HTTP 500 Error

  • Siyak

    (@siyak)


    5 years, 3 months ago

    I’m experiencing an issue with a self-hosted WordPress site. Everything was working fine then I suddenly started getting an HTTP 500 error.

    What I’ve tried to resolve the issue:

    • Moved all plugins to a backup folder using cPanel File Manager, the 500 error didn’t go away, which tells me this is likely not an issue with a plugin.
    • I replaced all the website files except wp-content folder and wp-config.php file with a new copy of WordPress. This fixed the issue… temporarily.

    As mentioned above, the 2nd solution I tried worked – or at least I thought it did. The website loads fine but after a few clicks it suddenly stops working again. It doesn’t matter whether I’m logged in on the Dashboard or not, the website only works for less than a minute then it stops.

    The only thing I can think is there’s a back-end process that runs which changes the configuration resulting in the HTTP500 error.

    Does anyone have any ideas?

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    5 years, 3 months ago

    Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts.

    If resetting the plugins did not resolve the issue, try switching to the Twenty Twenty theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your Dashboard, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel (consult your hosting provider’s documentation for specifics on these), navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.

    If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your SFTP or FTP client to view invisible files.

    If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that specific time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

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