FIXED 500 Internal Server Error on WordPress

The 500 internal server error is not a WordPress-specific error. It is a general server error that may be related to your server settings or your WordPress files. Use the information in this tutorial to troubleshoot the 500 internal server error you are receiving.

Here are the things you'll need to troubleshoot.

1. Your htaccess file may be corrupted. Try renaming it and see if that fixes the 500 error. If it does then the problem is in the htaccess file.

Check Your Plugins

The first 500 internal server error troubleshoot is by deactivating all of your plugins.

To do this log into your site files using FTP or going through cPanel.
If you go the cPanel route, click on File Manager in your cPanel.

The find your website’s root folder. It is usually in the public_html folder.

Then navigate to wp-content and locate the “plugins” folder.
Next rename the Plugins folder to something different like “plugins-old”. This deactivates all the plugins on your site.

If that fixes the problem, then you know the problem is with your plugins.

Now that you know the problem is with your plugins you can go into the Wordpress back-end and activate each plugin individually to isolate the cause.

You do this by activating one plugin, then reload your website. If you do not see the 500 Internal Server Error then it’s not that plugin.
Then activate another plugin and do the same until one of them breaks your site.

Once you know which plugin is causing the 500 Internal Server error, you can either delete that plugin, replace it, or contact the developer for more help.

If deactivating the plugins didn’t fix the problem, keep on reading.

Increase Your Memory Limit

The next step in the troubleshooting process is to increase the memory limit on your website.

Now, open the newly created file in the code editor and type memory=128MB in the file. This should increase your memory limit.

Now refresh your website.

If the error is gone, the cause was a memory problem on the server and you have identified the problem.

You should now contact your host support to figure out what is draining your memory and remedy the problem with their help.

Replace wp-admin and wp-include Files

If increasing the memory limit did not clear up the error, then copy in a new “wp-admin” folder and “wp-includes” folder in your WordPress site.

This can be done quite simply, but you want to follow the right process to protect yourself in case anything goes wrong.

First, go to your root folder and compress each of the current “wp-admin” and “wp-includes” folders into a zip archive. Just in case something goes wrong you’ll have a backup of those files.

The downloaded zip file will contain the latest versions of “wp-admin” and “wp-includes”. Unzip that WordPress file.

Find the “wp-admin” and “wp-includes” inside the WordPress folder on your harddrive. Highlight both of them and compress them.

Upload them into the root folder of your website using cPanel or FTP.
Now go ahead delete the uncompressed versions of these folders in your website root.

Next, extract the compressed folders and now you have fresh copies of them on your website.

Refresh your website to see if that fixes the problem. If it does fix the problem, you can safely delete the compressed backups.

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4 years old video and still helping people all around the world. Thanks!

[g]

Thanks to your youtube video, I was able to restore my blog site, which I was unable to view for six months.
I am deeply appreciative for your work.

[damilareabdulahi]

Was becoming worried when the first few ones didn't work for me...Until 6.30 minutes, .htaccess file worked perfectly. Thanks; you saved a life

[morbhe]

After 9 hours trying to solve the problem and 10mg of diazepam to lower the stress level, you made my day. Thanks man!

[benjie]

I have been sitting for a long time trying to figure out what's the error, and you taught me how to fix it
thank you very much!

[johnsonmugabo]

Thank you so much, this tutorial has saved me, i installed and activated breeze cache plugin, immediately after installation my site returned an error, I followed the steps and i had to rename the .htacess for the site to be restored. Thanks so much for this tutorial .God Bless You.

[MiuArtStudioUK]

This video saved my website again! I don't know which solution particularly, but I followed 4 steps than the error is gone!

[BeefJerky]

Your first tip with renaming the plugins folder worked. Obviously one of the plugins I was using went bad (or something). You're the real MVP!

[nachogalvezantunez]

Björn, this is wonderfull, this stupid 500 ISE is a real headacke for rokies like me, I really apreciate.Thank you again and see you at your interesting videos.

[tmd]

I spent 8 hours trying to fix this error today. Turns out it was a corrupted wp-config.php file caused by a caching plugin. Be sure to check your web server logs for your DOMAIN, that gave me my first clue. I wouldn't also suggest checking this if WP debug doesn't create logs (mine didn't).

[ishworshrestha]

your first method worked for me. Thank you so much sir my site was down for 24 hr and finally I got it fixed after hours of struggle. Thank you

[mr]

Thanks!...Had a 500 Internal Error screen for my new site...and your step by step diagnostic worked great....ended up being a plugin that was no longer compatible to a recent WP update.

[vincekay]

Hahaha I’ve been following you for a while now, I have been working for a hosting company for a few years now. You pretty much solved 80% of the issues in this one video alone. Process of elimination is key and you outline those steps perfectly 😂 I just lol when I see comments your video did not fix this, please fix my issue. “Sir I do not have admin access to your VPS, contact your hosting provider” great stuff man!

Other than that it can be compatibility issues with php or WP ver. Also you will have the occasional Udemy guru that messes with his SQL tables and ends up dumping his whole DB w/o backing up before dabbling with his backend lol 😆

[uzmaansari]

Thank you so much you saved me i had same problem couldn’t able to access my Wordpress admin panel and i knew it was Wp super cache i just deleted that plugin from the hosting c panel directly i I retrieved my website thank god touchwood i saved myself thank you very much i am already your subscriber and most of your videos i trust and follow and your video never let me down

[lynnemaple]

This video has become my go to in the last week had three sites crash on me. Thank you so much!!!!

[imetsersas]

fuiste el único de muchos videos que me dio la respuesta a el error 500, mil gracias

[noraliu]

Thank you, this video is really helpful. After I rename the plugin folder as "plugin-old", the website shows some my original html code, it helps me find out the problem is in the plugin. Then I deleted the plugins one by one and refreshed the website, finally I found the plugin that caused the problem.

[sebastianjav]

THANK YOU, I DONT KNOW WHAT I DID, but the real problem was memory, thank you very much.

[charlesdessa]

That was a really helpful video:) when I become a billionaire I will buy you a helicopter

[FaysalsEducationCounsel]

Sir, helpful video. In this video are very logical. Because In your video, I can solve my website problem, I have to wait for new videos from your channel. A lot of many thanks, sir...