The dreaded 500 internal server error. It ever 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 us, we've all been there. Other errors that behave similarly that you might accept also seen include the frightening fault 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 just looks bad for your brand.

Today we're going to swoop into the 500 internal server error and walk yous through some ways to go your site back online speedily. Read more below about what causes this error and what you lot can practise to foreclose it in the future.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Internet Applied science Chore Forcefulness (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error as:

The 500 (Internal Server Error) status code indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it 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 asking, processes it, and sends dorsum the requested resource (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 lot about the condition of the request. It could be a 200 condition code which ways "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone wrong.

There are a lot of different types of 500 condition fault 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 6.six.1).

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

500 Internal Server Error Variations

Due to the various spider web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server fault can present itself in a number of different means. Simply they are all communicating the same thing. Beneath are just a couple of the many different variations you might see on the spider web:

    • "500 Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Mistake"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Mistake"
    • "500 Fault"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Fault"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Deplorable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. There was an mistake. Please try once more after. That's all we know."
    • "The website cannot brandish the page – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

Y'all might too see this message accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal fault or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your asking. Delight contact the server administrator, [e-mail protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the fault. More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, yous might but run into a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is actually quite common in browsers similar Firefox and Safari.

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

Bigger brands might even accept their own custom 500 internal server error messages, such every bit this one from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

Hither is some other artistic 500 server error example from the folks over at readme.

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

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

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

If it's an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or college server, they have additional HTTP status codes to more than closely bespeak 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 spider web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is too busy.
  • 500.fifteen – Direct requests for global.asax are non 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 mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Cyberspace httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline style.
  • 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 mistake 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 dominion execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification treatment. An outbound rule execution fault occurred. The rule is configured to exist executed earlier the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Touch on on SEO

Dissimilar 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance style and tell Google to check back at a later fourth dimension, a 500 fault can have a negative impact on SEO if not fixed right away. If your site is merely downwards for say 10 minutes and it'south being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will simply go the folio delivered from enshroud. Or Google might not even have a chance to re-crawl it before it'south back up. In this scenario, y'all're completely fine.

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

How to Ready the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you beginning 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, but from our feel, these errors originate from two things, the first isuser error (customer-side result), and the second is that there is a problem with the server. So we'll dive into a lilliputian of both.

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

1. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a trivial obvious to some, only one of the easiest and first things you should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply wait a minute or and 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 right back. While you're waiting, y'all could also quickly try a different browser to rule that out as an issue.

Another matter y'all can do is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell you if the site is down or if it's a problem on your side. A tool like this checks the HTTP condition code that is returned from the server. If information technology'southward annihilation other than a 200 "Everything is OK" then it will return a downwardly indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've as well noticed that sometimes this can occur immediately subsequently 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 later. However, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you demand to do.

2. Clear Your Browser Enshroud

Clearing your browser enshroud is ever another skillful troubleshooting pace 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 Cache for Mozilla Firefox
  • How to Articulate Browser Enshroud for Safari
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Net Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera

3. Bank check Your Server Logs

Yous should likewise take advantage of your fault logs. If yous're a Kinsta customer, you can easily encounter errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you rapidly narrow downward the issue, especially if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

If your host doesn't accept a logging tool, you tin can as well 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', true ); ascertain( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', simulated );

The logs are typically located in the /wp-content directory. Others, like hither at Kinsta might have a defended binder chosen "logs".

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

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

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

If y'all're a Kinsta client you tin can likewise have advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the total number of 500 errors and see how frequently and when they are occurring. This can assist you troubleshoot if this is an ongoing issue, or possibly something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakup

If the 500 error is displaying considering of a fatal PHP mistake, you lot can as well endeavour enabling PHP mistake reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the mistake. 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', ane); error_reporting(E_ALL);

And yous might need to too alter your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

four. Error Establishing a Database Connexion

500 internal server errors can also occur from a database connection mistake. Depending upon your browser y'all might meet dissimilar errors. But both will generate a 500 HTTP condition code regardless in your server logs.

Below is an example of what an "error establishing a database connectedness" message looks like your browser. The unabridged folio is blank because no information can be retrieved to return the folio, as the connectedness is not working properly. Not just does this intermission the front-terminate of your site, but it volition also prevent you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The nigh mutual event 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 become corrupted. This tin can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perchance some information was deleted past blow.
  • You may have corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Problems 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 fasten 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.

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 can easily cause 500 internal server errors. We've seen all types crusade them here at Kinsta, from slider plugins to ad rotator plugins. A lot of times y'all should see the mistake immediately after installing something new or running an update. This is ane reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging surroundings for updates or at to the lowest degree running updates one past one. Otherwise, if y'all encounter a 500 internal server error you're suddenly scrambling to figure out which 1 caused it.

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

Deactivate all plugins
Conciliate all plugins

If this fixes the issue you'll demand to find the culprit. Starting time activating them one by one, reloading the site later on each activation. When you meet the 500 internal server mistake render, you lot've constitute the misbehaving plugin. You tin then reach out to the plugin developer for help or mail service a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you tin can't login to WordPress admin you lot can FTP into your server and rename your plugins binder to something like plugins_old. So bank check your site again. If it works, then y'all will need to test each plugin i past one. Rename your plugin binder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, one by ane, until you notice it. Y'all could also try to replicate this on a staging site starting time.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin binder

Ever makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to date. And bank check to ensure y'all 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 developer to fix the result.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress cadre files can get corrupted, especially on older sites. Information technology's actually quite easy to re-upload only the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We accept an in-depth guide with 5 unlike ways to reinstall WordPress. And of form, brand sure to take a fill-in earlier proceeding. Skip to one of the sections below:

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

seven. Permissions Mistake

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

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

You tin hands see your file permissions with an FTP client (every bit seen below). You could too reach out to your WordPress host support team and ask them to chop-chop GREP file permissions on your folders and files to ensure they're setup properly.

File permissions SFTP
File permissions SFTP

viii. PHP Memory Limit

A 500 internal server error could as well 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.

Increase PHP Retentiveness Limit in cPanel

If you're running on a host that uses cPanel, you lot 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 so click on the memory_limit attribute and modify its value. So 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 lot tin can use to modify the server beliefs, right down to a directory specific level. First login to your site via FTP or SSH, accept a look at your root directory and see if at that place is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If at that place is y'all can edit that file to add together the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Well-nigh probable it is set at 64M or beneath, you tin try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increment PHP Retention Limit in php.ini File

If the above doesn't work for you might try editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, go to your site'southward root directory and open 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 just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be found you can paste the code below. You lot tin modify of class 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 exercise this, edit your .htaccess file, too located at the root of your site, and add the following lawmaking towards the top of the file:

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

If the higher up didn't piece of work for you, it could be that your host has the global settings locked down and instead have information technology configured to use .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 so paste in the following lawmaking:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increment PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The last option is not one we are fans of, just if all else fails you lot tin can give information technology a go. Starting time, 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 post-obit code to the top of your wp-config.php file:

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

You can also enquire your host if you're running into memory limit problems. We utilize the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to help clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. You can also use your own custom New Relic key from your ain license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta but uses Nginx, simply if you're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well exist that your .htaccess file has a trouble or has become corrupted. Follow the steps below 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

Usually to recreate this file you can just re-save your permalinks in WordPress. All the same, if you're in the heart of a 500 internal server error you near likely can't admission your WordPress admin, so this isn't an option. Therefore you tin 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

Run across 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 acquired by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to exist. Although it's still worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of ane-click CGI scripts still existence used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

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

11. Server Issue (Check With Your Host)

Finally, considering 500 internal server errors can as well occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-party plugins, you can e'er check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can be difficult to troubleshoot without an expert. Here are just a few common examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP status codes on the server that might have you scratching your head.

          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Fault: Call to undefined function mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of type WP_Error as assortment in /www/binder/spider web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

We monitor all client's sites hither at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows us to be pro-agile and start fixing the issue right away. Nosotros 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 it (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL). The resources are 100% individual and are not shared with anyone else or even your own sites.

PHP timeouts could also 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 fourth dimension. To put it just, 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. One time you've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push button out older requests which could outcome in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth commodity about PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the future, you can as well employ a tool similar updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. Information technology periodically sends an HTTP Head request to the URL of your choice. Yous tin just use your homepage. The tool allows yous to set check frequencies of:

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

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

Email notification of 500 error
E-mail notification of 500 mistake

This can 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 requite you proof of how often your site might actually be doing down (even during the middle of the nighttime). That's why nosotros always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make sure to check out our mail that explores the height ix 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 get your site back up and running. Remember, typically these types of errors are caused by third-political party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection issues, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP retentiveness limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there anything we missed? Perhaps you have another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, permit usa know below in the comments.

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