Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts, so if you have access to your admin panel, try deactivating all plugins. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, try manually resetting your plugins (no Dashboard access required). If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.
If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Twenty Sixteen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.
If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your SFTP or FTP client to view invisible files.
If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that specific time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.
Thank you! I will attempt these fixes.
This was an issue with my Alexis theme. I assume that this theme will not be compatible if I attempted to use it again?
Before resolution, I unsuccessfully attempted to reset my theme via my hosting account’s control panel by renaming the directory. For future reference, is there another method to resetting the theme?
Thank you.
No, changing the name of the directory via some sort of file manager is the only way to effectively reset the theme, besides just deleting it of course.
It looks like you’re not alone though https://wordpress.org/support/topic/alexis-broken-in-wordpress-46 so it’s probably time to consider a newer theme. The Twenty Sixteen theme is our current default, so that will give you something basic and stable for now, and there are lots more to choose from: https://wordpress.org/themes/browse/new/
Thanks again for the clear and detailed help! I appreciate it.
