The dreaded 500 internal server error. Information technology ever seems to come at the virtually inopportune time and y'all're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust us, we've all been in that location. Other errors that behave similarly that yous might have also seen include the frightening mistake establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of expiry. But from the moment your site goes downwardly, y'all're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it simply looks bad for your brand.

Today we're going to dive into the 500 internal server error and walk you through some ways to get your site back online speedily. Read more beneath about what causes this mistake and what you lot tin do to forbid information technology in the future.

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

Bank check Out Our Ultimate Guide to Fixing the 500 Internal Server Mistake

What is a 500 Internal Server Fault?

The Cyberspace Engineering Task Forcefulness (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 you lot visit a website your browser sends a request over to the server where the site is hosted. The server takes this request, processes information technology, and sends dorsum the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP also includes what they call an HTTP status lawmaking. A status code is a way to notify you near the status of the request. It could be a 200 status code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone wrong.

In that location are a lot of different types of 500 status mistake codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all hateful something unlike. In this case, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section 6.6.i).

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

500 Internal Server Mistake Variations

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

    • "500 Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Fault"
    • "500 Fault"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Fault"
    • "500 Internal Server Mistake. Lamentable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. There was an fault. Please try once more later. That's all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this asking. HTTP Error 500."

Y'all might also run across this bulletin accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal mistake or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your asking. Please contact the server ambassador, [email protected] and inform them of the time the fault occurred, and anything you might have done that may have acquired the fault. More than information most this error may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

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

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

Bigger brands might even have their ain custom 500 internal server fault messages, such as this one from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server mistake

Here is another artistic 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 safety from 500 internal server errors.

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

If information technology's an IIS vii.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have boosted HTTP status codes to more than closely indicate the crusade of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI fault occurred.
  • 500.eleven – Application is shutting down on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Awarding is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is besides decorated.
  • 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 apply in Managed Pipeline manner.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.Cyberspace impersonation configuration does not utilize in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A configuration or entering 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 handling. An outbound rule execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound rule execution mistake occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user enshroud gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP fault.

500 Errors Affect on SEO

Unlike 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to check back at a later time, a 500 error can accept a negative impact on SEO if non fixed correct away. If your site is only down for say ten minutes and it's being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will simply get the page delivered from cache. Or Google might non even have a chance to re-crawl it before information technology's back upwardly. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

Yet, if the site is downwards 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 touch your rankings. If you're worried almost echo 500 errors you should figure out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below tin assist.

How to Set the 500 Internal Server Mistake

Where should you kickoff troubleshooting when you see a 500 internal server error on your WordPress site? Sometimes you might non even know where to begin. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, just from our feel, these errors originate from ii things, the first isuser error (client-side event), and the 2nd is that at that place is a problem with the server. And then we'll swoop into a piddling of both.

Cheque out these common causes and ways to prepare the 500 internal server error and get back upwardly and running in no time.

1. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a little obvious to some, just one of the easiest and first things you should endeavour when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply wait a minute or then and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could exist that the host or server is just overloaded and the site will come correct back. While you're waiting, you could likewise quickly try a different browser to rule that out as an issue.

Some other affair you tin do is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell you if the site is downwards or if information technology'southward a problem on your side. A tool like this checks the HTTP condition lawmaking that is returned from the server. If it's anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" and so it will return a downward indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

Nosotros've also noticed that sometimes this can occur immediately later you update a plugin or theme on your WordPress site. Typically this is on hosts that aren't prepare properly. What happens is they experience a temporary timeout right subsequently. However, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all yous demand to practise.

2. Articulate Your Browser Cache

Clearing your browser enshroud is always another good troubleshooting pace earlier diving into deeper debugging on your site. Beneath are instructions on how to articulate cache in the diverse browsers:

  • How to Force Refresh a Single Folio 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 Clear Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Articulate Browser Enshroud for Opera

3. Check Your Server Logs

You should also accept reward of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta customer, yous can easily see errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This tin assistance you lot quickly narrow downwardly the issue, peculiarly if it'southward resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

If your host doesn't have a logging tool, you can besides enable WordPress debugging mode by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

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

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

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

You can likewise check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are unremarkably located hither:

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

If yous're a Kinsta customer you can as well accept advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the total number of 500 errors and see how ofttimes and when they are occurring. This can help you troubleshoot if this is an ongoing event, 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, you lot can also try enabling PHP fault reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the mistake. Typically you tin narrow downwards the file in the panel 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 as well modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connexion

500 internal server errors tin also occur from a database connection error. Depending upon your browser you might see unlike errors. But both volition generate a 500 HTTP condition code regardless in your server logs.

Below is an example of what an "error establishing a database connection" message looks like your browser. The unabridged page is blank because no data can be retrieved to return the page, as the connection is not working properly. Not just does this break the front end-end of your site, but information technology will also prevent you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The most common issue is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. Your WordPress site uses split 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 go corrupted. This can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perhaps some information was deleted by accident.
  • You may have decadent files in your WordPress installation. This tin can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Bug with your database server. A number of things could be wrong on the web hosts end, such as the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from besides many concurrent connections. This is actually quite common with shared hosts as they are utilizing the same resources for a lot of users on the same servers.

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

5. Bank check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-party plugins and themes tin can hands crusade 500 internal server errors. We've seen all types cause them here at Kinsta, from slider plugins to ad rotator plugins. A lot of times you should see the fault 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 one by one. Otherwise, if you lot encounter a 500 internal server error you lot're suddenly scrambling to figure out which one caused it.

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

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the outcome you'll need to find the culprit. Starting time activating them one past ane, reloading the site afterward each activation. When y'all see the 500 internal server fault return, you lot've plant the misbehaving plugin. Y'all can then accomplish out to the plugin developer for help or post a support 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. Then check your site again. If it works, then you will need to test each plugin 1 past one. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, 1 by one, until yous find it. You could also attempt to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Always makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to engagement. And check to ensure y'all are running a supported version of PHP. If information technology turns out to be a conflict with bad code in a plugin, y'all might need to bring in a WordPress programmer to fix the issue.

6. Reinstall WordPress Cadre

Sometimes WordPress core files can become corrupted, especially on older sites. It's actually quite piece of cake to re-upload but the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. Nosotros have an in-depth guide with 5 dissimilar ways to reinstall WordPress. And of course, make certain to take a backup before 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

7. Permissions Error

A permissions error with a file or folder on your server can also crusade 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 be 644 (-rw-r–r–) or 640.
  • All directories should exist 755 (drwxr-xr-10) or 750.
  • No directories should ever be given 777, even upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could besides be set to 440 or 400 to forestall other users on the server from reading information technology.

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

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

A 500 internal server fault could also be caused past exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. You could attempt increasing the limit. Follow the instructions below on how to modify this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increase PHP Retentivity 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 can then click on the memory_limit attribute and alter its value. And then click on "Save."

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

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special subconscious file that contains diverse settings you can use to modify the server behavior, correct downwards to a directory specific level. First login to your site via FTP or SSH, have a expect at your root directory and see if at that place is a .htaccess file at that place.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is you lot tin can edit that file to add the necessary lawmaking for increasing the PHP retentivity limit. Most probable it is prepare at 64M or below, you tin can try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in php.ini File

If the above 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'south 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 you only created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be institute you lot can paste the code below. Yous tin modify of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

Some shared hosts might as well require that y'all add the suPHP directive in your .htaccess file for the higher up php.ini file settings to work. To practice this, edit your .htaccess file, also located at the root of your site, and add the post-obit code towards the summit of the file:

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

If the to a higher place didn't piece of work for you, information technology 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

Increase PHP Retentiveness Limit in wp-config.php

The last choice is not one nosotros are fans of, but if all else fails you lot 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');

Yous can too ask your host if y'all're running into memory limit issues. We use New Relic and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to help clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. Y'all tin can too utilize your own custom New Relic key.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta only uses Nginx, simply if y'all'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.

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 lot tin merely re-salvage your permalinks in WordPress. Even so, if yous're in the centre of a 500 internal server error you lot about likely can't access your WordPress admin, so this isn't an option. 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 ^alphabetize\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /alphabetize.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress

Encounter the WordPress Codex for more examples, such equally a default .htaccess file for multisite.

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

500 errors being acquired by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to be. Although it'south still worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where at that place are a lot of one-click CGI scripts nonetheless being used. Every bit AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Hither are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

  • When editing, always used a evidently text editor, such as Atom, Sublime, or Notepad++. This ensures they remain in ASCII format.
  • Ensure correct permissions of chmod 755 are used on CGI scripts and directories.
  • Upload your CGI scripts in ASCII mode (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.

11. Server Issue (Check With Your Host)

Finally, considering 500 internal server errors can also occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with 3rd-party plugins, you tin can e'er check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can be hard to troubleshoot without an proficient. Here are just a few mutual examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP condition codes on the server that might have y'all scratching your head.

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

We monitor all client'southward sites here at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows us to be pro-agile and kickoff fixing the issue right abroad. We also utilize LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This means that every WordPress site is housed in its own isolated container, which has all of the software resources required to run information technology (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL). The resources are 100% individual and are not shared with anyone else or even your ain sites.

PHP timeouts could besides occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these cause 504 errors, not 500 errors. These determine how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given time. To put it simply, each uncached request for your website is handled 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 upshot in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth article nigh PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the future, y'all can as well utilize a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you lot immediately if they occur. It periodically sends an HTTP Caput asking to the URL of your choice. You can simply use your homepage. The tool allows you to ready check frequencies of:

  • fifteen seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • ane minute
  • two minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • ten minutes

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

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 mistake

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

Summary

500 internal server errors are always frustrating, but hopefully, now you know a few additional ways to troubleshoot them to quickly become your site back up and running. Retrieve, typically these types of errors are acquired by 3rd-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connectedness issues, problems 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 and so, let united states of america know below in the comments.

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