How To Fix HTTP status 500 internal server error In WordPress

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HTTP status 500 internal server error is by far the most common WordPress error that beginner WordPress users encounter.

WordPress has many features that allow you as a user to customize your site. But sometimes, WordPress errors do occur, most of which you didn’t prepare for.

There are over 50 WordPress errors that I’m personally aware of.

If you suddenly encounter one of these WordPress errors, You don’t have to worry because the WordPress community is one of the most vibrant out there. There’s always someone ready to help.

In this article, I will share 5 different ways to fix http status 500 internal server error in WordPress.

What is the Internal server error?

The internal server error also does come around as “http status 500 internal server error”

http status 500 internal server error is the most common WordPress error encountered by WordPress beginners.

This error can be frustrating because it doesn’t tell the cause of the error. You will have to find it out by yourself.

Most internal server errors are usually caused by plugin or theme malfunctions, corrupted or broken .htaccess files, a permission error, or a PHP memory limit being exceeded.

I demonstrate how to fix each of these causes of Internal server error below.

How to troubleshoot the ‘http status 500 internal server error

Just before we begin…

A good web management practice is to always back up your website. So make sure that your WordPress website is backed up before you begin any of these processes.

If you don’t know how to back your website up, then check it up on this link>>>

Consult your Webhosting provider

If you think that troubleshooting your WordPress website will be overwhelming, then you can contact your Webhosting support for help.

They should be able to check the server log and spot where your WordPress error is coming from.

But if you want to troubleshoot on your own, then read on as I have explained the different ways to troubleshoot the 500 internal server error in WordPress.

Rename your .htaccess file

What I recommend as your first step when troubleshooting internal server errors in WordPress is to check for possible corrupted .htaccess files.

All you have to do here is to rename your .htaccess file to something like .htaccess_New.

To do this, locate your .htaccess folder by following the steps below;

Sign in to your cPanel account
Locate File Manager

By the left sidebar, locate the Public html folder
You should see your .htaccess file here.

If you can’t find your .htaccess file, then it’s probably in “hidden” mode. You can make it visible by clicking the Settings tab at the top right corner and selecting the “Show hidden file” box.

After renaming, go revisit your site to see if this problem is solved.

Before your logout, Go to your WordPress admin dashboard>>Settings>>Permalink and then scroll down and click the save button without touching any other thing.

This action will generate a new .htaccess file and ensure that your website does not return a 404 error after making this change.

If the http status 500 internal server error is not solved using this fix, then read on as I explain the next method to fix this error.

Increase your website PHP Memory Limit

Often, the default memory that comes with your WordPress installation can be exhausted. This is another common cause of internal server error.

In this case, you will need to raise this default PHP size, and doing so can get your http status 500 internal server error fixed.

To increase the PHP memory limit, you will have to access your wp-config.php file.

Head over to your cPanel>>File manager>>Public html>>wp_includes(close to the process we already worked through above)
Locate the wp-config.php file and download this file to your computer

Open this file with notepad or any editor of your choice and then paste the code below on the line just before the ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.’ line

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

This code is instructing WordPress to increase the PHP memory limit to 265M.

Once you are done, save your changes and then upload this edited wp-config.php file back to the server.

This should fix your ‘http status 500 internal server error

Note that if this didn’t work, then it’s possible that your WordPress host has deactivated your ability to increase your PHP memory limit. In that situation, you will have to contact your WordPress host to increase it manually.

Deactivate plugin causing error

Another possible cause of this error is if you have a poorly coded WordPress plugin activated on your WordPress website or a combination of 2 or more plugins clashing.

Unfortunately, you may not be able to single out the particular plugin(s) causing this error. In that case, you will have to deactivate all your plugins at once.

You can do this at your wp-admin area or deactivate it all at once from the file manager of your cPanel account.

Then in the plugin page of your WordPress wp-admin area, start activating each of your plugins until your WordPress website breaks.

Once you’ve identified the problem plugin, deactivate it from your website or report the error to the plugin author.

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Conclusion

I suppose that trying out one of these troubleshoots should fix your http status 500 internal server error. Let me know in the comment box if anyone of these did the job.

If you have tried out all of them and yet the internal server error is still there, let me know too as there are still other ways to go around this error.

But one of these ones should help solve your problem.

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