500 Internal Server Error – wp-admin only

  • Resolved snowbelly

    (@snowbelly)


    8 years, 3 months ago

    I know this is a common problem in the forums, but I swear I’ve tried everything and I’m desperate for new ideas. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

    What’s happening:
    * regular site (https://annazaires.com) loads fine
    * attempts to go to the dashboard result in a 500 Internal Error – you don’t even see the login screen, it’s just the error screen

    So far I have already tried:
    * making sure the .htaccess file is not corrupted
    * turning on debugging in the wp-config file (no error file is generated, no errors reported)
    * upping my PHP memory using the wp-config file and/or the php.ini file in the wp-admin file
    * removing all plugins via FTP (still get the error even with no plugins)
    * deactivating all plugins via direct manipulation of the active_plugins database entry in the wp_options db table

    No dice all around.

    Add info:
    What I was doing when this happened was attempting to deactivate a plugin. The plugin in question was WordFence. I clicked on “deactivate” on the plugins screen and BAM, 500 internal error. I have already tried removing the Wordfence files via FTP and it is not listed as an active plugin in the active_plugins database entry in the wp_options table.

    Anyone see this before?

    If no one has any ideas on how to recover the site – does this mean I should do a full restore from backup?

    I’d be willing to pay someone from the www.ads-software.com organization to have a deep dive into the database and see if they can find the problem.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • Hello @snowbelly

    To rule out file integrity, please re-upload the wp-includes and wp-admin folders from your latest working backup via FTP.

    Your website data will not be affected – unless you saved something in those folders which is unlikely.

    Thread Starter snowbelly

    (@snowbelly)

    Thanks for the idea, @j09 – just restored the full wp-admin and wp-include from a backup three days ago and still seeing the 500 Internal Error.

    @snowbelly

    Thank you for the update,

    Next, I would suggest that you take a look at the sever log.

    Thread Starter snowbelly

    (@snowbelly)

    @j09 – I spoke too soon! I think I have resolved it. While restoring the wp-admin directory from the backup I noticed that there was one failure in the FTP transfer. It turns out that that one file had had its permissions magically changed to 0 from 755. After I fixed the permissions on that that one file in the wp-admin directory, everything worked!

    No idea how this happened, but I’ll take the fix. Thank you SO much, could not have figured this out without you!

    @snowbelly

    That’s very good news!

    I am glad you figured it out ??

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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