The dreaded 500 internal server fault. It e'er seems to come up at the almost inopportune time and yous're all of a sudden left scrambling to figure out how to become your WordPress site back online. Trust united states, we've all been there. Other errors that behave similarly that y'all 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 down, you're losing visitors and customers. Not to mention it but looks bad for your brand.

Today we're going to dive into the 500 internal server error and walk y'all through some means to get your site back online rapidly. Read more than below almost what causes this mistake and what you can do to forestall it in the future.

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

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

What is a 500 Internal Server Mistake?

The Internet Technology Task Force (IETF) defines the 500 Internal Server Error as:

The 500 (Internal Server Error) 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 asking 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 also includes what they telephone call an HTTP status lawmaking. A status code is a way to notify you virtually 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.

There are a lot of different types of 500 status mistake codes (500, 501, 502, 503, 504, etc.) and they all mean something unlike. In this case, a 500 internal server error indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request(RFC 7231, section half-dozen.6.ane).

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

500 Internal Server Error Variations

Due to the various web servers, operating systems, and browsers, a 500 internal server error tin nowadays itself in a number of different ways. But they are all communicating the same thing. Beneath 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 Error"
    • "500 Fault"
    • "HTTP Error 500"
    • "500 – Internal Server Fault"
    • "500 Internal Server Fault. Lamentable something went wrong."
    • "500. That's an error. There was an error. Please try again later. That's all nosotros know."
    • "The website cannot display the page – 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 consummate your request. Delight contact the server ambassador, [e-mail protected] and inform them of the time the mistake occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information near this error may be available in the server fault log.

Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error

Other times, you might simply 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 fault in Firefox

Bigger brands might fifty-fifty have their ain custom 500 internal server error messages, such as this 1 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 fault

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 it's an IIS seven.0 (Windows) or higher server, they have additional HTTP status codes to more than closely indicate the cause of the 500 error:

  • 500.0 – Module or ISAPI error occurred.
  • 500.11 – Application is shutting down on the spider web server.
  • 500.12 – Awarding is busy restarting on the web server.
  • 500.13 – Web server is as well busy.
  • 500.15 – Directly requests for global.asax are non immune.
  • 500.xix – Configuration information is invalid.
  • 500.21 – Module non recognized.
  • 500.22 – An ASP.NET httpModules configuration does not utilize in Managed Pipeline style.
  • 500.23 – An ASP.Internet httpHandlers configuration does not utilise in Managed Pipeline mode.
  • 500.24 – An ASP.Net impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline fashion.
  • 500.50 – A rewrite fault occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution error occurred.
  • 500.51 – A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification treatment. A global configuration or global dominion execution error 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 exist executed before the output user cache gets updated.
    500.100 – Internal ASP error.

500 Errors Affect on SEO

Different 503 errors, which are used for WordPress maintenance mode and tell Google to check dorsum at a afterward time, a 500 error tin can take a negative impact on SEO if not stock-still right away. If your site is only down for say 10 minutes and it's beingness crawled consistently a lot of times the crawler volition simply get the folio delivered from enshroud. Or Google might non even have a chance to re-crawl it earlier it's back up. In this scenario, you're completely fine.

Notwithstanding, if the site is down for an extended period of time, say vi+ hours, then Google might run across the 500 mistake equally a site level issue that needs to be addressed. This could bear on your rankings. If you're worried almost repeat 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 start troubleshooting when yous 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, merely from our experience, these errors originate from 2 things, the first isuser fault (customer-side result), and the second is that there is a problem with the server. So we'll dive into a fiddling of both.

Check out these mutual causes and means to fix the 500 internal server error and get support and running in no time.

1. Try Reloading the Page

This might seem a piddling obvious to some, just ane of the easiest and first things yous should try when encountering a 500 internal server error is to simply wait a minute or so and reload the folio (F5 or Ctrl + F5). It could exist that the host or server is simply overloaded and the site will come right back. While you're waiting, y'all could as well quickly try a different browser to rule that out every bit an upshot.

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

downforeveryoneorjustme
downforeveryoneorjustme

We've as well 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 set up properly. What happens is they feel a temporary timeout right subsequently. However, things ordinarily resolve themselves in a couple of seconds and therefore refreshing is all you need to do.

two. Clear Your Browser Cache

Clearing your browser enshroud is always another practiced troubleshooting step earlier diving into deeper debugging on your site. Below are instructions on how to clear enshroud in the diverse browsers:

  • How to Strength Refresh a Single Folio 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 Clear Browser Cache for Internet Explorer
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Microsoft Edge
  • How to Clear Browser Cache for Opera

three. Cheque Your Server Logs

You should also take advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta customer, you can easily meet errors in the log viewer in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you speedily narrow down the issue, especially if information technology'due south 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, you can besides enable WordPress debugging manner by adding the post-obit code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

          ascertain( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); 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 defended folder chosen "logs".

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

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

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

If you're a Kinsta client yous 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 event, or possibly something that has resolved itself.

Response analysis 500 error breakdown
Response assay 500 fault breakdown

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

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

And you might need to as well modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors = on

four. Error Establishing a Database Connexion

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

Below is an example of what an "error establishing a database connectedness" bulletin looks like your browser. The entire page is bare considering no information 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, just information technology volition also prevent y'all from accessing your WordPress dashboard.

Example of error establishing a database connection
Example of fault 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 incorrect. Your WordPress site uses dissever 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 can be due to a missing or individually corrupted table, or perchance some information was deleted past accident.
  • You may take decadent files in your WordPress installation. This tin can fifty-fifty happen sometimes due to hackers.
  • Bug with your database server. A number of things could be wrong on the web hosts stop, such as the database being overloaded from a traffic spike or unresponsive from also 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.

Check out our in-depth postal service on how to set up the error establishing a database connectedness in WordPress.

5. Bank check Your Plugins and Themes

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

A few ways you lot tin troubleshoot this is by deactivating all your plugins. Remember, you won't lose any data if you merely conciliate a plugin. If you can yet access your admin, a quick way to practise this is to browse to "Plugins" and select "Deactivate" from the bulk actions menu. This volition disable all of your plugins.

Deactivate all plugins
Deactivate all plugins

If this fixes the outcome you'll need to find the culprit. Start activating them one past one, reloading the site afterwards each activation. When you see the 500 internal server error return, y'all've establish the misbehaving plugin. You can and then achieve out to the plugin developer for aid or post a support ticket in the WordPress repository.

If you lot tin can't login to WordPress admin you can FTP into your server and rename your plugins folder to something like plugins_old. And then cheque your site again. If it works, and then you will need to test each plugin one by one. Rename your plugin folder back to "plugins" and so rename each plugin folder inside of if information technology, one by one, until you find it. You could as well effort to replicate this on a staging site commencement.

Rename plugin folder
Rename plugin binder

Always makes certain your plugins, themes, and WordPress core are up to appointment. And 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, yous might need to bring in a WordPress developer to set up the issue.

six. Reinstall WordPress Core

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

7. Permissions Error

A permissions mistake with a file or folder on your server tin can also crusade 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 be 755 (drwxr-xr-x) or 750.
  • No directories should ever exist given 777, even upload directories.
  • Hardening: wp-config.php could also exist set up to 440 or 400 to preclude other users on the server from reading it.

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

You tin can easily see your file permissions with an FTP client (as seen below). You could also achieve out to your WordPress host support team and ask them to speedily GREP file permissions on your folders and files to ensure they're setup properly.

File permissions SFTP
File permissions SFTP

8. PHP Memory Limit

A 500 internal server error could also exist caused by exhausting the PHP memory limit on your server. You could effort increasing the limit. Follow the instructions below on how to modify this limit in cPanel, Apache, your php.ini file, and wp-config.php file.

Increment PHP Memory Limit in cPanel

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

Select PHP version
Select PHP version

Click on "Switch to PHP Options."

Switch to PHP options
Switch to PHP options

You can then click on the memory_limit attribute and modify its value. Then click on "Salvage."

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

Increment PHP Memory Limit in Apache

The .htaccess file is a special hidden file that contains various settings y'all can use to modify the server beliefs, right down to a directory specific level. Start login to your site via FTP or SSH, take a look at your root directory and encounter if in that location is a .htaccess file at that place.

.htaccess file
.htaccess file

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

          php_value memory_limit 128M

Increase PHP Retentiveness Limit in php.ini File

If the above doesn't piece of 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 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 y'all just created the file, or the settings are nowhere to be plant you tin can paste the code below. Y'all can alter of course the values to meet your needs.

          memory_limit = 128M

Some shared hosts might besides crave that you add together the suPHP directive in your .htaccess file for the above php.ini file settings to work. To do this, edit your .htaccess file, also located at the root of your site, and add together the following code towards the meridian of the file:

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

If the in a higher place 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, go to your site's root directory and open or create a .user.ini file. Y'all can and then paste in the post-obit code:

          memory_limit = 128M

Increase PHP Memory Limit in wp-config.php

The terminal option is not one we are fans of, but if all else fails you can give it a become. Get-go, 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 top of your wp-config.php file:

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

You can also inquire your host if you're running into memory limit bug. We employ 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. Yous can also use your own custom New Relic central from your own license.

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, information technology could very well be that your .htaccess file has a problem or has become corrupted. Follow the steps beneath to recreate a new one from scratch.

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

Rename .htaccess file
Rename .htaccess file

Ordinarily to recreate this file you can simply re-salvage your permalinks in WordPress. However, if y'all're in the middle of a 500 internal server error you 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 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 [Fifty] </IfModule> # END WordPress

Encounter the WordPress Codex for more than examples, such as 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 common than it used to be. Although information technology'south however worth mentioning, specially for those using cPanel where there are a lot of one-click CGI scripts still beingness used. Every bit AEM on Stack Overflow says:

CGI has been replaced by a vast diverseness 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 like Django, Scarlet on Rails 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 plain text editor, such as Atom, Sublime, or Notepad++. This ensures they remain in ASCII format.
  • Ensure right permissions of chmod 755 are used on CGI scripts and directories.
  • Upload your CGI scripts in ASCII 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 Upshot (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, y'all tin always check with your WordPress host. Sometimes these errors can exist difficult to troubleshoot without an expert. Here are just a few mutual examples of some errors that trigger 500 HTTP status codes on the server that might have you scratching your caput.

          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Mistake: Call to undefined function mysql_error()...        
          PHP message: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Fault: Cannot use object of type WP_Error equally array in /www/binder/web/shared/content/plugins/plugin/functions.php:525

We monitor all customer's sites here at Kinsta and are automatically notified when these types of errors occur. This allows u.s. to exist pro-agile and start fixing the issue right away. We as well employ 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 cause 504 errors, non 500 errors. These determine 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 up a queue. Once you've reached your limit of PHP workers, the queue starts to push out older requests which could effect in 500 errors or incomplete requests. Read our in-depth article about PHP workers.

Monitor Your Site

If you're worried virtually these types of errors happening on your site in the hereafter, you can also utilize a tool like updown.io to monitor and notify you immediately if they occur. Information technology periodically sends an HTTP Head request to the URL of your choice. You lot tin can simply employ your homepage. The tool allows you to set bank check frequencies of:

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

Information technology will send you lot an email if and when your site goes down. Here is an instance below.

Email notification of 500 error
Email notification of 500 fault

This tin be especially useful if you lot're trying to debug a faulty plugin or are on a shared host, who tend to overcrowd their servers. This tin requite yous proof of how often your site might actually be doing downward (even during the center of the night). That's why we e'er recommend going with a managed WordPress host. Make sure to check out our post that explores the acme 9 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting.

Summary

500 internal server errors are e'er frustrating, but hopefully, at present you know a few additional means to troubleshoot them to quickly get your site support and running. Remember, typically these types of errors are acquired past third-party plugins, fatal PHP errors, database connectedness bug, problems with your .htaccess file or PHP retention limits, and sometimes PHP timeouts.

Was at that place anything we missed? Perhaps yous have another tip on troubleshooting 500 internal server errors. If so, let us know below in the comments.

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