The dreaded 500 internal server fault. It always seems to come up at the most inopportune time and you lot're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust us, nosotros've all been in that location. Other errors that behave similarly that y'all might have likewise seen include the frightening error establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of death. Simply from the moment your site goes down, you're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it just looks bad for your make.

Today we're going to swoop into the 500 internal server error and walk you through some ways to get your site dorsum online speedily. Read more below near what causes this error and what you can practice to prevent it in the time to come.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

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

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

When y'all 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.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP too includes what they telephone call an HTTP status code. A condition code is a manner to notify yous about the status of the request. Information technology could be a 200 status lawmaking which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone wrong.

At that place are a lot of different types of 500 condition error 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 condition that prevented it from fulfilling the asking(RFC 7231, section 6.half dozen.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 error tin can nowadays itself in a number of unlike means. Simply they are all communicating the same thing. Below are just a couple of the many different variations you might see on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Mistake"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Mistake"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Sad something went wrong."
    • "500. That'southward an mistake. There was an fault. Please try once more later on. That's all nosotros know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

You lot might also see this message accompanying information technology:

The server encountered an internal mistake or misconfiguration and was unable to consummate your request. Please contact the server ambassador, [email protected] and inform them of the time the mistake occurred, and anything yous might have done that may have acquired the error. More information nigh this error may exist bachelor in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you might just see a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is really quite common in browsers like Firefox and Safari.

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

Bigger brands might fifty-fifty have their own custom 500 internal server mistake messages, such every bit this one from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

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

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

Fifty-fifty the mighty YouTube isn't rubber from 500 internal server errors.

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

If information technology'due south an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they accept additional HTTP condition codes to more than closely indicate the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.xi – Application is shutting down on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Awarding is busy restarting on the spider web server.
  • 500.13 – Spider web server is too decorated.
  • 500.fifteen – Direct requests for global.asax are not 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 style.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Internet httpHandlers configuration does not utilize in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.Internet impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline way.
  • 500.fifty – A rewrite mistake occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A configuration or inbound rule execution fault occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global rule 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 earlier the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Bear on on SEO

Unlike 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to cheque back at a later fourth dimension, a 500 error can take a negative touch on SEO if not fixed correct abroad. If your site is merely downward for say 10 minutes and it'southward existence crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler volition but get the folio delivered from cache. Or Google might not fifty-fifty have a adventure to re-clamber it before it's back up. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

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

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you start troubleshooting when you come across a 500 internal server error 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 2 things, the commencement isuser error (client-side issue), and the second 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 up the 500 internal server error and get back up and running in no time.

ane. Try Reloading the Page

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

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

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

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

ii. Clear Your Browser Cache

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

3. Cheque Your Server Logs

You should also take advantage of your error logs. If you lot're a Kinsta customer, you tin easily encounter errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This tin assist you lot quickly narrow down the issue, especially if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If yous're a Kinsta customer you can also take advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the full number of 500 errors and see how often and when they are occurring. This can help you troubleshoot if this is an ongoing effect, or maybe 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 error, y'all can also try enabling PHP mistake reporting. Simply add together the following 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', 1); ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1); error_reporting(E_ALL);

And you might need to too change your php.ini file with the post-obit:

          display_errors = on

4. Fault Establishing a Database Connection

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

Beneath is an example of what an "fault establishing a database connectedness" bulletin looks like your browser. The unabridged folio is blank because no data tin can be retrieved to return the page, equally the connection is non working properly. Not simply does this break the front-end of your site, but it will as well prevent you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The most common upshot is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. Your WordPress site uses divide login information to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With then many moving parts with themes, plugins, and users constantly deleting and installing them, sometimes databases get corrupted. This tin be due to a missing or individually corrupted tabular array, or perhaps some data was deleted past blow.
  • You may have corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can fifty-fifty happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Bug with your database server. A number of things could exist wrong 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 mutual 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 fix the mistake establishing a database connexion in WordPress.

5. Check Your Plugins and Themes

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

A few ways you lot can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Call back, yous won't lose whatever data if you simply conciliate a plugin. If you can notwithstanding access your admin, a quick mode to do this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the bulk actions bill of fare. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Conciliate all plugins

If this fixes the issue you'll need to discover the culprit. Start activating them one past one, reloading the site afterwards each activation. When yous meet the 500 internal server error return, you've institute the misbehaving plugin. You can then reach out to the plugin developer for assistance or mail service a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

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

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Ever makes certain your plugins, themes, and WordPress cadre are up to date. And check to ensure yous are running a supported version of PHP. If information technology turns out to be a conflict with bad code in a plugin, you might demand to bring in a WordPress developer to gear up the issue.

half dozen. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress cadre files tin go corrupted, specially on older sites. It's actually quite easy to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We have an in-depth guide with 5 different means to reinstall WordPress. And of form, make sure to take a backup earlier proceeding. Skip to one of the sections below:

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

7. Permissions Fault

A permissions mistake with a file or folder on your server can also cause a 500 internal server mistake to occur. Hither are some typical recommendations for permissions when information technology comes to file and binder permissions in WordPress:

  • All files should exist 644 (-rw-r–r–) or 640.
  • All directories should exist 755 (drwxr-xr-x) or 750.
  • No directories should ever be given 777, even upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could as well exist 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 caption.

You tin can hands see your file permissions with an FTP customer (as seen below). You could as well reach out to your WordPress host support squad 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 likewise be caused by exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. Y'all could attempt increasing the limit. Follow the instructions beneath on how to modify this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increase PHP Memory Limit in cPanel

If you're running on a host that uses cPanel, you can easily modify 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 can so click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. Then click on "Relieve."

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

Increase PHP Memory Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains various settings you tin can use to modify the server beliefs, right downwardly to a directory specific level. Showtime login to your site via FTP or SSH, accept a wait at your root directory and see if there is a .htaccess file at that place.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is you can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Most likely it is fix at 64M or below, y'all tin attempt 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 endeavour editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, go to your site's root directory and open up or create a php.ini file.

php.ini file
php.ini file

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

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the to a higher place didn't work for you, information technology 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, get to your site's root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. You can then paste in the post-obit code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Retention Limit in wp-config.php

The concluding selection is not ane we are fans of, but if all else fails you can requite information technology 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:

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

You can also inquire your host if yous're running into memory limit issues. We utilize the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to help clients narrow downward what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. Yous can as well utilise your own custom New Relic fundamental from your own license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta merely uses Nginx, but if y'all're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem 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

Usually to recreate this file you can simply re-relieve your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you're in the eye of a 500 internal server fault you most likely can't admission your WordPress admin, so this isn't an option. Therefore you tin create a new .htaccess file and input the post-obit contents. Then upload information technology to your server.

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

See 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 being caused by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to exist. Although it'south still worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts still being used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

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

11. Server Upshot (Check With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors tin can as well occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-party plugins, you tin always check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can be hard to troubleshoot without an practiced. 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 message: PHP Fatal mistake: Uncaught Fault: Call to undefined part mysql_error()...        
          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Fault: Cannot use object of type WP_Error as 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 us to be pro-active and start fixing the issue right abroad. Nosotros also utilize LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This ways 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 even your ain 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 can handle at a given time. To put it but, each uncached request for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already busy on a site, they commencement to build up a queue. In one case you've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push button 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 futurity, you can besides employ a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. It periodically sends an HTTP Caput request to the URL of your option. You can simply use your homepage. The tool allows y'all to set check frequencies of:

  • xv seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • ane minute
  • ii minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes

It volition send you 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 can 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 can give you lot proof of how often your site might actually be doing down (fifty-fifty during the middle of the night). That's why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Brand sure to cheque out our postal service that explores the top 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

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

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

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