The dreaded 500 internal server error. Information technology always seems to come at the almost inopportune fourth dimension and you're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site back online. Trust the states, we've all been in that location. Other errors that behave similarly that yous might have also seen include the frightening error establishing a database connection and the dreaded white screen of death. But from the moment your site goes downwardly, yous're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it only looks bad for your brand.

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

  • What is a 500 internal server error?
  • 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 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error as:

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

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

At that place are a lot of different types of 500 status error codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something different. In this case, a 500 internal server mistake indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented information technology from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section vi.6.i).

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

500 Internal Server Error Variations

Due to the various web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server error can present itself in a number of different ways. But they are all communicating the same thing. Beneath are merely a couple of the many different variations you might encounter on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Fault"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Error"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Lamentable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. There was an fault. Please try again later. That's all nosotros know."
    • "The website cannot brandish the folio – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP ERROR 500."

You lot might also see this message accompanying it:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Delight contact the server ambassador, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you lot might take done that may have caused the error. More data near this fault may be available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you might merely see a blank 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 accept their own custom 500 internal server error letters, such as this i from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server fault

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

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

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

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

If it's an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have boosted HTTP status codes to more closely indicate the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.eleven – Application is shutting downwardly on the web server.
  • 500.12 – Application is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is too busy.
  • 500.xv – Direct requests for global.asax are non allowed.
  • 500.19 – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.Internet httpModules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline style.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not use in Managed Pipeline way.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does non apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution mistake occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error 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 rule execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound rule execution mistake occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user enshroud 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 cheque dorsum at a afterwards time, a 500 fault tin can have a negative bear upon on SEO if not fixed right abroad. If your site is only downwards for say 10 minutes and information technology's being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will simply become the folio delivered from cache. Or Google might non even have a risk to re-crawl it earlier information technology's back up. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

However, if the site is downward for an extended period of time, say half dozen+ hours, then Google might see the 500 error as a site level effect that needs to exist addressed. This could impact your rankings. If you're worried near echo 500 errors y'all should figure out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below tin can help.

How to Prepare the 500 Internal Server Mistake

Where should you outset troubleshooting when you run into 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 2 things, the first isuser mistake (customer-side issue), and the second is that there is a problem with the server. So nosotros'll swoop into a niggling of both.

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

1. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a piddling obvious to some, only one of the easiest and first things you should try when encountering a 500 internal server fault is to simply expect a minute or so and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could be that the host or server is simply overloaded and the site will come right back. While yous're waiting, you could also quickly try a dissimilar browser to rule that out as an result.

Another thing you tin practise is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell you if the site is down or if it'due south a problem on your side. A tool similar this checks the HTTP condition lawmaking that is returned from the server. If it'southward anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" then it will return a downwardly indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've besides noticed that sometimes this can occur immediately after yous update a plugin or theme on your WordPress site. Typically this is on hosts that aren't gear up properly. What happens is they feel a temporary timeout correct later. Nevertheless, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all yous demand to practice.

2. Clear Your Browser Cache

Immigration your browser cache is e'er another proficient troubleshooting stride 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 Folio for All Browsers
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Google Chrome
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Mozilla Firefox
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Safari
  • How to Articulate Browser Cache for Internet Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Enshroud for Microsoft Border
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera

3. Check Your Server Logs

You should as well accept reward of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta client, you can easily come across errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you quickly narrow down the issue, peculiarly if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

If your host doesn't take a logging tool, y'all tin can also enable WordPress debugging mode past calculation the post-obit code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

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

The logs are typically located in the /wp-content directory. Others, like here at Kinsta might have a dedicated folder 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 commonly located here:

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

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

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakdown

If the 500 error is displaying considering of a fatal PHP error, you can besides try enabling PHP error reporting. But add together the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically y'all can narrow downwards 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 yous might demand to also modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

4. Error Establishing a Database Connection

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

Beneath is an example of what an "mistake establishing a database connection" message looks like your browser. The unabridged page is blank because no data tin can be retrieved to render the page, as the connection is not working properly. Not just does this intermission the front end-terminate of your site, only it volition also forestall you from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The nearly common issue is that yourdatabase login credentials are incorrect. 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 go corrupted. This can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perchance some data was deleted by accident.
  • You may accept 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 incorrect on the web hosts end, such as 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 aforementioned servers.

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

v. Check Your Plugins and Themes

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

A few means you can troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Retrieve, you lot won't lose any data if you lot only deactivate a plugin. If you can still access your admin, a quick way to do this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the bulk actions card. This will disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

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

If you can't login to WordPress admin you can FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something similar plugins_old. Then cheque your site again. If it works, then you volition need to test each plugin ane by one. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, one by one, until yous find information technology. You could also endeavor to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin binder

Ever makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to engagement. And bank check to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a conflict with bad code in a plugin, you might need to bring in a WordPress developer to fix the result.

half dozen. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress core files tin get corrupted, particularly on older sites. It'due south actually quite easy to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. Nosotros have an in-depth guide with 5 dissimilar means to reinstall WordPress. And of grade, brand certain to have a backup before proceeding. Skip to i 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 Error

A permissions error with a file or folder on your server can too cause 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 be 644 (-rw-r–r–) or 640.
  • All directories should be 755 (drwxr-xr-10) or 750.
  • No directories should ever be given 777, fifty-fifty upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could also exist ready to 440 or 400 to preclude other users on the server from reading it.

See the WordPress Codex commodity on irresolute file permissions for a more in-depth explanation.

Y'all can easily encounter your file permissions with an FTP client (every bit seen below). You could also reach out to your WordPress host back up squad and ask them to quickly GREP file permissions on your folders and files to ensure they're setup properly.

File permissions SFTP
File permissions SFTP

eight. PHP Retention Limit

A 500 internal server error could also be caused by exhausting the PHP retention limit on your server. You lot 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 Memory 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 modify its value. And then click on "Relieve."

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

Increase PHP Retentiveness Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special subconscious file that contains diverse settings you tin use to change the server behavior, correct down to a directory specific level. First login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a wait at your root directory and see if at that place is a .htaccess file in that location.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is you 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 endeavour increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increment PHP Retention Limit in php.ini File

If the in a higher place 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's root directory and open up or create a php.ini file.

php.ini file
php.ini file

If the file was already there, search for the 3 settings and modify them if necessary. If you lot just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to exist found you can paste the lawmaking below. You tin alter of class the values to come across your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the above didn't work for y'all, it could be that your host has the global settings locked downwards and instead have it configured to utilize .user.ini files. To edit your .user.ini file, login to your site via FTP or SSH, get to your site's root directory and open up or create a .user.ini file. Yous can and so paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The last pick is not 1 we are fans of, merely if all else fails you can requite it a go. 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 height of your wp-config.php file:

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

You can likewise ask your host if you lot're running into memory limit issues. Nosotros utilise New Relic and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to assistance clients narrow downward what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. You can as well use your own custom New Relic key.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Trouble With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta but uses Nginx, but if yous're using a WordPress host that is running Apache, it could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem or has get corrupted. Follow the steps below to recreate a new i 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

Normally to recreate this file you can simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. Withal, if you're in the middle of a 500 internal server error you lot most likely tin't access your WordPress admin, so this isn't an option. Therefore you 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$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # END 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 being acquired past errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to be. Although information technology's still worth mentioning, especially for those using cPanel where in that location are a lot of one-click CGI scripts nonetheless existence used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

CGI has been replaced by a vast variety of web programming technologies, including PHP, various Apache extensions like mod_perl, Java of diverse flavors and frameworks including Java EE, Struts, Spring, etc, Python-based frameworks similar Django, Reddish 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 way (which yous can select in your FTP editor) into the cgi-bin directory on your server.
  • Confirm that the Perl modules you require for your script are installed and supported.

xi. Server Event (Check With Your Host)

Finally, considering 500 internal server errors tin also occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-party plugins, you tin can always bank check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can be difficult to troubleshoot without an expert. Hither are only a few common examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP condition codes on the server that might have you lot scratching your caput.

          PHP message: PHP Fatal mistake: Uncaught Mistake: Call to undefined office mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal mistake: Uncaught Mistake: Cannot use object of type WP_Error as array in /www/folder/web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

Nosotros monitor all client's sites hither at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows u.s.a. to be pro-active and offset fixing the effect right abroad. We besides use LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This means that every WordPress site is housed in its own isolated container, which has all of the software resources required to run it (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL). The resources are 100% private and are not shared with anyone else or fifty-fifty your own sites.

PHP timeouts could as well occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these crusade 504 errors, not 500 errors. These determine how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given fourth dimension. To put it only, 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 you'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 tin also utilize a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify y'all immediately if they occur. Information technology periodically sends an HTTP HEAD asking to the URL of your selection. Y'all can only apply your homepage. The tool allows you to set cheque frequencies of:

  • 15 seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • 1 minute
  • two minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes

It volition transport you an e-mail if and when your site goes downwards. Here is an instance below.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 mistake

This can be particularly 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 y'all proof of how ofttimes your site might actually be doing downwards (even during the middle of the dark). That'south why nosotros always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Brand sure to check out our mail that explores the superlative 9 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. Recall, typically these types of errors are caused past third-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connectedness issues, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP retentivity limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

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

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