The dreaded 500 internal server mistake. Information technology always seems to come at the almost inopportune time and you're suddenly left scrambling to effigy out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust us, nosotros've all been in that location. Other errors that behave similarly that yous might have as well seen include the frightening error establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of death. But from the moment your site goes downward, you lot're losing visitors and customers. Non to mention it simply looks bad for your brand.

Today we're going to dive into the 500 internal server mistake and walk yous through some means to get your site back online rapidly. Read more below almost what causes this error and what you can practice to forbid it in the futurity.

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

Cheque Out Our Ultimate Guide to Fixing the 500 Internal Server Mistake

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Internet Technology Task Forcefulness (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error equally:

The 500 (Internal Server Error) condition lawmaking 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 request, processes it, and sends back the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) forth with an HTTP header. The HTTP as well includes what they call an HTTP status code. A status code is a way to notify y'all about the status of the asking. It could exist a 200 status code which ways "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which ways something has gone wrong.

There are a lot of dissimilar types of 500 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all hateful something different. In this instance, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented information technology from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section 6.half dozen.1).

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

500 Internal Server Fault Variations

Due to the various web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server error tin present itself in a number of dissimilar ways. But they are all communicating the same matter. Below are merely a couple of the many different variations yous might see on the web:

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

You might besides see this bulletin accompanying it:

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

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you lot might simply run into 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 accept their ain custom 500 internal server error messages, such equally this i from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

Hither is some other artistic 500 server fault example from the folks over at readme.

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server mistake

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

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

If it's an IIS seven.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 fault occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting down on the spider web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is too busy.
  • 500.fifteen – Direct requests for global.asax are non allowed.
  • 500.19 – Configuration information is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.Internet httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Internet httpHandlers configuration does non use in Managed Pipeline fashion.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.fifty – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A configuration or inbound rule execution error occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A global configuration or global rule execution fault occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite mistake 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 rule execution fault occurred. The rule is configured to exist executed before the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP mistake.

500 Errors Impact on SEO

Different 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to check dorsum at a after fourth dimension, a 500 error can take a negative impact on SEO if not fixed right away. If your site is simply down for say 10 minutes and information technology's existence crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will just go the page delivered from enshroud. Or Google might not fifty-fifty have a chance to re-crawl it before it'south back upwards. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

Even so, if the site is downwardly for an extended menstruum of time, say 6+ hours, then Google might see the 500 error as a site level outcome that needs to be addressed. This could bear on your rankings. If yous're worried about repeat 500 errors y'all should effigy out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions beneath can aid.

How to Prepare the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should yous start troubleshooting when yous see a 500 internal server mistake on your WordPress site? Sometimes yous might not even know where to begin. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, but from our experience, these errors originate from two things, the starting time isuser error (customer-side effect), and the second is that there is a problem with the server. And so we'll dive into a piffling of both.

Check out these mutual causes and ways to fix the 500 internal server fault and get back up and running in no time.

1. Try Reloading the Folio

This might seem a piffling obvious to some, but ane of the easiest and first things you should attempt when encountering a 500 internal server error is to but wait a infinitesimal or so and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could exist that the host or server is only overloaded and the site will come right back. While you're waiting, you could also chop-chop effort a different browser to dominion that out equally an issue.

Some other thing y'all 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 condition code that is returned from the server. If it'south annihilation other than a 200 "Everything is OK" so it will return a down 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 upwardly properly. What happens is they experience a temporary timeout correct afterward. However, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you demand to do.

2. Clear Your Browser Enshroud

Clearing your browser cache is always some other good troubleshooting step before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Beneath 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 Cache for Safari
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Internet Explorer
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Microsoft Border
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera

three. Check Your Server Logs

You should also take advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta customer, y'all can easily encounter errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can aid you quickly narrow down the effect, 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, you 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', false );

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

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

Yous tin can besides bank check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are unremarkably located here:

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

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

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakup

If the 500 error is displaying because of a fatal PHP fault, you can as well effort enabling PHP error reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically yous can narrow down 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 y'all might need to also change your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connectedness

500 internal server errors can also occur from a database connectedness error. Depending upon your browser you might encounter dissimilar errors. Just 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 similar your browser. The entire page is blank because no data tin can exist retrieved to render the folio, as the connection is non working properly. Non just does this break the front-end of your site, but information technology will also prevent you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The about mutual issue is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. Your WordPress site uses separate login data 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 become corrupted. This can exist due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perchance some information was deleted by accident.
  • Yous may have corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Issues with your database server. A number of things could be wrong on the spider web hosts cease, such as the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is really quite common with shared hosts every bit they are utilizing the same resource for a lot of users on the aforementioned servers.

Bank check out our in-depth post on how to set the fault establishing a database connexion in WordPress.

five. Check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-political party plugins and themes can easily cause 500 internal server errors. We'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 afterward installing something new or running an update. This is one reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging surround for updates or at least running updates ane by one. Otherwise, if y'all encounter a 500 internal server error you lot're suddenly scrambling to figure out which one caused it.

A few ways you lot can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Remember, y'all won't lose whatsoever information if you simply deactivate a plugin. If you tin nevertheless access your admin, a quick way to do this is to scan to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the majority actions menu. This volition disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the issue you'll need to find the culprit. Outset activating them one by one, reloading the site after each activation. When you meet the 500 internal server mistake return, you've found the misbehaving plugin. Yous can so accomplish out to the plugin developer for help or mail a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If yous tin can't login to WordPress admin you lot can FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something like plugins_old. Then check your site once more. If it works, and so you volition need to test each plugin 1 by one. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" then rename each plugin folder inside of if information technology, one by one, until you detect it. Yous could also try to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Always makes certain 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 exist a conflict with bad lawmaking in a plugin, you might need to bring in a WordPress developer to fix the issue.

6. Reinstall WordPress Cadre

Sometimes WordPress core files can get corrupted, especially on older sites. Information technology's actually quite piece of cake to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We have an in-depth guide with five dissimilar ways to reinstall WordPress. And of class, make certain to accept a fill-in 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 Mistake

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 folder permissions in WordPress:

  • All files should exist 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 ready to 440 or 400 to forbid other users on the server from reading it.

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

Yous tin can easily run into your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen below). You lot could also achieve out to your WordPress host support team and inquire them to speedily GREP file permissions on your folders and files to ensure they're setup properly.

File permissions SFTP
File permissions SFTP

eight. PHP Memory Limit

A 500 internal server mistake could besides be caused by exhausting the PHP retentivity limit on your server. Y'all 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.

Increase PHP Memory Limit in cPanel

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

You lot can and so click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. And so click on "Salve."

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

Increment PHP Memory Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains diverse settings you can use to change the server beliefs, right down to a directory specific level. First login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a await at your root directory and see if there is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

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

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in php.ini File

If the in a higher place doesn't piece of work for you might effort editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, go 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 in that location, search for the three settings and alter them if necessary. If you just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be constitute you tin can paste the code beneath. You can change of grade the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

Some shared hosts might likewise require that you add together the suPHP directive in your .htaccess file for the higher up php.ini file settings to work. To do this, edit your .htaccess file, likewise 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 /dwelling/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 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'south root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. You tin can then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increment PHP Retentivity Limit in wp-config.php

The final option is not one we are fans of, but if all else fails you can give it a get. 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 lawmaking to the top of your wp-config.php file:

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

You tin can also enquire your host if you're running into memory limit issues. We utilize New Relic 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 use your ain custom New Relic central.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta simply uses Nginx, only if yous're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem or has go 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-relieve your permalinks in WordPress. Nonetheless, if you're in the middle of a 500 internal server error yous near likely tin can't access your WordPress admin, 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 [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress

Run into the WordPress Codex for more than examples, such as a default .htaccess file for multisite.

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

500 errors beingness acquired past errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to be. Although it'due south nevertheless worth mentioning, specially for those using cPanel where in that location are a lot of i-click CGI scripts notwithstanding beingness used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

  • When editing, always used a evidently 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 mode (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 Result (Check With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors can also occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-party plugins, you can always bank check 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 accept you scratching your head.

          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Mistake: Call to undefined function mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of type WP_Error as 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-active and first fixing the issue right away. We likewise use 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 resource required to run information technology (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, non 500 errors. These determine how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given time. To put it merely, each uncached request for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

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

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried virtually these types of errors happening on your site in the future, you can too 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 selection. You lot can simply use your homepage. The tool allows y'all to set up check frequencies of:

  • xv seconds
  • thirty seconds
  • i minute
  • ii minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes

It will send yous an electronic mail if and when your site goes down. Here is an example below.

Email notification of 500 error
Electronic mail 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 tin can give you proof of how often your site might actually be doing down (even during the eye of the nighttime). That's why we e'er recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make certain to check out our post that explores the top 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

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

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

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