The dreaded 500 internal server error. It always seems to come up at the almost inopportune fourth dimension and you're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust u.s., we've all been there. Other errors that comport similarly that yous might take also seen include the frightening mistake establishing a database connectedness and the dreaded white screen of death. But from the moment your site goes down, yous're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it simply looks bad for your brand.

Today nosotros're going to dive into the 500 internal server mistake and walk you through some ways to get your site back online quickly. Read more below about what causes this mistake and what you tin can do to foreclose it in the future.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Internet Applied science Task Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Mistake every bit:

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

When you lot visit a website your browser sends a request over to the server where the site is hosted. The server takes this 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 nearly the condition of the asking. It could be a 200 status 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 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something different. In this case, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected status that prevented it from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section 6.6.1).

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 mistake can present itself in a number of different ways. But they are all communicating the same thing. Below are just a couple of the many different variations you might encounter on the spider web:

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

Y'all might also encounter this bulletin accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal fault or misconfiguration and was unable to consummate your request. Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the fourth dimension the error occurred, and annihilation you lot might accept done that may take acquired the error. More information virtually this fault may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you lot might merely see 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 error in Firefox

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

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server mistake

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

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

Even the mighty YouTube isn't condom 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 have additional HTTP status codes to more closely indicate the cause of the 500 mistake:

  • 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 spider web server.
  • 500.thirteen – Spider web server is as well busy.
  • 500.xv – Direct requests for global.asax are not allowed.
  • 500.xix – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.NET httpModules configuration does not use in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline way.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does non employ in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.fifty – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution fault occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global rule execution mistake occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite mistake occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification treatment. 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 earlier the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Impact on SEO

Unlike 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to bank check back at a afterward time, a 500 mistake tin can have a negative impact on SEO if non stock-still right away. If your site is just downwardly for say 10 minutes and information technology's being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will but get the page delivered from cache. Or Google might non fifty-fifty have a take a chance to re-crawl it earlier it'south back up. In this scenario, you lot're completely fine.

However, if the site is down for an extended period of time, say 6+ hours, then Google might come across the 500 error every bit a site level issue that needs to be addressed. This could impact your rankings. If yous're worried well-nigh repeat 500 errors you should figure out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below can aid.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Fault

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

Bank check out these mutual causes and ways to set up the 500 internal server mistake and become support and running in no time.

1. Effort Reloading the Page

This might seem a little obvious to some, merely ane of the easiest and showtime things you lot should try when encountering a 500 internal server fault is to simply await a minute or so and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could be that the host or server is merely overloaded and the site will come correct back. While you're waiting, yous could likewise apace try a different browser to rule that out as an effect.

Another thing you lot can practice is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell y'all if the site is downward or if it's a problem on your side. A tool like this checks the HTTP status code that is returned from the server. If it's anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" and so it will return a downwardly indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've likewise noticed that sometimes this tin occur immediately after you update a plugin or theme on your WordPress site. Typically this is on hosts that aren't prepare properly. What happens is they experience a temporary timeout correct afterwards. Nevertheless, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you need to practice.

2. Clear Your Browser Cache

Clearing your browser cache is e'er another skilful troubleshooting stride before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to clear cache in the diverse browsers:

  • How to Strength Refresh a Unmarried Folio 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 Cyberspace Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera

3. Check Your Server Logs

You lot should likewise have advantage of your error logs. If you lot'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 upshot, especially if it'due south resulting from a plugin on your site.

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Check error logs for 500 internal server errors
Bank check mistake logs for 500 internal server errors

If your host doesn't accept a logging tool, you can also enable WordPress debugging mode by adding the post-obit code 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 hither at Kinsta might have a dedicated binder called "logs".

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

You can also 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 lot tin also take reward of our analytics tool to become a breakdown of the total number of 500 errors and see how oft and when they are occurring. This can assist yous troubleshoot if this is an ongoing consequence, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakdown

If the 500 error is displaying because of a fatal PHP mistake, yous can as well try enabling PHP fault reporting. Simply add the following lawmaking to the file throwing the error. Typically you can narrow downward the file in the panel tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

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

And you might demand to besides modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connection

500 internal server errors can also occur from a database connection mistake. Depending upon your browser you might see different errors. Simply both will generate a 500 HTTP status lawmaking regardless in your server logs.

Beneath is an example of what an "error establishing a database connection" bulletin looks like your browser. The unabridged folio is blank considering no information can be retrieved to render the page, as the connectedness is non working properly. Not only does this break the front-terminate of your site, just information technology volition besides prevent yous from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The most common issue is that yourdatabase login credentials are wrong. Your WordPress site uses dissever login information to connect to its MySQL database.
  • Your WordPress database is corrupted. With 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 accident.
  • You may have decadent files in your WordPress installation. This tin can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Issues with your database server. A number of things could be wrong on the spider web hosts end, such equally the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is actually quite common with shared hosts as they are utilizing the same resource for a lot of users on the same servers.

Cheque out our in-depth mail service on how to set the mistake establishing a database connection in WordPress.

5. Check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-political party plugins and themes can hands cause 500 internal server errors. We've seen all types cause them hither at Kinsta, from slider plugins to ad rotator plugins. A lot of times you should see the fault 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 to the lowest degree running updates ane past one. Otherwise, if you encounter a 500 internal server error you're suddenly scrambling to figure out which 1 caused it.

A few ways yous tin troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Recollect, you won't lose any information if you lot simply deactivate a plugin. If you can notwithstanding admission your admin, a quick fashion to practise this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Conciliate" from the bulk actions carte du jour. This volition disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Conciliate all plugins

If this fixes the outcome y'all'll need to discover the culprit. Commencement activating them one past one, reloading the site after each activation. When you see the 500 internal server error return, you lot've constitute the misbehaving plugin. You can then reach out to the plugin programmer for help or post a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you can't login to WordPress admin you tin can FTP into your server and rename your plugins binder to something like plugins_old. So check your site again. If it works, so you volition demand to test each plugin one by 1. Rename your plugin folder dorsum to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if information technology, one by one, until you find it. You 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 core are up to date. And cheque to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a conflict with bad lawmaking in a plugin, yous might need to bring in a WordPress programmer to fix the outcome.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files tin can get corrupted, especially on older sites. It's really quite easy to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We have an in-depth guide with 5 different ways to reinstall WordPress. And of course, make certain to take a backup 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

7. Permissions Error

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

  • All files should be 644 (-rw-r–r–) or 640.
  • All directories should exist 755 (drwxr-xr-10) or 750.
  • No directories should ever be given 777, even upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could as well be set up to 440 or 400 to forbid other users on the server from reading information technology.

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

Yous can easily see your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen beneath). You could also reach out to your WordPress host back up squad and inquire them to quickly GREP file permissions on your folders and files to ensure they're setup properly.

File permissions SFTP
File permissions SFTP

eight. PHP Memory Limit

A 500 internal server mistake could also be caused by exhausting the PHP retention 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 y'all'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 tin can and so click on the memory_limit attribute and modify 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 hidden file that contains diverse settings yous tin use to modify the server behavior, 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 at that place.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is y'all can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP retentiveness limit. Nearly probable it is set at 64M or beneath, y'all can endeavour increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in php.ini File

If the above doesn't piece of work for you might endeavour editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, become to your site's root directory and open up or create a php.ini file.

php.ini file
php.ini file

If the file was already in that location, search for the 3 settings and modify them if necessary. If yous only 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 too require that you add the suPHP directive in your .htaccess file for the to a higher place 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 code towards the top of the file:

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

If the in a higher place didn't piece of work for you, it could be that your host has the global settings locked downward 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. Y'all tin and so paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

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

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

Add the following code to the superlative 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 the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to aid clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. You can likewise use your ain custom New Relic fundamental from your own license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta just uses Nginx, only if you're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, information technology could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem or has get corrupted. Follow the steps beneath to recreate a new one 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 lot can simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you lot're in the middle of a 500 internal server fault you well-nigh likely can't admission your WordPress admin, so this isn't an option. Therefore you can create a new .htaccess file and input the post-obit contents. So upload it to your server.

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

See the WordPress Codex for more examples, such every bit a default .htaccess file for multisite.

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

500 errors beingness caused by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less mutual than it used to exist. Although it'southward nevertheless worth mentioning, peculiarly for those using cPanel where at that place are a lot of one-click CGI scripts still being used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

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

11. Server Event (Check With Your Host)

Finally, considering 500 internal server errors can too 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 be difficult to troubleshoot without an expert. Here 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 bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Fault: Call to undefined office mysql_error()...        
          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal mistake: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of blazon WP_Error every bit array in /www/folder/web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

We monitor all client's sites here at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows usa to be pro-active and start fixing the issue right away. We as well 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 non shared with anyone else or even your ain sites.

PHP timeouts could besides occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these cause 504 errors, non 500 errors. These make up one's mind how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given time. To put it only, each uncached request for your website is handled by a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already decorated on a site, they start to build upwardly a queue. Once yous've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push out older requests which could outcome in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth article virtually PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried most these types of errors happening on your site in the future, you lot tin can too utilise a tool like 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 but employ your homepage. The tool allows you to set check frequencies of:

  • 15 seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • ane infinitesimal
  • 2 minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes

It will ship you lot an email if and when your site goes down. Here is an example beneath.

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

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 tin can give you proof of how often your site might actually be doing downward (even during the middle of the dark). That's why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Brand sure to check out our post that explores the height 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are ever frustrating, just hopefully, now you know a few boosted ways to troubleshoot them to quickly get your site support and running. Call up, typically these types of errors are caused by third-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection bug, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP retentiveness limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was in that location annihilation we missed? Perhaps you lot have another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If then, let us know beneath in the comments.

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