The dreaded 500 internal server error. It always seems to come at the most inopportune time and you'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 accept also seen include the frightening mistake establishing a database connectedness and the dreaded white screen of expiry. 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 we're going to dive into the 500 internal server error and walk you through some means to become your site back online quickly. Read more below about what causes this fault and what yous tin exercise to forestall it in the future.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Internet Technology Job Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error equally:

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

When you visit a website your browser sends a request over to the server where the site is hosted. The server takes this asking, processes it, and sends back the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP also includes what they telephone call an HTTP condition code. A status code is a way to notify you about the condition of the request. It could exist a 200 status code which ways "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 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something dissimilar. 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 vi.6.i).

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 can present itself in a number of dissimilar ways. But they are all communicating the aforementioned thing. Below are but a couple of the many different variations you might encounter on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Mistake"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Fault. Sorry something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an fault. At that place was an fault. Delight endeavour again afterwards. That's all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

Y'all might also see this message accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to consummate your request. Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might take done that may take caused the mistake. More data virtually this error may be bachelor in the server mistake log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, y'all might simply see a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is actually quite mutual 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 error messages, such equally this ane from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

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

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

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

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

If it's an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they take additional HTTP condition codes to more closely betoken the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI fault occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting downwards on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is too busy.
  • 500.15 – Straight requests for global.asax are not immune.
  • 500.19 – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.Cyberspace httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does non apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. 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 error occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite fault occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification handling. An outbound rule execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification treatment. 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 mode and tell Google to check dorsum at a later on time, a 500 error can have a negative touch on SEO if not fixed right away. If your site is only downwardly for say 10 minutes and it's being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler volition simply get the page delivered from enshroud. Or Google might non fifty-fifty take a chance to re-crawl it earlier information technology'southward back upwards. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

However, if the site is downwards for an extended menses of time, say 6+ hours, so Google might see the 500 error equally a site level issue that needs to be addressed. This could bear upon your rankings. If y'all're worried about repeat 500 errors yous should effigy out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions beneath tin help.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you lot starting time troubleshooting when you encounter a 500 internal server error on your WordPress site? Sometimes you lot 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 start isuser error (client-side result), and the second is that in that location is a problem with the server. So we'll dive into a little of both.

Cheque out these mutual causes and ways to fix the 500 internal server error and become support and running in no time.

1. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a petty obvious to some, but one of the easiest and first things y'all should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to only 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 correct back. While you're waiting, you could besides rapidly attempt a dissimilar browser to dominion that out every bit an result.

Another affair you can practice is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website volition tell you lot if the site is down or if information technology's a trouble on your side. A tool like this checks the HTTP condition code that is returned from the server. If it'south anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" and so it will return a down indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

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

ii. Clear Your Browser Cache

Immigration your browser cache is always another good troubleshooting pace before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to clear cache in the diverse browsers:

  • How to Forcefulness Refresh a Single Page for All Browsers
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Google Chrome
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Mozilla Firefox
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Safari
  • How to Articulate Browser Enshroud for Internet Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Opera

3. Check Your Server Logs

You lot should also take advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta client, you can easily meet errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you quickly narrow down the issue, peculiarly if it's 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 as well enable WordPress debugging style by adding the following lawmaking to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

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

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

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

Yous can also cheque 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 client you tin also have reward 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 issue, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakdown

If the 500 fault is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, you tin can also endeavor enabling PHP mistake reporting. Merely add the following lawmaking to the file throwing the fault. Typically you can narrow down the file in the console tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

          ini_set('display_errors', i); ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1); error_reporting(E_ALL);

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

          display_errors = on

four. Error Establishing a Database Connection

500 internal server errors can as well occur from a database connection error. Depending upon your browser you might see different errors. Merely both volition 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 bare because no information can exist retrieved to render the page, as the connection is not working properly. Not only does this break the forepart-end of your site, but it volition also preclude you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The near common issue is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. Your WordPress site uses separate login information to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With and then many moving parts with themes, plugins, and users constantly deleting and installing them, sometimes databases get corrupted. This tin can exist due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perhaps some information was deleted by blow.
  • You may have corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Issues with your database server. A number of things could exist wrong on the spider web hosts end, such every bit the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from as well 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 set the error establishing a database connectedness in WordPress.

five. Cheque Your Plugins and Themes

Third-political party plugins and themes can easily cause 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 error immediately after installing something new or running an update. This is one reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging environment for updates or at least running updates one past ane. Otherwise, if y'all see a 500 internal server error you lot're suddenly scrambling to figure out which 1 caused information technology.

A few ways you can troubleshoot this is past deactivating all your plugins. Remember, you won't lose any information if yous simply deactivate a plugin. If you can still admission your admin, a quick mode to do this is to scan 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 result y'all'll need to find the culprit. Showtime activating them 1 by one, reloading the site after each activation. When you come across the 500 internal server fault return, you lot've found the misbehaving plugin. Y'all can then reach out to the plugin developer for assist or post a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you lot can't login to WordPress admin you 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, so you will need to test each plugin one by i. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, one by one, until you find it. You could also effort to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Always makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress cadre are upwards to engagement. And cheque to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to exist a conflict with bad code in a plugin, yous might demand to bring in a WordPress developer to fix the result.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files can get corrupted, especially on older sites. Information technology's really quite like shooting fish in a barrel to re-upload merely the cadre of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We have an in-depth guide with 5 different means to reinstall WordPress. And of course, make certain to take a backup before proceeding. Skip to ane 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 Error

A permissions fault with a file or folder on your server can too cause a 500 internal server error to occur. Here are some typical recommendations for permissions when it comes to file and binder permissions in WordPress:

  • All files should exist 644 (-rw-r–r–) or 640.
  • All directories should be 755 (drwxr-xr-x) or 750.
  • No directories should ever be given 777, even upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could too be set to 440 or 400 to preclude other users on the server from reading information technology.

Run into the WordPress Codex article on changing file permissions for a more than in-depth caption.

You tin can easily encounter your file permissions with an FTP customer (as seen below). You lot 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 Retentivity Limit

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

Increment PHP Retentiveness Limit in cPanel

If you're running on a host that uses cPanel, you tin can hands alter 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 can and so click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. Then click on "Salvage."

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 diverse settings yous can utilize to modify the server behavior, correct downwards to a directory specific level. Offset login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a look at your root directory and come across if in that location is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is y'all can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP retentiveness limit. Most probable information technology is set at 64M or below, yous tin can try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Retentiveness Limit in php.ini File

If the in a higher place doesn't work for you lot might try editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, get to your site's root directory and open 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 constitute you can paste the lawmaking below. You tin modify of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

Some shared hosts might also require 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, also located at the root of your site, and add the following lawmaking towards the peak of the file:

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

If the above 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 can then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increment PHP Retentivity Limit in wp-config.php

The concluding option is non one we are fans of, but if all else fails yous tin can requite it a go. Get-go, 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');

Y'all can also ask your host if you're running into memory limit issues. We utilize New Relic and other troubleshooting methods hither at Kinsta to assistance clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might exist exhausting the limit. Yous can too use your own custom New Relic fundamental.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

ix. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta only 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 trouble or has become corrupted. Follow the steps below to recreate a new one from scratch.

Start, log in to your site via FTP or SSH, and rename your .htaccess file to .htaccess_old.

Rename .htaccess file
Rename .htaccess file

Commonly to recreate this file you tin can simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. Still, if yous're in the middle of a 500 internal server error you about probable can't access your WordPress admin, then this isn't an option. Therefore y'all tin can create a new .htaccess file and input the following contents. And then upload it to your server.

          # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^alphabetize\.php$ - [50] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [50] </IfModule> # Stop WordPress

Run into the WordPress Codex for more 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 be. Although information technology's nevertheless worth mentioning, specially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts withal being used. Equally AEM on Stack Overflow says:

CGI has been replaced by a vast variety of spider web programming technologies, including PHP, diverse Apache extensions like mod_perl, Java of various flavors and frameworks including Coffee 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 way (which you lot 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 (Cheque With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors can also occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-party plugins, you can always check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can exist difficult to troubleshoot without an expert. Hither are simply 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 error: Uncaught Error: Phone call to undefined part mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal fault: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of type WP_Error as array in /www/folder/spider 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 the states to be pro-active and outset fixing the result right away. We besides 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 it (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL). The resources are 100% private and are not shared with anyone else or even your own sites.

PHP timeouts could as well occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these crusade 504 errors, not 500 errors. These decide 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 decorated on a site, they first to build up a queue. Once y'all've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push out older requests which could result in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth article about PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you lot'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 request to the URL of your choice. You can simply apply your homepage. The tool allows you to set check frequencies of:

  • fifteen seconds
  • xxx seconds
  • 1 minute
  • two minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • x minutes

It volition send you an electronic mail if and when your site goes down. Here is an case below.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 error

This tin be especially useful if you're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This can give yous proof of how often your site might really exist doing down (even during the heart of the night). That's why nosotros always 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, merely hopefully, now you lot know a few additional ways to troubleshoot them to quickly get your site support and running. Call back, typically these types of errors are caused by 3rd-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connectedness problems, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP memory limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

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

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