Hi,
We recommend limiting the sitemap entries to a much smaller number say 250. This guide explains more about the code needed to do so: https://yoast.com/help/xml-sitemaps-in-the-wordpress-seo-plugin/#limit. You would need to edit the code and then place it in your functions.php file of your site.
If you are not sure how to do that your theme developer may be able to assist. Be sure to take a backup prior to making those changes. Your host provider can help with this.
Unfortunately, there’s a difference between the support we can offer and the level of programming needed to change (core) features of our plugin. Since we don’t want to take the risk that we break your website by suggesting incorrect or incomplete code, we cannot advise you on how to make such changes. And even though we cannot be of any assistance, you’re completely free to change anything in the plugin to better suit your needs.
We highly recommend checking out our list of Yoast Partners here https://yoast.com/yoast-partners/ in case you are in need of development.
We will also keep this issue open for 2 weeks in case someone from the community can help. Perhaps a developer watching these forums can assist further. After which, we will close in order to keep the overview.
Thanks for the reply,
Unfortunately this was not the solution for my problem. Tried several different numbers for the max entry. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. So I have no clue.
Can’t the sitemap be save to a file using a cronjob and called by the same url?
@daanburozero No, were sorry the sitemap can’t be generated in saved or generated in that way.
If you’ve already decreased the max entry value and are still receiving a 500 error, we’ve next recommend reviewing your server log to see if a more specific reason for the 500 is logged. Common reasons why it might still be causing a 500 would include the memory_limit, or max_execution_time values being set too low.
