What is “HTTP 500 Internal Server Error” and How to Fix It?

If you visit your website and suddenly see the message “500 Internal Server Error”, it means something has gone wrong with your WordPress website. This is not caused by your browser, computer, or internet connection the 500 Internal Server Error is happening on your website’s server.

What is 500 Internal Server Error

500 Internal Server Error is a common error that occurs when something unexpected happens on your web server like a corrupted .htaccess file, a plugin issue, reaching the PHP memory limit, or WordPress core files getting corrupted.

Because of this, your server cannot provide information to your website, and instead of displaying a normal web page, it shows an internal server error.

How to Fix 500 Internal Server Error

Here, I am going to tell you some easy methods to fix the 500 Internal Server Error on your WordPress site.

Let’s get started…

1. Recreate the .htaccess File

The .htaccess file is used for web server configuration in WordPress, mainly for setting the permalink structure. If there’s even a small mistake in this file, it can cause an internal server error.

To recreate it:

1. Log in to your web hosting cPanel.
2. Click on File Manager.
3. Go to the root directory, find the .htaccess file, and rename it (e.g., .htaccess_old).
4. Log in to your WordPress site, go to Settings → Permalinks, and click Save Changes without making any changes.

WordPress will automatically create a new .htaccess file, and your site should start working without the internal server error.

2. Deactivate Plugins

If recreating the .htaccess file does not fix the issue, you need to deactivate all plugins on your site.

Go to the WordPress Plugins section and deactivate all plugins.

If you cannot access the WordPress admin area, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your web hosting cPanel.
2. Go to the root directory, click on wp-content.
3. Rename the plugins folder (e.g., plugins_OLD).

This will deactivate all plugins. If your site opens now, a plugin was causing the 500 Internal Server Error.

You might see the error “The plugin has been deactivated due to an error; plugin file does not exist” in your WordPress dashboard.

To fix this:

1. Log in to your cPanel again.
2. Rename plugins_OLD back to plugins.
3. In the WordPress dashboard, activate the plugins one by one to identify the problematic plugin.

3. Increase PHP Memory Limit

If the error still persists, you need to increase the PHP memory limit of your hosting.

Steps:

1. Go to your cPanel.
2. Edit the wp-config.php file.
3. Add the following code before the line

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M' );

If the memory limit does not increase, contact your hosting provider.

4. Upload WordPress Core Files

If the issue still persists, you need to upload fresh WordPress core files for your site.

Steps:

1. Use FTP instead of File Manager.
2. Download the latest version of WordPress from WordPress.org.
3. Extract the ZIP file, then delete the wp-content folder and wp-config-sample.php file.
4. Upload the remaining files to your WordPress site via FTP.
5. If prompted about duplicate files, choose Overwrite duplicate files.

Following any one of these steps should fix the 500 Internal Server Error on your WordPress site. If it doesn’t, you can contact your hosting support team or hire a WordPress developer.