Try checking your site’s error logs for a more specific error message. Your hosts should be able to help you accessing your site’s error logs.
Thanks, Esmi. I spent a couple of hours visiting with someone from my host, and they didn’t know much about WordPress. Seems like there is a way to modify the index.php file? I followed the directions on WordPress about giving wp its own directory, but it’s not working the way it should.
It’s ok for the homepage to be down for a few days while we shift everything over to wp, but I would rather not have people thinking the entire site is down.
@raider10
Just a thought…
What settings do you have under Settings->General Site URL and WP URL?
Did you have a static file site before? If not, then what?
Cheers
Mort3n
they didn’t know much about WordPress
They do not need to know anything about WordPress to assist you in accessing your site’s error logs. They control the error logs via the server.
mort3n: The General site URL is http://www.mysite.com, the WP URL is http://www.mysite.com/blog. I’m moving from a seven simple steps CMS (which is ancient) to a WordPress CMS. If this tells you how new I am to this, I’m not even sure what you mean by “static file site.”
esmi: I realize my host doesn’t need to know about WordPress to help me access the error logs – but after all I went through visiting with them last night, I’m looking for things I can be doing on my own without having to contact them again. But I will, if that’s what I need to do.
You should always check your site’s error logs when you get an error 500. That particular code is very generic and just translates too “Oops – something went wrong”. We can’t really work with that. The error log should contain specific error messages that, almost certainly, will help in the troubleshooting process.
Ok – thanks, Esmi. When I get home from work tonight I’ll see about accessing these error logs and will let you know what I find out.
I was finally able to get through to my host and asked them to check the error logs for my HTTP 500 message. The webmaster I spoke with said she is forbidden from seeing that page, but through visiting with her we concluded that my issue was having the index.php file in the wrong location. I currently have it in the subfolder along with the WordPress files, but it needs to be in the root folder. However, when I move it to the root folder, then the WordPress site gives me a 403 error code, saying that the site was found but “website requires you to log in.” Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
I was never able to figure out why only the homepage was down – but I have now successfully transferred my WP blog to the root folder, and the WP blog shows up on the homepage. Therefore, this is no longer an issue. Thank you everyone for your help!
