The dreaded 500 internal server fault. It always seems to come at the most inopportune fourth dimension and you're suddenly left scrambling to figure out how to get your WordPress site dorsum online. Trust the states, we've all been there. Other errors that carry similarly that you might have also seen include the frightening error establishing a database connexion and the dreaded white screen of death. Merely from the moment your site goes downward, yous'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 through some ways to go your site back online speedily. Read more below about what causes this error and what you tin can exercise to preclude it in the future.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Error?

The Net Engineering Task 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 information technology from fulfilling the request.

When y'all visit a website your browser sends a asking over to the server where the site is hosted. The server takes this request, processes it, and sends back the requested resources (PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.) along with an HTTP header. The HTTP as well includes what they phone call an HTTP status code. A status code is a mode to notify you about the status of the asking. It could be a 200 condition code which means "Everything is OK" or a 500 status code which ways 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 example, a 500 internal server fault indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition 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 diverse web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server error can nowadays 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 see on the web:

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

You might also come across this message accompanying information technology:

The server encountered an internal mistake or misconfiguration and was unable to consummate your request. Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the fourth dimension the mistake occurred, and anything y'all might have done that may accept caused the error. More information about this mistake may exist available in the server error log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Fault

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

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

Bigger brands might fifty-fifty accept their own custom 500 internal server error messages, such as this one from Airbnb.

Airbnb 500 internal server error
Airbnb 500 internal server mistake

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

readme 500 internal server error
readme 500 internal server error

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

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

If it'south an IIS 7.0 (Windows) or higher server, they take boosted HTTP status codes to more than closely bespeak the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.xi – Application is shutting down on the spider web server.
  • 500.12 – Awarding is decorated restarting on the spider web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is too busy.
  • 500.xv – Directly 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 non apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not utilize in Managed Pipeline style.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.fifty – A rewrite mistake occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or entering rule execution mistake occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global dominion execution error occurred.
  • 500.52 – A rewrite error occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification treatment. An outbound rule execution occurred.
  • 500.53 – A rewrite fault occurred during RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification handling. An outbound dominion execution error occurred. The rule is configured to exist executed before the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Touch on SEO

Unlike 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to check back at a later time, a 500 error can have a negative impact on SEO if not fixed right away. If your site is only down 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 not even have a hazard to re-crawl it before information technology'due south back up. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

However, if the site is down for an extended catamenia of fourth dimension, say 6+ hours, then Google might see the 500 mistake as a site level issue that needs to exist addressed. This could impact your rankings. If you're worried about echo 500 errors you should figure out why they are happening to begin with. Some of the solutions below can help.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error

Where should you get-go troubleshooting when y'all see a 500 internal server error on your WordPress site? Sometimes you might not even know where to brainstorm. Typically 500 errors are on the server itself, but from our experience, these errors originate from two things, the get-go isuser error (client-side issue), and the 2d is that in that location is a problem with the server. So we'll dive into a little of both.

Check out these mutual causes and ways to gear up the 500 internal server error and go dorsum up and running in no fourth dimension.

1. Effort Reloading the Folio

This might seem a little obvious to some, but one of the easiest and first things you should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to only wait a infinitesimal or so and reload the page (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could exist that the host or server is but overloaded and the site volition come right back. While yous're waiting, yous could also quickly effort a different browser to rule that out every bit an effect.

Another thing yous can exercise is to paste the website into downforeveryoneorjustme.com. This website will tell you if the site is downwards or if information technology'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" then information technology will return a downwardly indication.

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've also 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 ready properly. What happens is they experience a temporary timeout correct afterward. Still, things usually resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you need to do.

2. Clear Your Browser Cache

Clearing your browser cache is always another proficient troubleshooting step before diving into deeper debugging on your site. Beneath are instructions on how to clear cache in the diverse browsers:

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

3. Bank check Your Server Logs

You should also take reward of your mistake logs. If you're a Kinsta client, yous can easily see errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This tin can help you apace narrow downwardly the event, especially if it'southward 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 can also enable WordPress debugging mode by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

          define( 'WP_DEBUG', truthful ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', imitation );

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)

Yous tin also check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are normally located here:

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

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

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response analysis 500 mistake breakdown

If the 500 error is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, yous can also attempt enabling PHP error reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically you tin narrow downwards the file in the console tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

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

And yous might need to also change your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

4. Mistake Establishing a Database Connection

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

Below is an example of what an "error establishing a database connection" message looks similar your browser. The entire page is bare considering no data can exist retrieved to return the page, every bit the connection is not working properly. Not only does this break the front-end of your site, merely it will also forbid you lot from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

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

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

  • The most common outcome 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 tabular array, or peradventure 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 exist wrong on the spider web hosts end, such every bit the database existence overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from too many concurrent connections. This is actually quite common with shared hosts equally they are utilizing the same resource for a lot of users on the aforementioned servers.

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

5. Check Your Plugins and Themes

Third-political party plugins and themes can easily cause 500 internal server errors. Nosotros've seen all types cause them here at Kinsta, from slider plugins to ad rotator plugins. A lot of times you lot should see the mistake immediately after installing something new or running an update. This is i reason why we always recommend utilizing a staging environment for updates or at to the lowest degree running updates one past 1. Otherwise, if you meet a 500 internal server mistake you're suddenly scrambling to figure out which one acquired it.

A few ways you tin troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Think, you won't lose any data if y'all but deactivate a plugin. If you can notwithstanding admission your admin, a quick fashion to do this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the majority deportment carte du jour. This volition disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the issue you lot'll need to find the culprit. Offset activating them 1 by 1, reloading the site later each activation. When you see the 500 internal server error return, you've plant the misbehaving plugin. Yous can and then attain out to the plugin developer for help or postal service a back up ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you can't login to WordPress admin you tin FTP into your server and rename your plugins binder to something like plugins_old. Then check your site over again. If it works, then yous will demand to test each plugin one past one. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" and then rename each plugin folder inside of if it, i by one, until y'all observe it. You could as well try to replicate this on a staging site offset.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin binder

Always makes sure your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to engagement. And check to ensure you are running a supported version of PHP. If it turns out to be a disharmonize with bad lawmaking in a plugin, you lot might demand to bring in a WordPress developer to gear up the issue.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core

Sometimes WordPress cadre files can get corrupted, especially on older sites. It'southward actually quite easy to re-upload just the core of WordPress without impacting your plugins or themes. Nosotros take an in-depth guide with 5 different 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

7. Permissions Error

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

Meet the WordPress Codex article on changing file permissions for a more in-depth caption.

Yous 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

8. PHP Retentiveness Limit

A 500 internal server error could as well exist caused by exhausting the PHP retentivity limit on your server. You could effort 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 yous're running on a host that uses cPanel, you tin easily alter 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

Y'all tin can and so click on the memory_limit attribute and alter its value. Then click on "Salve."

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

Increment PHP Retentivity Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains various settings y'all can employ to change the server behavior, right down to a directory specific level. First login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a await at your root directory and see if there is a .htaccess file at that place.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

If there is you lot tin can edit that file to add the necessary code for increasing the PHP memory limit. Nearly probable it is set at 64M or below, you tin can endeavor increasing this value.

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increment PHP Memory Limit in php.ini File

If the to a higher place doesn't piece of work for you might attempt 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 three settings and change them if necessary. If you but created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be constitute you can paste the code beneath. You can modify of course the values to see your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

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

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

If the above didn't piece of work for yous, it could be that your host has the global settings locked downwardly 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. You can then paste in the following code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The last choice is not one we are fans of, but if all else fails you can requite information technology 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 post-obit code to the top of your wp-config.php file:

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

You lot can also ask your host if y'all're running into retention limit bug. We use New Relic and other troubleshooting methods here at Kinsta to help clients narrow down what plugin, query, or script might be exhausting the limit. You can also use your ain custom New Relic central.

Debugging with New Relic
Debugging with New Relic

9. Problem With Your .htaccess File

Kinsta only 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 problem or has become corrupted. Follow the steps below to recreate a new one from scratch.

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

Rename .htaccess file
Rename .htaccess file

Normally to recreate this file yous tin simply re-save your permalinks in WordPress. However, if you're in the middle of a 500 internal server fault you lot nigh probable 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 it 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 equally a default .htaccess file for multisite.

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

500 errors existence caused by errors in CGI and Perl is a lot less common than it used to be. Although information technology's withal worth mentioning, specially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts notwithstanding being used. Equally AEM on Stack Overflow says:

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

11. Server Event (Check With Your Host)

Finally, because 500 internal server errors can too occur from PHP timing out or fatal PHP errors with third-party plugins, you lot tin e'er cheque with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors tin be difficult to troubleshoot without an practiced. Here are but 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 function mysql_error()...        
          PHP bulletin: PHP Fatal mistake: Uncaught Error: Cannot use object of blazon WP_Error as assortment in /www/binder/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 outset fixing the issue right away. We also apply LXD managed hosts and orchestrated LXC software containers for each site. This ways that every WordPress site is housed in its own isolated container, which has all of the software resource required to run it (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL). The resources are 100% private and are non 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 information technology 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 up a queue. In one case 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 lot're worried about these types of errors happening on your site in the futurity, you lot tin also utilize a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. It periodically sends an HTTP Caput asking to the URL of your pick. You tin simply utilise your homepage. The tool allows you lot to set check frequencies of:

  • 15 seconds
  • 30 seconds
  • one minute
  • ii minutes
  • 5 minutes
  • 10 minutes

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

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

This can be especially useful if yous'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 often your site might really exist doing down (even during the eye of the dark). That's why we ever recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make sure to check out our post that explores the top nine reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are always frustrating, but hopefully, now y'all know a few additional ways to troubleshoot them to apace go your site back up and running. Call up, typically these types of errors are acquired by third-political party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connection issues, issues with your .htaccess file or PHP memory limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

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

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