The dreaded 500 internal server fault. It always seems to come at the most inopportune time and y'all're all of a sudden left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site dorsum online. Trust united states, we've all been there. Other errors that conduct similarly that you might take likewise seen include the frightening mistake establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of expiry. But from the moment your site goes down, y'all're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it just looks bad for your brand.

Today we're going to dive into the 500 internal server mistake and walk you through some ways to go your site back online quickly. Read more below most what causes this mistake and what you tin do to prevent information technology in the time to come.

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

Cheque Out Our Ultimate Guide to Fixing the 500 Internal Server Error

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Cyberspace Engineering science 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 asking.

When you visit a website your browser sends a request 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.) forth with an HTTP header. The HTTP also includes what they phone call an HTTP condition lawmaking. A status code is a fashion to notify you lot virtually the status of the request. It could be a 200 condition code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status lawmaking which ways something has gone wrong.

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

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

500 Internal Server Error Variations

Due to the diverse 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 same thing. Below are just a couple of the many different variations you might come across on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Mistake 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Lamentable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an mistake. There was an error. Please endeavour once more later. That'due south all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the folio – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

You might also encounter this message accompanying information technology:

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

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you might merely 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 have their own custom 500 internal server error messages, such as this i from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server error

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

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server mistake

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 seven.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have boosted HTTP status codes to more than closely signal the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting down on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.xiii – Web server is too 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 mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not utilize 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 dominion execution error occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite fault 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 treatment. An outbound dominion execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite mistake occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification treatment. An outbound dominion execution error occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user enshroud gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP mistake.

500 Errors Impact on SEO

Unlike 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance style and tell Google to check dorsum at a later time, a 500 fault tin have a negative touch on SEO if not fixed correct away. If your site is just down for say ten minutes and information technology's existence crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will but get the page delivered from enshroud. Or Google might not even have a chance to re-crawl it before it'southward support. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

However, if the site is down for an extended period of fourth dimension, say six+ hours, then Google might see the 500 fault as a site level upshot that needs to be addressed. This could impact your rankings. If yous're worried almost repeat 500 errors you lot should figure out why they are happening to brainstorm with. Some of the solutions below can assist.

How to Ready the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you lot start troubleshooting when you meet a 500 internal server error on your WordPress site? Sometimes you might not even know where to begin. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, but from our experience, these errors originate from two things, the first isuser mistake (client-side issue), and the 2d is that there is a problem with the server. So nosotros'll dive into a little of both.

Cheque out these common causes and means to ready the 500 internal server error and get dorsum up and running in no time.

1. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a niggling obvious to some, but one of the easiest and first things you should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply look a minute or and then and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could exist that the host or server is just overloaded and the site will come up right dorsum. While y'all're waiting, yous could as well chop-chop effort a dissimilar browser to dominion that out as an outcome.

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

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've besides 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 gear up properly. What happens is they experience a temporary timeout right later on. However, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you demand to do.

2. Articulate Your Browser Cache

Immigration your browser cache is e'er another good troubleshooting pace before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to clear enshroud 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 Clear Browser Cache for Safari
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Internet Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera

3. Cheque Your Server Logs

You should also take advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta customer, you can hands run across errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can assistance you chop-chop narrow downward the effect, 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 have a logging tool, you lot tin also enable WordPress debugging mode by adding the following lawmaking to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

          ascertain( '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 dedicated binder called "logs".

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

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

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

If y'all're a Kinsta client yous can also have advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the total number of 500 errors and run across how often and when they are occurring. This tin 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 mistake is displaying considering of a fatal PHP error, you lot tin can also try enabling PHP error reporting. But add together the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically you tin 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 y'all might need to also modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connexion

500 internal server errors can too occur from a database connection error. Depending upon your browser you might see different errors. Merely both volition generate a 500 HTTP status lawmaking regardless in your server logs.

Below is an example of what an "error establishing a database connection" message looks like your browser. The entire page is bare because no data can exist retrieved to render the page, as the connection is not working properly. Not just does this break the front end-end of your site, but it volition also prevent y'all from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

Example of error establishing a database connection
Example of mistake establishing a database connection

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

  • The most 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 so 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 maybe some information was deleted past accident.
  • You may take corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Bug with your database server. A number of things could exist wrong on the web hosts end, such as the database beingness overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is actually quite mutual with shared hosts as they are utilizing the aforementioned resources for a lot of users on the same servers.

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

5. Check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-party plugins and themes tin easily crusade 500 internal server errors. We've seen all types cause them here at Kinsta, from slider plugins to advertizement rotator plugins. A lot of times yous should see the error immediately after installing something new or running an update. This is one reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging environs for updates or at least running updates one by one. Otherwise, if you encounter a 500 internal server error you're suddenly scrambling to figure out which one caused it.

A few means you can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Remember, you won't lose whatsoever information if you just deactivate a plugin. If you can still admission your admin, a quick mode to do this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Conciliate" from the bulk actions menu. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the issue you lot'll need to find the culprit. Start activating them one by 1, reloading the site after each activation. When yous see the 500 internal server error return, you've found the misbehaving plugin. You lot tin then reach out to the plugin developer for assist or post a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If y'all can't login to WordPress admin you can FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something like plugins_old. Then cheque your site again. If it works, and then yous will need to test each plugin one past 1. Rename your plugin folder dorsum to "plugins" and and so rename each plugin folder inside of if it, ane past one, until you find information technology. Yous could also try to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin binder

Always makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress cadre are up to appointment. And bank check to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a disharmonize with bad code in a plugin, you might need to bring in a WordPress developer to fix the effect.

six. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files can get corrupted, specially on older sites. It's actually quite easy to re-upload just the cadre of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We have an in-depth guide with 5 dissimilar ways to reinstall WordPress. And of course, make sure to take a fill-in before proceeding. Skip to one of the sections beneath:

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

seven. Permissions Mistake

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

  • All files should exist 644 (-rw-r–r–) or 640.
  • All directories should be 755 (drwxr-xr-ten) or 750.
  • No directories should always be given 777, even 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 irresolute file permissions for a more in-depth explanation.

You can easily see your file permissions with an FTP client (every bit seen below). You could also accomplish 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 error could also be caused by exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. Y'all could endeavor 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 Memory Limit in cPanel

If you lot're running on a host that uses cPanel, you can easily change this from the UI. Nether 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 and so click on the memory_limit attribute and alter its value. Then click on "Save."

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

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special subconscious file that contains various settings you can use to modify the server beliefs, right downward to a directory specific level. Kickoff login to your site via FTP or SSH, have a look at your root directory and run into if at that place is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is yous can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Most likely it is set at 64M or below, you can endeavour increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in php.ini File

If the above doesn't work for y'all might try editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, get to your site'due south 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 y'all only created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be institute you tin can paste the code beneath. You can modify of course the values to come across 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 practice this, edit your .htaccess file, besides 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 above didn't work for you, information technology could exist that your host has the global settings locked down 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'southward root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. You can and then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increment PHP Retentivity Limit in wp-config.php

The concluding pick is not i nosotros are fans of, but if all else fails you tin requite 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 pinnacle of your wp-config.php file:

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

You tin also ask your host if you're running into retention limit issues. We employ the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to aid clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might exist exhausting the limit. You lot tin can also use your own custom New Relic key from your ain license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Trouble With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta only uses Nginx, simply if y'all're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, information technology could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem or has become corrupted. Follow the steps beneath to recreate a new one from scratch.

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

Rename .htaccess file
Rename .htaccess file

Usually to recreate this file you lot can merely re-relieve your permalinks in WordPress. Even so, if you're in the middle of a 500 internal server error y'all most probable tin can't access your WordPress admin, so this isn't an option. Therefore y'all can create a new .htaccess file and input the post-obit contents. Then upload information technology to your server.

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

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

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

500 errors being caused past errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to exist. Although it'south all the same worth mentioning, peculiarly 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 past a vast variety of spider web programming technologies, including PHP, diverse Apache extensions like mod_perl, Coffee 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 diverse Microsoft technologies.

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

  • When editing, ever used a plainly text editor, such every bit 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 fashion (which you tin 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.

xi. Server Event (Check With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors tin can too occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-political party plugins, yous can always cheque 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 yous scratching your head.

          PHP message: PHP Fatal fault: Uncaught Mistake: Call to undefined role mysql_error()...        
          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Cannot utilize object of type WP_Error as array in /world wide web/folder/spider web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

We monitor all client'south sites here at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows usa to be pro-agile and start fixing the issue right away. We besides apply LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This ways that every WordPress site is housed in its ain 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 also occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these crusade 504 errors, not 500 errors. These determine how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given time. To put it simply, each uncached request for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already busy on a site, they start to build up a queue. Once 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're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the futurity, you can also utilize a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. Information technology periodically sends an HTTP Caput request to the URL of your choice. Yous tin simply use your homepage. The tool allows you to gear up bank check frequencies of:

  • xv seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • 1 minute
  • 2 minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • x minutes

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

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

This tin be specially 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 you proof of how oft your site might actually be doing downward (even during the middle of the night). That's why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make sure to check out our post that explores the top 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are ever frustrating, but hopefully, at present you know a few boosted means to troubleshoot them to quickly get your site back up and running. Recall, typically these types of errors are caused by tertiary-political party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection problems, issues with your .htaccess file or PHP retention limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there annihilation we missed? Peradventure yous take another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, let us know below in the comments.

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