500 Error, how do I recover

  • sccrow

    (@sccrow)


    6 years, 5 months ago

    Actually, I am not sure of the version. I got a messages that it was updated, so I assume the latest.

    I logged into my site. There were 7 plugin updates to be updated. About the 3d one, things crashed and now all I can get is the 500 error.

    I did as suggested. Renamed the Plugin dir and removed all themes except for TwentyXXX themes. No help. The .htaccess files. I downloaded them all to my pc and viewed them. They do not appear to be corrupt. I cant look at them in CPanel on my host, but that is a different issue for them. Pages are about 10 gifs in general, and not a lot of text. I also do not think the PHP memory ran out. Guess it could be that.

    SO, it looks like the next step is a reinstall.
    Tell me there is some short cut please. I had over a hundred pages and 5000+ gifs (Artist Site) and many more to add. I really do not want to rebuild everything. I don’t know how WP uses the DB, but I suspect that a new install will not just pick up what is there.

    One other thing. I had a plugin to do backups. I think I can re-install then run the restore. I am assuming it will handle the DB.

    So, Thoughts and suggestions before I screw up more things or just have to start over.
    I figured I should ask before doing something stupid.

    Thanks

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • David Sword

    (@davidsword)

    6 years, 5 months ago

    turn on WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php, see if any errors show

    browse CPANEL’s error logs, see if any file in particular is breaking everything.

    rename the .htaccess to .htaccess_no or wtv, (biggest cause of 500s imho), then try to get into /wp-admin/

    if everything broke during plugin updates, than that’s your biggest clue, there’s no doubt its some bad code in the plugins.. and maybe something else broke during troubleshooting (trying to fix thing one, accidentally break thing two – now two problems that need to be solved). Changing the names of the /plugins/ dir should of fixed things, maybe revisit that as well.

    all your content is salvageable, I wouldn’t worry about losing it (as long as you don’t delete anything and you’re backing things up), just need to pinpoint what’s causing the 500.

    Thread Starter sccrow

    (@sccrow)

    6 years, 5 months ago

    Well, I renamed the plugins directory and created a new empty one
    renamed the .htaccess files to .htaccess_old
    removed extra themes
    changed debug to true
    This is running on a provider site.. I do not see the error logs or I don’t know what you are referring to… I don’t find the logs. Maybe you are speaking of one being created on the site, but I guess I don’t know what I am looking for to find it.

    Still a no go. Trying to access the site gets the 500 message.

    Thread Starter sccrow

    (@sccrow)

    6 years, 5 months ago

    I also added the line define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’); to the wp-cofgig.php file.

    None of the above resolves the problem.

    Another question.
    Is .htaccess still supposed to be present in the wwwroot?
    Some older posts suggests that renaming it may fix the problem. It seems to be that it will be rebuilt if its not there and is needed. I looked and that file is not present in either the new download or my site. I am assuming that this is a structural change and its no longer needs to be there.

    All this sort of puts me back to the original issue.
    Do I have to now have to completely start over? Including delete the database, rebuilding all the pages, etc. Or is there some sub set of files that I can overlay to get things working again. Maybe keep the DB and the wp-config.php.

    Right now, I am thinking that I am down to a complete restart. I will probably do that before getting an answer. Its been a week and I need to get the site back up. Still, I would like to know.

    David Sword

    (@davidsword)

    6 years, 5 months ago

    Is .htaccess still supposed to be present in the wwwroot?

    .htaccess is needed for the post-name URLS, it will generate itself if needed. You may not see it via FTP because its a hidden file, depends on the client.

    All this sort of puts me back to the original issue.
    Do I have to now have to completely start over? Including delete the database, rebuilding all the pages, etc. Or is there some sub set of files that I can overlay to get things working again. Maybe keep the DB and the wp-config.php.

    You can take your files out, and put into a new wp install, and use your old database. If it was me this is what I’d do:

    1. download the problematic /wordpress/ directory for local backup.
    2. via phpmyadmin export and download mysql database for local backup.
    3. rename the problematic /wordpress/ dir to /wordpress-OLD/
    4. upload a fresh clean wordpress download to /wordpress/
    5. copy contents of /wordpress-OLD/wp-config.php and paste in new /wordpress/wp-config.php file (so connects to old database)
    6. copy folder /wordpress-OLD/wp-content/uploads/ and paste folder in /wordpress/wp-content/uploads/

    At this point, your sites /wp-admin/ should load with all your content. Because you haven’t copied over /themes/ or /plugins/ the front end will white-screen-of-death – but thereafter you can change themes and add your plugins one-by-one.

    Thread Starter sccrow

    (@sccrow)

    6 years, 5 months ago

    Thanks David
    I’m going to be trying it. I will post results.

    Thread Starter sccrow

    (@sccrow)

    6 years, 5 months ago

    Hey Dave… Good news
    I was deleting tabs on my Browser, got to the 500 error and refreshed it. It was a white page. I logged in and it worked, got to dashboard. So hopefully, I can go from here.

    I can only guess that my Service Provider did something since I had a ticket open with them. I have not updated anything since this morning (hours)

    Regardless… thank you. We now have some more information out there for ppl to find.

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