How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error in WordPress

Given enough time, it’s impossible to escape running into the HTTP 500 internal server error. It’s a common WordPress error that is not as much of a problem as it might seem; however, it can surely put a junior admin into panic mode! It’s all fixable and with a bit of patience it will go away. While the error can stem from a number of issues, nonetheless, the following list contains the most common reasons why you’re getting it and a way to fix it.

Before we start digging into the possible reasons why the error occurs, it’s a good idea to note that the error is not specific to WordPress websites, but in fact it can affect other platforms as well.

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The error message itself does not tell you what has actually occurred, so no specific troubleshooting info is provided. Sometimes it occurs when someone is trying to log into the administrator panel, other times it can affect other parts of a website/platform.

Corrupt .htaccess file

Quite possibly, your .htaccess file has become corrupted, and that’s the reason why you receive the error. In that case, one way to fix it is to rename the file to make sure you don’t lose it, (or simply copy it) and then login in via FTP. Reloading the website will show you whether or not this was the cause of the error. Also, generating a new file (while keeping the old one too) can be done via Settings – Permalinks, and then clicking the save button.

PHP memory limitations

If the error occurs specifically when you’re trying to upload a larger file, video or photo, for instance, then the cause for the issue is most probably a lack of working memory. To increase it you should:

Create a new txt file php.ini, paste the code memory=64MB into it, then save the file and upload it in the wp-admin/your FTP folder (local).

Note however, that a bad plugin or some other issue may be leaking or increasing your memory usage which leads to more memory issues over time, regardless of how much memory you actually have available. This is an issue that needs to be addressed by trying to find out what causes the memory over usage, otherwise the problem may occur again.

Plugins

Since your memory problems might be a question of having a bad version of a plugin, you may need to deactivate your plugins one-by-one and check to see which one might cause the issue. Also, as a measure of easing troubleshooting, you should always try and note down what plugin or plugin update you’ve been installing, so that you might more easily find out what caused the issue. If you’ve just installed a plugin and the problem just started to happen than chances are that the particular plugin is what causes the issues.

Re-upload your core files

This should be used as a last resort; re-uploading your wp-admin and wp-includes files. This is done to make sure that corruption of these files is not what caused the issues in the first place.

Hardware side problems

Sometimes the problem might not stem from faulty or conflicting software, but it can be a problem on the server side. Therefore, a good idea is to contact your hosting provider and ask if any issues or any modifications have occurred with their hardware. Sometimes it might be as simple as a SATA cable getting disconnected or some other hardware malfunction, though, given the size and the virtualization of servers, it might not be as simple as that. Still, if there is a hardware problem your host will need to fix it for the software issue to be solved.

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