500 Errors, manual removal

Resolved ih8gates
(@ih8gates)

9 years ago
My client discovered that his site was inaccessible with a 500 error. After renaming the wordfence plugin folder, the site was able to load again and I thought I was out of the woods. Now, when in the admin, I can access most features, but I cannot load the plugins page (/wp-admin/plugins.php) or the update core page.

I’ve checked for WF references in my .htaccess, I don’t have a user.ini or a php.ini.

I’ve tried renaming wordfence-waf.php

I’ve also tried installing a fresh copy of WF via FTP.

The only error I see in the logs is “End of script output before headers: php52.cgi”

Any suggestions? How can I manually remove WordFence so that I can re-install?
- This topic was modified 9 years ago by ih8gates.

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

Plugin Support wfphil
(@wfphil)

9 years ago
Hello,

After installing a fresh copy of Wordfence are you still receiving the 500 error response code?

Also can you add the debugging code below to your wp-config.php file. If you have re-named the Wordfence plugin can you change it back to activate the Plugin so that we can debug your issue.

The results will be in your /wp-content/debug.log file. If you would prefer to share the results privately then I will provide an email address for you to send the results. Please let me know.

You must insert the code below BEFORE /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */ in the wp-config.php file
```
// Enable WP_DEBUG mode
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

// Enable Debug logging to the /wp-content/debug.log file
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

// Disable display of errors and warnings 
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );

// Use dev versions of core JS and CSS files (only needed if you are modifying these core files)
define( 'SCRIPT_DEBUG', true );
```
- This reply was modified 9 years ago by wfphil. Reason: Fixed code typo
Thread Starter ih8gates
(@ih8gates)

9 years ago

Thanks. I added this to my config and re-instated the renamed WordFence plugin folder.

I’m not seeing a debug.log. I did a find via the shell to make sure it wasn’t ending up in an alternate directory.

They *do* have a non-standard content folder, defined (in config) with

define( ‘WP_CONTENT_DIR’, ‘/home/redacted/webapps/wp/content’ );

(I was sure to check that /wp/content folder for debug, but did not see a file there)

Plugin Support wfphil
(@wfphil)

9 years ago

Hello,

One possibility is that running Wordfence on PHP 5.2 could be causing the 500 internal server error status code.

Our official recommendation for which version of PHP to use is below:

System Requirements – PHP Version Recommendation

Wordfence can function on older versions of PHP but upgrading to a newer version of PHP may solve your problem.

Also contact the hosting provider and see if they can offer any insights.

Plugin Support wfphil
(@wfphil)

8 years, 11 months ago

Hello,

As you haven’t replied to the instructions that I provided I will assume that the instructions did solve your issue and I will now mark this topic as resolved.

If however, for whatever reason, you are still experiencing this issue and it is not resolved please respond to the post, which moves it back up the queue, and mark this topic as “not resolved”.

Thank you.

Thread Starter ih8gates
(@ih8gates)

8 years, 11 months ago

Yes. Sorry I forgot to return. The solution for me was to update the PHP version I was using. For the reference of others, I did this by adding the following to my .htaccess

<FilesMatch \.php$>
SetHandler php54-cgi
</FilesMatch>

This may be different depending on host.

Plugin Support wfphil
(@wfphil)

8 years, 11 months ago

Hello,

Thank you very much for letting us know how you resolved your problem. It helps us and the Wordfence community in general when they are searching this forum.

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

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