in cPanel

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

Y'all tin then click on the memory_limit aspect and alter its value. And so click on "Salve."

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

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in Apache

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

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If at that place is you can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Most likely it is set up at 64M or below, you lot can attempt 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 you might try editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, become to your site'southward root directory and open up or create a php.ini file.

php.ini file
php.ini file

If the file was already at that place, search for the three settings and modify them if necessary. If yous just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be plant you lot can paste the code below. Y'all can modify of class the values to encounter your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the to a higher place didn't piece of work for you, it could be 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 then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increment PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The last choice is not i we are fans of, but 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 top of your wp-config.php file:

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

You lot can also ask your host if you're running into memory limit issues. Nosotros use New Relic and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to assist clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. You can also use your ain custom New Relic central.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

nine. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta only uses Nginx, but 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.

Outset, 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 just re-save your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you're in the middle of a 500 internal server fault you most probable can't access your WordPress admin, and then this isn't an choice. Therefore you tin can create a new .htaccess file and input the following 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 . /alphabetize.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress

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

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

500 errors being caused by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than information technology used to be. Although information technology's even so worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where in that location are a lot of ane-click CGI scripts notwithstanding being used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

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

xi. Server Consequence (Check With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors tin can also occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with 3rd-party plugins, you lot tin always check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can be hard to troubleshoot without an practiced. Here are simply a few mutual examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP status codes on the server that might have you scratching your head.

          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Phone call to undefined function mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal fault: Uncaught Error: Cannot employ object of type WP_Error every bit assortment in /www/folder/spider web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

Nosotros monitor all client'southward sites hither at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows us to exist pro-active and start fixing the issue right away. We likewise 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 not shared with anyone else or even your own sites.

PHP timeouts could also 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 it but, 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 up a queue. Once you've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push out older requests which could effect in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth article most PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried near these types of errors happening on your site in the future, you can also utilize a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. Information technology periodically sends an HTTP HEAD request to the URL of your choice. You can simply utilize your homepage. The tool allows you to set check frequencies of:

  • 15 seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • i minute
  • two minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes

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

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 error

This tin exist especially useful if you're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This tin requite you proof of how oftentimes your site might actually exist doing downward (fifty-fifty during the middle of the dark). That'south why we ever recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make certain to check out our mail that explores the superlative 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are always frustrating, only hopefully, now you know a few additional ways to troubleshoot them to quickly get your site back upward and running. Remember, typically these types of errors are caused by 3rd-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connectedness issues, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP retentiveness limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was in that location anything we missed? Perhaps you have another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If then, permit us know below in the comments.

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