WordPress Internal Server Error
Internal server error or ‘500 internal server error’ is another very familiar error for the WordPress user. When there is an internal server problem occurred but the server cannot identify the problem then this error is shown. The error message does not show the source of the error, so it is quite difficult for the user to solve this problem.
This is a “server-side” error, which means that the problem is not with your computer or internet connection but is a problem with the web server itself.
There can be a variety of causes for this error, including:
- A problem with a WordPress plugin or theme
- A problem with the .htaccess file
- A problem with the way WordPress is configured
Since Internal Server Error is a general error message, it is often hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the problem. However, you can take a few steps to try and debug the issue.
How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error?
First, check to see if you have any WordPress plugins or themes installed that might be causing the problem. If you have recently installed a new plugin or theme, try deactivating it and see if that solves the problem. If it does, you can try reactivating each plugin or theme one at a time to narrow down the cause.
If deactivating your plugins and themes does not solve the problem, check your .htaccess file. This file is located in the root directory of your WordPress website. If you see any code in this file that you do not recognize, or if the file has been recently modified, try removing it and see if that solves the problem.
There are many reasons why 500 internal server errors occur but the most likely cause when it comes to WordPress is a .htaccess file that is configured wrong. Before you make any changes to your site it is recommended that you do a full backup, you could use an FTP client like FileZilla to do this. Now you need to open and edit your .htaccess file and reset it to the default WordPress version which I have added below:
# BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.so> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress
Once you have saved the file simply reload your website to see if the 500 internal server error has been fixed. If you are still having issues please go on to the next section of this page.
Other ways to fix the 500 Internal Server Error
Another possibility is that there is something wrong with the code, to find out more about the error you can edit the wp-config.php file in your root directory and add the following line of code anywhere in the file.
define('WP_DEBUG', true);This will allow WordPress to display technical error details of why you may be experiencing this issue. If you see a blank page there may be other problems that may be harder to solve.
A common reason for getting this error may also be PHP memory limits. This can be hard to change on a regular hosting account and I would recommend contacting your hosting provider for more information on how to raise this limit. Raising the limit is usually not recommended as it usually points to other flaws with your website, something is using more memory than it should and that is not good.
If neither of these solutions works, there is likely a problem with how WordPress is configured on your web server. You will need to contact your web host and ask them to look at your server logs to see what is causing the problem.
