The dreaded 500 internal server error. It always seems to come up at the most inopportune time and you're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to become your WordPress site back online. Trust united states, we've all been in that location. Other errors that bear similarly that you might have likewise seen include the frightening fault establishing a database connexion and the dreaded white screen of death. Simply from the moment your site goes down, you're losing visitors and customers. Non to mention it simply looks bad for your brand.

Today nosotros're going to dive into the 500 internal server error and walk y'all through some means to get your site back online apace. Read more beneath about what causes this error and what you can do to prevent it in the future.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Mistake?

The Internet Applied science Chore Strength (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error every bit:

The 500 (Internal Server Fault) status code indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented information technology from fulfilling the asking.

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.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP besides includes what they telephone call an HTTP condition code. A condition code is a way to notify you about the status of the asking. It could exist a 200 status code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone wrong.

There are a lot of different types of 500 status mistake 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 status that prevented it from fulfilling the asking(RFC 7231, section half-dozen.vi.1).

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

500 Internal Server Mistake Variations

Due to the various web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server error tin can nowadays itself in a number of dissimilar ways. Simply they are all communicating the same affair. Below are just a couple of the many dissimilar 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 Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Deplorable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. There was an mistake. Please try again later. That'southward all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this asking. HTTP Mistake 500."

You might as well see this bulletin accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your asking. Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you lot might have washed that may take acquired the error. More data most this error may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, yous might simply see 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 have their own custom 500 internal server error messages, such as this 1 from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server mistake

Hither is another creative 500 server error case from the folks over at readme.

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

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

500 internal server error on YouTube
500 internal server fault on YouTube

If it's an IIS vii.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have boosted HTTP condition codes to more than closely indicate the cause of the 500 fault:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting downward on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.thirteen – Web server is too decorated.
  • 500.15 – Directly requests for global.asax are not allowed.
  • 500.19 – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module non recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.NET httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline manner.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Cyberspace httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline manner.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite fault occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or entering dominion execution error occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global dominion 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 error occurred. The dominion is configured to be executed before the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Impact on SEO

Different 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance style and tell Google to cheque dorsum at a later time, a 500 error can take a negative bear upon on SEO if not fixed right away. If your site is just down for say ten minutes and it's existence crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will but get the page delivered from cache. Or Google might not even have a chance to re-crawl information technology before it's back up. In this scenario, you lot're completely fine.

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

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you beginning troubleshooting when yous see a 500 internal server fault on your WordPress site? Sometimes y'all might non even know where to brainstorm. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, simply from our feel, these errors originate from 2 things, the first isuser error (customer-side event), and the 2nd is that there is a problem with the server. Then we'll dive into a little of both.

Bank check out these common causes and means to fix the 500 internal server error and get back up and running in no fourth dimension.

i. Endeavour Reloading the Page

This might seem a fiddling obvious to some, merely one of the easiest and first things you should effort when encountering a 500 internal server fault is to simply look a minute or so and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could be that the host or server is simply overloaded and the site will come up right back. While you're waiting, you could also speedily try a different browser to rule that out as an issue.

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

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've also noticed that sometimes this can occur immediately subsequently you lot 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 after. However, things ordinarily resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you lot need to exercise.

2. Clear Your Browser Enshroud

Clearing your browser enshroud is always another good troubleshooting step 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 Clear Browser Enshroud for Mozilla Firefox
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Safari
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Internet Explorer
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Articulate Browser Enshroud for Opera

3. Check Your Server Logs

You should as well accept advantage of your fault 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 downward the issue, especially if information technology'southward resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

If your host doesn't have a logging tool, you tin also enable WordPress debugging style by calculation 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', imitation );

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

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

You lot can 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 y'all're a Kinsta client you tin also take reward 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 peradventure something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 fault breakdown

If the 500 error is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, you can also endeavour enabling PHP fault reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the mistake. Typically you tin 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 yous might need to also change your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

four. Mistake Establishing a Database Connection

500 internal server errors tin can also occur from a database connection error. Depending upon your browser you might see unlike 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 connectedness" message looks like your browser. The entire folio is blank considering no information tin be retrieved to render the page, equally the connection is not working properly. Not only does this break the front end-end of your site, but it will too foreclose you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The most common consequence 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 get corrupted. This can be due to a missing or individually corrupted tabular array, or perhaps some information was deleted by blow.
  • You may have decadent files in your WordPress installation. This tin can fifty-fifty happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Issues with your database server. A number of things could be incorrect on the web hosts end, 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 every bit they are utilizing the same resources for a lot of users on the same servers.

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

5. Bank check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-party plugins and themes tin easily cause 500 internal server errors. Nosotros've seen all types crusade them here at Kinsta, from slider plugins to ad rotator plugins. A lot of times you should see the error immediately afterwards installing something new or running an update. This is ane reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging environment for updates or at least running updates one by one. Otherwise, if you run into a 500 internal server fault y'all're suddenly scrambling to figure out which 1 acquired it.

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

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the consequence you'll demand to find the culprit. Starting time activating them one by one, reloading the site subsequently each activation. When you see the 500 internal server error return, you've found the misbehaving plugin. Y'all tin then attain out to the plugin developer for help or post a back up ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you can't login to WordPress admin you tin can FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something like plugins_old. And then check your site over again. If it works, then you will demand to test each plugin one by one. Rename your plugin binder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder within of if it, one past i, until you find it. You could too endeavor to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

E'er makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress cadre are upwardly to date. And check to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a disharmonize with bad lawmaking in a plugin, you might need to bring in a WordPress programmer to gear up the issue.

6. Reinstall WordPress Cadre

Sometimes WordPress core files can get corrupted, especially on older sites. It's actually quite piece of cake to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We take an in-depth guide with five dissimilar ways to reinstall WordPress. And of course, 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

vii. Permissions Error

A permissions fault with a file or binder on your server can 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, 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 caption.

You can easily see your file permissions with an FTP customer (equally seen below). You could also 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

8. PHP Retentiveness Limit

A 500 internal server fault could also be caused past exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. You could endeavor increasing the limit. Follow the instructions below on how to alter 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 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 tin and so click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. So click on "Save."

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

Increase PHP Retention Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains various settings y'all can apply to modify the server behavior, right downward to a directory specific level. Starting time login to your site via FTP or SSH, accept a look at your root directory and see if there is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is yous can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP retentivity limit. Nearly likely it is set at 64M or below, you can try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in php.ini File

If the above doesn't work for y'all might endeavor 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 3 settings and modify them if necessary. If yous just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be plant you tin can paste the code below. You can alter of form the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

Some shared hosts might also crave that you add the suPHP directive in your .htaccess file for the to a higher place 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 elevation of the file:

          <IfModule mod_suphp.c>  suPHP_ConfigPath /home/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's root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. You can then paste in the following lawmaking:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increment PHP Retentiveness Limit in wp-config.php

The terminal choice is non one we are fans of, only if all else fails you can requite 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 can also ask your host if yous're running into memory limit bug. Nosotros employ the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to assist clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might exist exhausting the limit. You can also utilize your own custom New Relic key from your own license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Trouble 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 i from scratch.

Offset, 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-relieve your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you lot're in the middle of a 500 internal server fault you lot nearly likely tin't access your WordPress admin, so this isn't an pick. Therefore you tin can create a new .htaccess file and input the following contents. And then upload it to your server.

          # Brainstorm 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> # Terminate WordPress

Run across the WordPress Codex for more than examples, such every bit 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'south nevertheless worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts however existence used. Equally AEM on Stack Overflow says:

CGI has been replaced past a vast variety of web programming technologies, including PHP, various Apache extensions like mod_perl, Java of diverse flavors and frameworks including Java EE, Struts, Leap, etc, Python-based frameworks like Django, Cerise on Rails and many other Cherry 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 you require for your script are installed and supported.

11. Server Issue (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, y'all tin always cheque with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors tin be difficult to troubleshoot without an practiced. Here are just a few mutual examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP status codes on the server that might take you scratching your caput.

          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Fault: Call to undefined function mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Mistake: Cannot use object of blazon WP_Error equally array in /world wide web/folder/spider 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 be pro-active and start fixing the outcome right abroad. We also use 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% individual and are not shared with anyone else or fifty-fifty 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 tin handle at a given time. To put it only, each uncached request for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already busy on a site, they start to build upwardly a queue. In one case you've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to button out older requests which could issue in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth commodity about PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

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

  • 15 seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • 1 minute
  • 2 minutes
  • five minutes
  • 10 minutes

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

Email notification of 500 error
Electronic mail notification of 500 fault

This tin can be specially useful if you're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This can requite you proof of how often your site might actually be doing down (fifty-fifty during the middle of the nighttime). That's why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make certain to bank check out our mail that explores the height nine 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 back up and running. Remember, typically these types of errors are caused by third-political party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connexion issues, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP memory limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there anything we missed? Possibly you lot accept another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If then, let us know below in the comments.

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