The dreaded 500 internal server fault. It e'er seems to come up at the nearly inopportune time and you're of a sudden left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site dorsum online. Trust us, we've all been at that place. Other errors that behave similarly that you 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 down, you're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it simply looks bad for your brand.

Today nosotros're going to dive into the 500 internal server mistake and walk you lot through some ways to go your site back online quickly. Read more than beneath nearly what causes this error and what you can do to forbid it in the futurity.

  • 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 Error

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

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

The 500 (Internal Server Error) status code indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented information technology 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 resource (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP besides includes what they telephone call an HTTP status code. A condition lawmaking is a fashion to notify you lot virtually the condition of the request. Information technology could be a 200 status code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 condition code which means something has gone wrong.

There are a lot of unlike types of 500 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something different. In this instance, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected status that prevented it from fulfilling the asking(RFC 7231, section 6.6.1).

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 fault tin present itself in a number of different ways. Simply they are all communicating the same matter. Below are only a couple of the many different variations you might run into on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Fault"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Mistake"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Mistake"
    • "HTTP Fault 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Fault. Sad something went wrong."
    • "500. That'southward an mistake. At that place was an error. Please try again later. That'southward all nosotros know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

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

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your asking. Delight contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the fourth dimension the mistake occurred, and annihilation yous might accept washed that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you lot might simply see a bare white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is actually quite mutual in browsers like Firefox and Safari.

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

Bigger brands might even accept their own custom 500 internal server fault messages, such as this ane from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server mistake

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

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server fault

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

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

If it'south an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they take boosted HTTP status codes to more closely indicate the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting downwardly on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is decorated restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Spider web server is too busy.
  • 500.15 – Direct requests for global.asax are not allowed.
  • 500.nineteen – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.Cyberspace httpModules configuration does non apply in Managed Pipeline fashion.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Net httpHandlers configuration does not utilise in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution error occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global dominion execution error occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite fault occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification handling. An outbound rule execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite fault occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound rule execution error occurred. The dominion is configured to exist executed earlier the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Bear upon on SEO

Dissimilar 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance style and tell Google to bank check back at a later time, a 500 fault can have a negative impact on SEO if non fixed right away. If your site is but downward for say ten minutes and it's existence crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will simply get the page delivered from enshroud. Or Google might not even have a chance to re-crawl it earlier information technology's dorsum up. In this scenario, y'all're completely fine.

However, if the site is downwards for an extended period of fourth dimension, say half dozen+ hours, then Google might see the 500 error as a site level issue that needs to be addressed. This could impact your rankings. If you lot're worried about repeat 500 errors y'all 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 commencement troubleshooting when you encounter a 500 internal server error on your WordPress site? Sometimes you might not even know where to brainstorm. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, but from our experience, these errors originate from two things, the showtime isuser fault (client-side issue), and the second is that at that place is a problem with the server. So we'll swoop into a piddling of both.

Check out these mutual causes and means to ready the 500 internal server error and get back up and running in no time.

i. Try Reloading the Folio

This might seem a trivial obvious to some, but i of the easiest and outset things yous should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to just await a minute or so and reload the folio (F5 or Ctrl + F5). Information technology could be that the host or server is simply overloaded and the site will come up correct back. While you're waiting, yous could also quickly effort a dissimilar browser to dominion that out as an consequence.

Another matter you tin can practice is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell yous if the site is down or if it'southward a problem on your side. A tool similar this checks the HTTP status lawmaking that is returned from the server. If it's anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" then information technology will return a down indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

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

2. Articulate Your Browser Cache

Clearing your browser cache is always another good troubleshooting step earlier 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 Folio for All Browsers
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Google Chrome
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Mozilla Firefox
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Safari
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Internet Explorer
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera

3. Check Your Server Logs

You should also take advantage of your mistake logs. If you lot're a Kinsta client, yous can easily see errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can aid you quickly narrow downwards the event, especially if it'due south 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, you can likewise enable WordPress debugging mode 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 have a dedicated folder called "logs".

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

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

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

If yous're a Kinsta customer you can as well have advantage of our analytics tool to go a breakdown of the total number of 500 errors and come across 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 assay 500 mistake breakdown

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

          display_errors = on

iv. Fault Establishing a Database Connection

500 internal server errors can also occur from a database connexion error. Depending upon your browser you lot might meet dissimilar errors. But both will generate a 500 HTTP status code regardless in your server logs.

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

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

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

  • The nigh mutual issue is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. Your WordPress site uses split up login information to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With so many moving parts with themes, plugins, and users constantly deleting and installing them, sometimes databases go corrupted. This can exist due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or mayhap some information was deleted by accident.
  • You may have decadent 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 end, such as the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from as well many concurrent connections. This is really quite mutual with shared hosts as they are utilizing the same resource for a lot of users on the same servers.

Cheque out our in-depth mail on how to set the error establishing a database connexion in WordPress.

five. Check Your Plugins and Themes

Tertiary-party plugins and themes can easily 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 lot should come across the error immediately later installing something new or running an update. This is one reason why nosotros always recommend utilizing a staging environment for updates or at least running updates one by ane. Otherwise, if you encounter a 500 internal server error you're of a sudden scrambling to effigy out which one caused it.

A few means you tin can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Call up, yous won't lose any data if you simply deactivate a plugin. If you can still admission your admin, a quick fashion to do this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Conciliate" from the majority actions card. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Conciliate all plugins

If this fixes the event yous'll need to find the culprit. Beginning activating them i by one, reloading the site after each activation. When y'all see the 500 internal server error return, yous've found the misbehaving plugin. You can and then reach out to the plugin programmer for help or mail a back up ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you can't login to WordPress admin you can FTP into your server and rename your plugins binder to something like plugins_old. And then check your site over again. If it works, and so you will need to exam each plugin one by one. Rename your plugin folder dorsum to "plugins" so rename each plugin folder inside of if it, ane by one, until you observe it. Yous could likewise try to replicate this on a staging site beginning.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Always makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to date. And check to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a conflict with bad lawmaking in a plugin, you might need to bring in a WordPress programmer to fix the issue.

vi. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files can get corrupted, especially on older sites. It's actually quite like shooting fish in a barrel to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We have an in-depth guide with v unlike ways to reinstall WordPress. And of course, brand sure to have 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

7. Permissions Fault

A permissions error with a file or binder on your server can also crusade a 500 internal server fault 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 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 irresolute file permissions for a more in-depth explanation.

You can easily see your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen below). Yous could likewise attain out to your WordPress host support team and inquire 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 error could also be caused past exhausting the PHP retentiveness limit on your server. Yous could try increasing the limit. Follow the instructions beneath on how to change this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increment PHP Memory Limit in cPanel

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

Yous can so click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. And then click on "Save."

Increase PHP memory limit in cPanel
Increase 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 down to a directory specific level. Offset login to your site via FTP or SSH, have a look at your root directory and see if at that place is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is you can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Nearly likely information technology is fix at 64M or below, you can endeavour increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Retention Limit in php.ini File

If the to a higher place doesn't work for yous might effort editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, go to your site'due south 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 modify them if necessary. If you just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be found you lot tin can paste the lawmaking below. You can modify of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

Some shared hosts might too require that you add the suPHP directive in your .htaccess file for the above php.ini file settings to work. To do this, edit your .htaccess file, also located at the root of your site, and add together the following lawmaking towards the elevation of the file:

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

If the higher up didn't work for you, it could be that your host has the global settings locked downwardly and instead have it configured to use .user.ini files. To edit your .user.ini file, login to your site via FTP or SSH, become to your site's root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. You can then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The last pick is not one we are fans of, merely if all else fails you can give it a go. First, log in to your site via FTP or SSH, and locate your wp-config.php file, which is typically in the root of your site.

wp-config.php file
wp-config.php file

Add the following code to the tiptop of your wp-config.php file:

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

You lot can likewise ask your host if you're running into memory limit issues. Nosotros utilize the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to help clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might exist exhausting the limit. You can also apply 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 but uses Nginx, just if you're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem or has become corrupted. Follow the steps beneath to recreate a new ane 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 tin can simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you lot're in the middle of a 500 internal server error yous most likely can't access your WordPress admin, so this isn't an pick. Therefore y'all can create a new .htaccess file and input the following contents. Then upload it to your server.

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

See the WordPress Codex for more examples, such equally 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 exist. Although it's withal worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where in that location 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 Cantlet, 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 lot tin 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 Issue (Bank check With Your Host)

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

          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Mistake: Call to undefined function mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal mistake: Uncaught Fault: Cannot use object of type WP_Error equally assortment in /world wide web/folder/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 issue right away. We 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 not shared with anyone else or fifty-fifty your own 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 but, each uncached request for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already decorated on a site, they outset to build up a queue. Once you've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push out older requests which could effect in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth article well-nigh PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the hereafter, you tin can also apply a tool similar updown.io to monitor and notify y'all immediately if they occur. It periodically sends an HTTP Head asking to the URL of your choice. You can simply use your homepage. The tool allows yous to set check frequencies of:

  • xv seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • 1 infinitesimal
  • two minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes

It will send you an e-mail if and when your site goes downwardly. Here is an example beneath.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 error

This can be specially useful if y'all're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This can requite you lot proof of how often your site might actually exist doing down (even during the middle of the nighttime). That's why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make certain to check out our post that explores the acme 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are ever frustrating, but hopefully, now you 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-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection bug, issues with your .htaccess file or PHP memory limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there anything we missed? Perhaps you lot accept some other tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, permit us know below in the comments.

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