Title: 500 Error
Last modified: July 26, 2017

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# 500 Error

 *  Resolved [samforan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samforan/)
 * (@samforan)
 * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/)
 * Hi there, excuse the newbie question.
 * My site, lunenburglitfestival.com , is experiencing a 500 error.
 * I’m in the middle of a domain transfer to a new registrar, but they assure me
   this isn’t causing the problem.
 * Early on, I had issues with permissions so I’m wondering if things could still
   be mixed up there?
 * I can’t seem to determine what is causing the error. My website is still up and
   I can see all the files through FTP.
 * Thanks for any insight.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Thread Starter [samforan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samforan/)
 * (@samforan)
 * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/#post-9354649)
 * Further information – I can’t open my wp-content folder in Coda2, for example.
   I get the error.
 * Server said: Can’t change directory to /public_html/wp-content: Permission denied
 * Error -125: remote chdir failed
 *  Thread Starter [samforan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samforan/)
 * (@samforan)
 * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/#post-9354657)
 * If I change the folder permissions to 766 from 644 it seems to open. Do I not“
   own” the permissions to the files/directories then?
 *  [stephencottontail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stephencottontail/)
 * (@stephencottontail)
 * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/#post-9354739)
 * 644 is sufficient for files, but you need execute permission to be able to change
   into a directory, so you need 755 on directories.
 *  Thread Starter [samforan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samforan/)
 * (@samforan)
 * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/#post-9355487)
 * Even after making those changes my site still appears to be offline/unavailable.
 * [http://lunenburglitfestival.com](http://lunenburglitfestival.com)
 *  Thread Starter [samforan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samforan/)
 * (@samforan)
 * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/#post-9360381)
 * Hi, I made the necessary permissions changes. But now WordPress can’t upload 
   files and make changes.
 * I think I’ve tracked it down to a file ownership problem. Could anybody provide
   some troubleshooting for this? I’ve found some other how-tos that involve the
   command line on my server that haven’t been successful.
 *  [stephencottontail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stephencottontail/)
 * (@stephencottontail)
 * [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/#post-9363199)
 * When you upload media or add new themes or plugins from the WordPress administration
   screens, WordPress acts as the same user/group who owns the Apache/Nginx process,
   which means that that user needs the correct permissions to access the `wp-content`
   folder. I would suggest asking your hosting provider what the appropriate owner/
   group and permissions should be.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘500 Error’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [stephencottontail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stephencottontail/)
 * Last activity: [8 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-error-97/#post-9363199)
 * Status: resolved

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