Error 500 means that the server of the website you are trying to access has experienced an internal system failure. It follows that either the site owners or the ISP can fix it. But still, there are some actions on the part of the average user that can affect and fix the HTTP ERROR 500 error.

Screenshot of 500 server error
HTTP status code 500 means failures in the web server configuration or it indicates that one of the critical components simply failed. With this error, all the software is in order, but it has critical internal problems that cause a conflict in accessing the server, and also prevent it from working correctly.
The appearance of error 500 in the browser can be caused by various reasons. Therefore, we list below all the ways to eliminate it:

Error 500 in Google Chrome browser
You may also get an error with the 500 Internal Server Error code.
One of the reasons is the incorrect setting of access rights to scripts, because of which they are blocked. Rights can be configured for any user, although this is not recommended for security reasons. To set permissions, you can use the FileZilla file manager from the developer of the FireFox browser.
First, you need to pay attention to the access rights settings. Each type of element needs to be considered separately. For files, the value should be 644, for folders 755, and for scripts 600. Only one person should be allowed to set up an account and not allow anyone to get such rights.

- Extreme duration of script execution
- Troubleshooting on popular platforms
- Troubleshooting on the side of server scripts
- Ask your system administrator for help
- What causes error 500 and how to fix it
- What does internal server error 500
- How to deal with the situation as a regular user
- Solve the problem together with the site owner
- Incorrect work of the new theme for the design of the site
- Resolve error 500 caused by plugin conflict
Extreme duration of script execution
In addition to the restrictions on execution time on the part of the PHP programming language, such restrictions are imposed on the script and on the part of server systems. The error tends to appear at the moment when the script has not completed its work in a limited time. In this case, his work will be completed unfinished.
To avoid the HTTP ERROR 500 error and speed up the script, you can use special services to optimize the slow sections of the script. When using VPS or dedicated servers, you can change the server timeout. Such manipulations cannot be carried out using shared hosting, unless an agreement is received from technical support.
The syntax of this file has a certain structure that must not be changed or violated. If one of its directives has errors, then this will certainly result in an HTTP ERROR 500 error. It may be that the directive has no errors or file conflicts, but it is not supported.
Find this «.htaccess» file in the root of the site. Then copy it to another location so as not to lose it. Now remove it from the site. If everything fell into place, then the problem is in this file. In this case, take the file from the new distribution of your CMS (Content Management System).

You can view information about server errors. All of them are recorded in a special file under the name — «error.log». By opening it, you can find information about which of your directives is in conflict. For example, «Invalid command ‘Prive’ tells us that the ‘Price’ directive contains a typo, changing the ‘v’ to ‘c’ will solve this problem.
If a resource gives a 500 error, there can be many reasons for this and it is not so easy to determine them. For example, with a 404 error, everything is more or less clear: the matter is in the changed URLs of the page or permalinks are broken.
Server response code 500 can be called:
This is not all, in order to get to the bottom of the truth, you need to conduct a deep diagnosis and find out what the matter is. It is best to restore the sequence of perfect steps from the moment of entry to the moment of the error. You need to remember what changes were made to the work of WordPress, what exactly could lead to the fact that the error code 500 appeared. Finding out the reason makes the recovery process much easier.
There are several options for solving the existing problem.
The most common reason is that one of the scripts does not have time to process the flow of information in a timely manner. To eliminate the server code 500, you need to manually optimize the process. To find a slow script, you can use specialized services.
The following method is based on the fact that the problem lies in the incorrect configuration and operation of .htaccess files. Writing .htaccess files is a task for a professional. A simple user can’t handle it. Therefore, it is better to seek help from a specialist.

And the third scenario of a breakdown is the use of a large script that requires too much space for normal operation. Here you can either refuse such a script, or switch to another tariff and thereby expand the memory limit.
Often site owners decide to save money and opt for a cheap but not reliable hosting provider. This can also lead to a 500 error. Therefore, before creating an Internet resource, it is better to familiarize yourself not only with hosting prices, but also with reviews about them and functionality.
It is important to remember that this error occurs on the server side. This means that HTML code running on the client side, as well as JavaScript or any other objects running in the browser, cannot be the source of the 500 Internal Server Error. The name itself (Internal Server Error — ‘internal server error’) indicates that the error occurs on the server.
Troubleshooting on popular platforms
Many users install popular CMS systems such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal on their server and they should not throw a 500 error if everything is configured correctly. However, it still pops up — due to version incompatibility, poor-quality installations, or a failure of access rights on the server.
Here are some common problems that can cause this error in commonly used CMS:
When scripts and plugins are the cause of the 500 Internal Server Error, it is best to look for answers on the websites of their developers.
Troubleshooting on the side of server scripts
Another reason for the 500 Internal Server Error is developing and testing your own scripts.
To deal with such an error, try the following solutions:
Ask your system administrator for help
In some cases, developers do not have full control over the server.
If the script is running on a third party server, they can help you with the following:
500 Internal Server Error — how to fix? In most cases, the causes of the 500 error are easily fixed. The problem is that without specific information, determining the cause of the failure becomes more difficult. The easiest way to deal with a bug is when the developer has figured out what changed before the bug occurred.
Do not forget that the changes that have occurred could have been made by other people — for example, the server administrator. If nothing has changed, it is likely that the server itself caused the error due to software incompatibility or performance issues.
The translation of the article “500 Internal Server Error: What It Is And How To Fix It” was prepared by the friendly team of the Website Building from A to Z project.
One of the most common problems in the operation of Internet resources is error 500. In accordance with accepted specifications, it is generated by the server when there is some problem in the system. It can be caused by the site itself or hosting. You need to start looking for it on the service. After it finally became clear that the site itself generates an error, you need to understand it. Most often, it is caused by incorrect information inside the .htaccess component, which contains important environment settings. Here you need to study its contents in detail and try to find out the reason for the appearance of such a message as «Error 500».

Each time this message appears, more information about the error is added. Depending on the provider, it is recorded in the Error file with the .log extension or in the appropriate hosting section. By opening the specified file or accessing this section, you can find out why the HTTP 500 (Internal Server Error) error appears on the monitor screen when a visitor tries to access your resource on the World Wide Web. It needs to be eliminated as soon as possible, because it leads to downtime of your page and, as a result, you lose visitors and profit.
A wide enough range of issues could cause this message to appear. Among them are:
If after the manipulations the result is still the same, error 500 continues to appear, that is, it makes sense to contact the provider’s support service for help. With their help, this issue must be resolved.
What causes error 500 and how to fix it
How to solve: You need to check the write permissions of all folders and files of your sites. For folders (directories), it is recommended to set permissions to 755, for executable scripts — permissions to 600, and for other files — permissions to 644. If you need to set the rights to 777, then the provider warns about this in advance.
Solution: Try to optimize the script. It is not difficult to find a slowly working script — there are special services for this. Another solution is to increase the server timeout. But it is only possible if you ordered a VPS or a dedicated server, and this cannot be done on a regular shared hosting. Unless technical support will make an exception for you.
Solution: Make sure you have the .htaccess file. It should be in the root directory of your site. If there is, back up the file and delete it completely. A site without a .htaccess file works fine, and if it happened, it means that the file is to blame, you need to correct it or ask the hoster to give a new file.
You can also examine the server logs — your control panel should have such a function. All error details are recorded in a special log, and you can see when the error occurred and what caused it. If the wrong directive is specified in the .htaccess file, then in the error.log file you will see approximately the following lines:
That is, in this message you will see which directive is causing the error. In our example, this is the RewritRule directive — such a directive simply does not exist. There is a RewriteRule directive, but in our example one letter is missing, so the server responds with an error.
How to solve it: contact the hosting technical support service. If they do not help to resolve the 500 error, change hosting.
That’s all. There are many more reasons for the 500 error, but they can be listed on several pages. Yes, and they occur very rarely, and if you have a reliable hosting, then you will generally forget what a 500 error is. Until the next meeting on the pages of the SEOBID blog. NET!
What does internal server error 500
mean
This message may mean that the software side of your server is technically working, but unexpected internal errors appear from time to time. As a result, your request is not processed in production mode, so after the allotted time, in response to unanswered requests, the user (in this case, the visitor’s browser or search engine) is given a server error code 500.
And a server error can occur for a variety of reasons, and you can’t list them all. But you can try to consider options that are more common than others — at least in terms of self-education. The standard internal server error page looks like this:

How to deal with the situation as a regular user
The causes of error 500 can be very diverse. Perhaps this is how it was planned at the dawn of time, when our Universe was just born from the Big Bang. However, we are also not made with a finger, so there are several quite simple options that can help in this case:
Solve the problem together with the site owner
Ash stump, that the owner of the resource should promptly correct the situation if a 500 error is detected — each dissatisfied user is a loss of site popularity, and hence a decrease in potential profit. An abnormal situation may well be created by some script that slows down the response time of the resource. It should be found and optimized. If this is not possible, then you can spend an additional amount of money to get a VPS or advanced options for increasing this parameter.
A possible cause of server error 500 could be an Htaccess file that was not configured correctly. It is recommended not to be a goon, and hire a good specialist who will fix this problem.
Such a development of events can also be caused by the use of a script that requires too much memory for its work. The way out is to refuse to use it, or to purchase the possibility of using additional resources from the provider.

Naturally, poor-quality work of an Internet provider can also lead to such trouble, so it is recommended not to immediately rush to a tasty price offer, but initially read reviews about this company so that further cooperation does not become a reason for disappointment.
On May 1-2, for the first time in 2 years of blogging, I encountered such a problem as a 500 error on the site. Before that, somehow I didn’t even think about what it was and how, if necessary, it could be corrected.
When I realized that my blog was not opening and that it was serious, I almost panicked. But she pulled herself together and fixed everything.

And now I will tell you which direction to go if this misfortune happens to you. And I’ll also say what needs to be done in advance, so to speak, with a preventive purpose, so that you are guaranteed not to suffer from a 500 error on the site.
So, it was the evening of May 1st. At 20.18 I received a letter from Yandex. Metrics that my blog is unavailable.
I tried to open it. I know from advertising campaigns that sometimes you get such a message from Metrica, but the site opens. But it wasn’t there! Blog not opened — error 500.

I didn’t do anything in the evening. You could say I was hoping that everything would go away on its own.
It didn’t go away by itself. Closer to dinner on May 2, she dropped everything and began to sort things out.
First I wrote to the hosting (I have TimeWeb hosting).

The answer did not please.

I always do this, no mistakes so far. By the way, after the update, the blog worked fine for at least a few hours. Therefore, before the message from the hosting, I did not associate the 500 error with the plugin update.
And what to do? There is no access to the admin panel (always so with an error 500). How to fix the site?
Of course, I knew that hosting creates backup copies of sites. But, to my shame, I didn’t even know how often. And she herself did not bother with the creation of additional backups.
Again I asked the hosting support about the frequency of backups. It turned out that they are created every three days.

This response from the support specialist was very informative. And what is the error, and how to fix it, and how to access the backup.

Since by this time the problem had not yet been a day old, I decided to restore the site from the last backup.
You can find backups from your hosting account.

After opening the backup page looks like this.

After hovering the mouse over the desired folder with a copy, the «Restore» and «Save» pointers appear.

Select «Restore». Recovery starts. The website was up and running in 5 minutes. Hooray! You can exhale with relief. Fixed it, done it!
Now I know what a 500 error is on a website.
The main insidiousness of this problem is that when it occurs, as a rule, the specific cause is unknown. And since the reason is not clear, it is impossible to find solutions.
Problems that can cause error 500:
As you can see, I was helped to establish the cause by hosting technical support workers, who, moreover, promptly responded.
The easiest solution is to rollback, restore using a backup copy. But for this, at least 2 conditions must be met.
1. This backup must be (check if your hosting creates them or create them yourself periodically).
2. Notice the mistake and start correcting it as soon as possible. If for some reason I had not visited the site for 3-4 days, everything would have been much sadder. A new automatic backup from the broken site would be created. It would be difficult to restore without the participation of a specialist.
If you create your copies at a certain frequency (say, once a month), the degree of protection of your site from data loss due to error 500 increases dramatically.
Given that even if we do not fix anything in the site code ourselves, we constantly update WordPress, plugins and themes. Faced with a problem called «Error 500», I now understand better the need to back up the site.
I recommend that you take into account my experience.
There are other ways to fix error 500. But they are more time-consuming, require special knowledge or the participation of a specialist.
If you have already encountered such a problem, but please share your experience on how you solved it. And if you never had to face, then I wish you never to face.
Incorrect work of the new theme for the design of the site
If you decided to transform your site and installed a new and interesting theme, but immediately after you installed it and entered the site, an error 500 appeared, then use the following instructions to eliminate this kind of error.
First, go to the FTP site where this error occurred, then find the theme folder and delete or rename the current theme. In order to rename, you can add any symbol to the name of the themes folder — this is more than enough.

After you have renamed the folder, when you enter the site page, you will see a completely empty page and the absence of any mention of errors.



Now you will need to select the Database of your site

Then go to the SQL tab


It should look like this:

After these steps, your site will be transformed again.
Resolve error 500 caused by plugin conflict
There is such a situation when the plugin in which the failure occurred does absolutely not the way you would like to see the appearance of your resource. And if you still have access to the management console, then you can easily just turn it off.
And if there is no access, then there is a possibility that the plugin that you installed began to conflict with other plugins that you activated. And in this case, it remains only to turn it off using the FTP server (just like turning off the theme of the site). Briefly: go to the FTP site where you are fixing the error, then go to the folder where the installed plugin is located, change the name, or edit (only one character can be added). If you change the name the next time you go from the console to Plugins, you will see that WordPress will deactivate it automatically.
If you incorrectly edited the .htaccess file, or if the plugins did not work with it correctly, then a 500 error may occur. Sometimes this can be a field of how you tried to change those parameters that could not be changed.
In order to fix the error, we will need to go to FTP again, because this file is located on your site, in the root folder. But because the name .htaccess starts with a dot, this file is initially hidden. That’s why we download FileZilla — it’s an easy-to-use and free FTP client. Install the program and go to the «Server» tab, then check the box to force the display of hidden files. After that, reconnect to FTP again to update the list of files.

Now that we have seen the file, open it in notepad. And before us opens the content of the file, which, in principle, is a kind of rules and various instructions for the operation of the web server. Review the changes that you made and remove the errors. You can also delete this file in order to create new ones later using WordPress tools.
To do this, you need to go to the resource administration panel, then to «Parameters», and in them we find «Permalinks», in which we select the option we need and click on «Save».

Do not forget that if the settings in .htaccess were made by the plugin that you are going to use, then carefully read all possible instructions regarding its settings and installation.

