The dreaded 500 internal server mistake. It always seems to come at the most inopportune fourth dimension and you're suddenly left scrambling to effigy out how to go your WordPress site back online. Trust us, we've all been at that place. Other errors that deport similarly that you might have 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 information technology simply looks bad for your make.

Today nosotros're going to dive into the 500 internal server error and walk yous through some ways to get your site back online quickly. Read more beneath about what causes this fault and what you tin do to foreclose information technology in the future.

  • What is a 500 internal server error?
  • How to fix 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 Engineering science Job Force (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 asking.

When y'all visit a website your browser sends a asking over to the server where the site is hosted. The server takes this request, processes it, and sends back the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP besides includes what they call an HTTP status code. A status code is a fashion to notify you lot about the condition of the asking. Information technology could be a 200 condition code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone wrong.

There are a lot of different types of 500 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something unlike. In this example, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section 6.half dozen.1).

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

500 Internal Server Error Variations

Due to the diverse 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 only a couple of the many different variations you might come across on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Mistake"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Fault"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Fault 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Sorry something went wrong."
    • "500. That'southward an mistake. In that location was an fault. Please try once more later. That's all nosotros know."
    • "The website cannot brandish the folio – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP Mistake 500."

You might also run into this message accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal fault or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, [electronic mail protected] and inform them of the fourth dimension the mistake occurred, and anything you might accept done that may have caused the error. More information nearly this mistake may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you lot might only encounter a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is really quite common in browsers like Firefox and Safari.

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

Bigger brands might even have their own custom 500 internal server error letters, such equally this one from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

Hither is some other creative 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 safe from 500 internal server errors.

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

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

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI fault occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting downward on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is decorated restarting on the spider web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is likewise busy.
  • 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.Cyberspace httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline fashion.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Net httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.Net impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline style.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution error occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite fault occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global dominion 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 error occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Impact on SEO

Dissimilar 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance style and tell Google to check back at a later time, a 500 mistake can have a negative impact on SEO if not stock-still right away. If your site is only downwards for say 10 minutes and it's being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will just go the page delivered from cache. Or Google might not fifty-fifty take a risk to re-clamber it earlier it'southward back up. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

Even so, if the site is down for an extended period of time, say 6+ hours, then Google might meet the 500 error as a site level effect that needs to be addressed. This could impact your rankings. If you're worried nigh repeat 500 errors y'all should effigy out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below can assist.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you kickoff troubleshooting when you meet 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 feel, these errors originate from ii things, the beginning isuser fault (customer-side issue), and the second is that there is a problem with the server. And then we'll dive into a little of both.

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

1. Endeavour Reloading the Page

This might seem a little obvious to some, but i of the easiest and start things you should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply look a minute or so and reload the folio (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could be that the host or server is merely overloaded and the site will come correct dorsum. While you're waiting, yous could also quickly try a unlike browser to dominion that out as an issue.

Another thing you tin do is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell you if the site is down or if information technology's a trouble on your side. A tool similar this checks the HTTP status code that is returned from the server. If it'south anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" then it will render a down indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

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

2. Clear Your Browser Cache

Immigration your browser cache is e'er another expert troubleshooting footstep before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to articulate cache in the various browsers:

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

3. Check Your Server Logs

You lot should too take reward of your error logs. If yous're a Kinsta client, you can easily see errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you lot quickly narrow down 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 lot tin can also enable WordPress debugging way by adding the following lawmaking to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

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

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

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

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

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

If yous're a Kinsta customer you can also accept reward of our analytics tool to become a breakup 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 upshot, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakdown

If the 500 mistake is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, you can also try enabling PHP error reporting. But add the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically y'all tin 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 y'all might need to too change your php.ini file with the post-obit:

          display_errors = on

4. Fault Establishing a Database Connection

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

Below is an instance of what an "fault establishing a database connection" message looks like your browser. The unabridged page is blank because no data tin exist retrieved to render the page, as the connection is non working properly. Not only does this break the front-end of your site, only it will besides prevent yous 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 most common effect is that yourdatabase login credentials are wrong. Your WordPress site uses separate login data to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With so many moving parts with themes, plugins, and users constantly deleting and installing them, sometimes databases get corrupted. This can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perhaps some information was deleted by accident.
  • You may take corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can fifty-fifty 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 fasten or unresponsive from likewise many concurrent connections. This is actually quite common with shared hosts equally they are utilizing the same resources for a lot of users on the aforementioned servers.

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

five. 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 yous should meet the mistake immediately afterwards 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 i by ane. Otherwise, if you encounter a 500 internal server error you're suddenly scrambling to effigy out which one caused it.

A few means you tin troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Call up, you lot won't lose any data if you simply conciliate a plugin. If you tin can still access your admin, a quick manner to practice this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the bulk deportment carte du jour. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the issue you'll need to discover the culprit. First activating them one past i, reloading the site afterwards each activation. When you see the 500 internal server mistake render, you've found the misbehaving plugin. You tin can then achieve out to the plugin programmer for aid or post a back up ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you tin't login to WordPress admin you can FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something similar plugins_old. Then check your site again. If it works, then you will need to test each plugin i by one. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder within of if information technology, one past one, until you observe information technology. You could likewise try 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 appointment. And cheque to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to exist a conflict with bad lawmaking in a plugin, you might need to bring in a WordPress programmer to set the issue.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress cadre files can get 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. We have an in-depth guide with 5 different means to reinstall WordPress. And of form, make sure to take a backup before proceeding. Skip to one of the sections below:

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

7. Permissions Fault

A permissions fault with a file or folder on your server can also crusade a 500 internal server error to occur. Hither 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 exist 755 (drwxr-xr-10) or 750.
  • No directories should ever be given 777, fifty-fifty upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could also be set up to 440 or 400 to prevent other users on the server from reading it.

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

You tin can easily encounter your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen below). Y'all could also attain out to your WordPress host support team 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 Memory Limit

A 500 internal server mistake could too exist caused by exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. Yous could effort 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 you're running on a host that uses cPanel, you tin 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 change its value. So click on "Save."

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

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains various settings you tin 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 in that location is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is you lot can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP retention limit. Most likely information technology is set at 64M or below, you can attempt increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increment PHP Retention Limit in php.ini File

If the above doesn't piece of work for y'all might try 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 alter them if necessary. If you just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be plant you can paste the lawmaking below. You lot can modify of course the values to come across your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the higher up didn't work for you lot, it could be that your host has the global settings locked downwards and instead take 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 up or create a .user.ini file. You tin and so paste in the post-obit lawmaking:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The last option is not one we are fans of, but if all else fails y'all can give it a get. 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 following code to the meridian of your wp-config.php file:

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

You can also ask your host if you'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. You can also use your own custom New Relic fundamental.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

ix. Trouble With Your .htaccess File

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

Normally to recreate this file yous tin simply re-salvage your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you're in the middle of a 500 internal server error you most likely tin't access your WordPress admin, so this isn't an choice. Therefore you tin can create a new .htaccess file and input the following contents. And so upload information technology to your server.

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

See 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 past errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to be. Although it'south notwithstanding worth mentioning, particularly for those using cPanel where there are a lot of i-click CGI scripts even so being used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Hither are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

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

11. Server Result (Check With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors can also occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with tertiary-political party plugins, yous tin e'er check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors tin can be difficult to troubleshoot without an expert. Here are but a few mutual examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP status codes on the server that might take you scratching your head.

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

We monitor all client'due south sites here at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows us to be pro-agile and start fixing the outcome right abroad. 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 resource are 100% private and are not shared with anyone else or fifty-fifty your own sites.

PHP timeouts could also occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these cause 504 errors, not 500 errors. These determine how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given fourth dimension. 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 showtime to build up a queue. In one case you lot'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 commodity about PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the future, you lot can likewise apply a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. It periodically sends an HTTP Caput request to the URL of your choice. You tin simply utilize your homepage. The tool allows yous to gear up cheque frequencies of:

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

It will send yous an email if and when your site goes down. Hither is an case below.

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

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 give y'all proof of how often your site might actually exist doing downward (even during the heart of the night). That's why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Brand sure to check out our post that explores the top 9 reasons to cull managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are always frustrating, merely hopefully, now y'all know a few boosted ways to troubleshoot them to speedily become your site support and running. Think, 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 there anything we missed? Perhaps you have some other tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, allow us know below in the comments.

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