How-To Fix HTTP Error 500 In WordPress
The HTTP Error 500 is a common issue that can happen on WordPress websites. This error can be caused by a number of things, such as incorrect permissions on your files and folders, a plugin conflict, an out-of-date theme or even by updating or reinstalling WordPress.
In order to fix the issue, you will first need to identify what is causing the error. Once you have identified the cause, you can then take steps to fix it.
In this post, we will show you how to fix the HTTP Error 500 in WordPress through the 6 steps below.
1) Check Your Plugins
An HTTP Error 500 may indicate a plugin or theme conflict, so if you have access to your admin panel in WordPress, try deactivating all plugins.
Then, reactivate each one individually until you discover the plugin responsible for the problem.
You can also do this by using the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin. This plugin will scan your website for any conflicts with plugins as well.
2) Check Your Theme
If it’s not a plugin related issue, then it could be a theme related issue. So, try changing your WordPress theme to one of the default themes, like Twenty Twenty or the default theme for your version of WordPress.
This will help rule-out if the HTTP Error 500 is theme-related.
You could also check your current theme for any out-of-date files. To do this, you can use the Theme Check plugin.
This plugin will scan your website for any out-of-date files in your theme.
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3) Check for .htaccess File Issue
If the issue isn’t plugin or theme related, it’s possible that an .htaccess rule could be the problem.
To check for this, you’ll need access to your server.
If you do, then access it via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your web hosting account’s cPanel or similar control panel.
You’ll then need to change the name of the .htaccess file.
If you can’t locate the .htaccess file, be sure that your SFTP or FTP client supports viewing hidden files.
You’ll need a more descriptive error message if you can’t solve the HTTP Error 500 problem by resetting your plugins, changing your theme, or renaming your .htaccess file.
You can usually get a more detailed description of any HTTP 500 Errors in the server error log.
If you can access your server’s error log, try generating the error yourself, write down the date and the time the HTTP 500 Error occurred, then see if your server error log had any errors during that time period.
If you don’t have access to your server error log, check with your web hosting provider to have a look for you.
4) Update or Reinstall WordPress
If you’ve tried all of the above and you’re still experiencing the HTTP Error 500, it’s possible that your WordPress installation is corrupted.
In this case, you can try updating or reinstalling WordPress.
This will also ensure that your website is running on the latest version of WordPress.
5) Increase your WordPress Site’s Memory
If you’ve tried all of the above and you’re still experiencing the HTTP Error 500, then you can try increasing your WordPress site’s memory.
For this, you will need to either know PHP or have someone who does know PHP, do it for you.
Then, you can fix this memory issue by adding the following line of code below to your wp-config.php file:
1. define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’);
This will increase your WordPress site’s memory limit to 256MB.
2. You can also try increasing the memory limit by adding this code to your .htaccess file:
php_value memory_limit 256M
3. If you’re still experiencing the HTTP Error 500, then it’s possible that you need to upgrade your web hosting account to a plan that has more resources.
This could be more CPU cores, memory, or storage space.
If you’re still experiencing the HTTP Error 500 after trying all of the above, then you may need to take your website offline for a while until you can resolve the issue or find someone who can.
6) Contact Your Web Host
However, if all else fails, even if you have checked all of the above and you are still seeing the HTTP Error 500, then your last step may still be to contact your web host anyway.
There could be an underlying server issue that only they can resolve on their end.
So, there you have it! How to fix an HTTP Error 500 in WordPress.
If you are still having trouble fixing the error, then contact us and we will be happy to help you. Thanks for reading!
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