The dreaded 500 internal server error. It ever seems to come at the near inopportune time 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 you might have too seen include the frightening error establishing a database connexion and the dreaded white screen of expiry. Merely from the moment your site goes downwards, you're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it simply looks bad for your brand.

Today we're going to dive into the 500 internal server error and walk you lot through some ways to become your site back online quickly. Read more beneath about what causes this error and what y'all can practice to foreclose it in the time to come.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Internet Engineering Job Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error as:

The 500 (Internal Server Mistake) status code indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition 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 request, processes information technology, and sends back the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP likewise includes what they telephone call an HTTP status lawmaking. A condition lawmaking is a style to notify you almost the status of the request. It could be a 200 status code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which means something has gone wrong.

At that place are a lot of dissimilar types of 500 status mistake 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 it from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section 6.half-dozen.ane).

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

500 Internal Server Mistake Variations

Due to the diverse spider 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 but a couple of the many different variations y'all might come across on the web:

    • "500 Internal Server Fault"
    • "HTTP 500"
    • "Internal Server Fault"
    • "HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Error"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Error"
    • "500 Internal Server Error. Sorry something went incorrect."
    • "500. That'southward an error. There was an fault. Delight try again later. That's all we know."
    • "The website cannot display the folio – HTTP 500."
    • "Is currently unable to handle this request. HTTP Error 500."

You lot might too see this bulletin accompanying information technology:

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, [e-mail protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and annihilation you might accept washed that may accept acquired the error. More information about this error may exist available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Fault

Other times, you might merely run across a blank white screen. When dealing with 500 internal server errors, this is actually 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 messages, such as this one 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 error

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

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

If information technology's an IIS vii.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have additional HTTP status codes to more than 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 – Awarding is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is likewise busy.
  • 500.fifteen – Direct requests for global.asax are not allowed.
  • 500.19 – Configuration data is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module not recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.NET httpModules configuration does not employ in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Internet httpHandlers configuration does non apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.fifty – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A configuration or entering dominion execution fault occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite mistake occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global rule execution error occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification handling. An outbound 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 fault.

500 Errors Bear upon on SEO

Different 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance manner and tell Google to check back at a later time, a 500 error tin have a negative impact on SEO if not fixed right abroad. If your site is merely downward for say ten minutes and information technology's being crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler will simply go the page delivered from enshroud. Or Google might not even have a chance to re-crawl information technology before it's 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 see the 500 fault as a site level issue that needs to be addressed. This could impact your rankings. If you're worried about repeat 500 errors you should effigy out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below tin can aid.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Mistake

Where should you starting time troubleshooting when you see 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 offset isuser error (client-side result), and the second is that there is a trouble with the server. And so nosotros'll swoop into a little of both.

Check out these mutual causes and ways to ready the 500 internal server mistake and become back up and running in no time.

1. Effort Reloading the Page

This might seem a piffling obvious to some, just 1 of the easiest and first things you should effort when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply wait a minute or and so and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could be that the host or server is simply overloaded and the site will come right back. While you're waiting, you could too quickly endeavor a different 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 downwards 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'due south anything other than a 200 "Everything is OK" so it will return a downwards indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

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

two. Clear Your Browser Cache

Clearing your browser cache is ever another good troubleshooting step before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to clear cache in the various browsers:

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

3. Check Your Server Logs

You should also take advantage of your error logs. If yous're a Kinsta client, you can easily meet errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can aid you quickly narrow downwards 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
Cheque error logs for 500 internal server errors

If your host doesn't have a logging tool, you lot can as well enable WordPress debugging mode by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

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

The logs are typically located in the /wp-content directory. Others, similar here at Kinsta might have a dedicated folder called "logs".

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

Y'all 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/error.log

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

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 error breakdown

If the 500 fault is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, you can besides endeavour enabling PHP mistake reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically you lot can narrow downwards the file in the panel tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

          ini_set('display_errors', ane); ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1); 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 also occur from a database connection error. Depending upon your browser you lot might see different errors. But both will generate a 500 HTTP condition code regardless in your server logs.

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

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

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

  • The nigh mutual consequence is that yourdatabase login credentials are wrong. Your WordPress site uses separate 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 become corrupted. This can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or maybe some data was deleted by accident.
  • You may have corrupt files in your WordPress installation. This can even happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Issues with your database server. A number of things could be wrong on the web hosts end, such as the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is actually quite common with shared hosts as they are utilizing the aforementioned resources for a lot of users on the same servers.

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

five. Cheque Your Plugins and Themes

3rd-party plugins and themes can easily 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 y'all should encounter the fault immediately after installing something new or running an update. This is one reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging surround for updates or at least running updates i by 1. Otherwise, if you meet a 500 internal server error you're suddenly scrambling to figure out which one caused it.

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

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the issue you'll need to find the culprit. First activating them i by one, reloading the site later on each activation. When you come across the 500 internal server error return, yous've found the misbehaving plugin. You tin so accomplish out to the plugin developer for help or mail 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 binder to something like plugins_old. And so cheque your site once again. If it works, so you will need to examination each plugin one by ane. Rename your plugin binder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, one by one, until y'all observe it. Yous could also try to replicate this on a staging site first.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin folder

Ever makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are upward to date. And bank check to ensure yous are running a supported version of PHP. If information technology turns out to be a conflict with bad code in a plugin, y'all might need to bring in a WordPress developer to fix the issue.

half dozen. Reinstall WordPress Cadre

Sometimes WordPress core files tin get corrupted, particularly on older sites. It's actually quite like shooting fish in a barrel to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. We take an in-depth guide with 5 dissimilar means to reinstall WordPress. And of course, make sure to take a backup before proceeding. Skip to ane 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 Error

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

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

Encounter the WordPress Codex article on irresolute file permissions for a more in-depth caption.

Y'all can easily see your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen below). Y'all could besides reach out to your WordPress host support team and ask them to rapidly 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 exist acquired past exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. You could try increasing the limit. Follow the instructions below on how to change this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in cPanel

If you're running on a host that uses cPanel, you lot can easily change this from the UI. Under Software click on "Select PHP Version."

Select PHP version
Select PHP version

Click on "Switch to PHP Options."

Switch to PHP options
Switch to PHP options

You can then click on the memory_limit attribute and change its value. And so click on "Save."

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

Increment PHP Memory Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special subconscious file that contains various settings you tin can use to modify the server beliefs, right down to a directory specific level. First login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a expect at your root directory and see if there is a .htaccess file there.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If in that location is you can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Nearly likely it is set up at 64M or below, you can try increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in php.ini File

If the higher up doesn't work for you might endeavour editing your php.ini file. Log in to your site via FTP or SSH, go to your site's 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 iii settings and modify them if necessary. If you just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be found y'all can paste the code beneath. You can change of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the to a higher place didn't work for you lot, it could be that your host has the global settings locked downward and instead have information technology configured to utilize .user.ini files. To edit your .user.ini file, login to your site via FTP or SSH, get to your site'south root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. Y'all tin then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Retentivity Limit in wp-config.php

The last selection is non one nosotros are fans of, but if all else fails you can give it a become. Showtime, 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 peak of your wp-config.php file:

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

You can also ask your host if y'all're running into retention limit bug. We utilize the Kinsta APM tool and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to assist clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. You can as well use your ain custom New Relic cardinal from your own license.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

nine. Problem With Your .htaccess File

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

Showtime, 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-salvage your permalinks in WordPress. Still, if you're in the heart of a 500 internal server error yous most probable can't access your WordPress admin, and so this isn't an option. Therefore you can create a new .htaccess file and input the following 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> # Stop 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 by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to be. Although it's still worth mentioning, specially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts nevertheless beingness used. As AEM on Stack Overflow says:

CGI has been replaced past a vast variety of 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 similar Django, Ruby on Runway and many other Ruby-red frameworks, and various Microsoft technologies.

Here are a few tips when working with CGI scripts:

  • When editing, always used a patently text editor, such as Atom, Sublime, or Notepad++. This ensures they remain in ASCII format.
  • Ensure correct permissions of chmod 755 are used on CGI scripts and directories.
  • Upload your CGI scripts in ASCII mode (which you 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.

11. Server Issue (Check With Your Host)

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

          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined role mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Mistake: Cannot use object of type WP_Error as array in /www/binder/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-active and start fixing the result right away. We likewise utilize LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This means that every WordPress site is housed in its ain isolated container, which has all of the software resource required to run information technology (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 also occur from the lack of PHP workers, although typically these cause 504 errors, not 500 errors. These decide how many simultaneous requests your site can handle at a given time. To put information technology simply, each uncached request for your website is handled past a PHP Worker.

When PHP workers are already busy on a site, they start to build upward a queue. In one case you've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push button 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 futurity, you can also utilize a tool similar 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. Y'all tin simply use your homepage. The tool allows you lot to set check frequencies of:

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

Information technology volition ship yous an electronic mail if and when your site goes down. Here is an example below.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 mistake

This tin can exist especially useful if y'all're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This tin give yous proof of how oft your site might actually exist doing down (even during the middle of the night). That's why we always recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make certain to bank check out our post that explores the peak 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are ever frustrating, but hopefully, now yous know a few additional ways to troubleshoot them to chop-chop go your site back up and running. Recollect, typically these types of errors are acquired past tertiary-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection problems, issues with your .htaccess file or PHP retentivity limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was there anything we missed? Mayhap y'all have another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, allow us know below in the comments.

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