Activating Plugin causes Error 500 – Plugin interface disappears

Hi, while individually these plugins may not cause an issue, obviously a combination of them do. Usually you’ll find that the ones that add in a bunch of javascript are the ones that cause these collision issues. You’ll have to go in and delete out the stuff in your plugins folder on the server to recover, then add them back in a turn them on one at a time and refresh the page until you see the same situation occur, then you’ll start to know which plugins are colliding and causing the issue. Ultimately you’ll need to contact the plugin developers of the plugins that are conflicting and see if they can fix things–or you’ll need to select a different plugin to get the same functionality that then doesn’t cause you to have an issue.

Thanks for your response. Seems the plugins were not at fault!

I just got a reply from 1and1.com which solved the problem.

1. They placed a php.ini file in the wp-admin folder with memory=20MB
2. They parsed the .htaccess file for php5.

I have no idea why these steps weren’t necessary before, but now it all works fine.

Much respect for the courtesy, and speed of the 1and 1 tech support.
Best
Peter

Fantastic, Peter, thank you!

I had the same problem and did find information that suggests web hosts limited some kind of access of php to 8 MB. For WordPress plugins, especially when activating more than one at a time, this can cause problems. They recommended changing the limitation to 16 MB. The site I found said that usually you need to contact the host as you can’t access the server directly.

However, I did number 1 that you mention, and it fixed my problem instantly! What a relief.

Thank you.

Now I’ll go back and do that for all my blogs.

Brian

P.S. In the /wp-admin/ directory, I added a notepad file titled “php.ini” with only the text “memory=20MB” (no quotes)

Peter,

I’ve got 1and1 and the customer service rep didn’t mention to me that solution of placing a php.ini file in the wp-admin folder. I did find that solution on another blog:

https://www.likoma.com/nextgen-gallery-upload_max_filesize/#comment-38999

This solution was to fix the Memory issue in NextGenGallery, but also has the line you suggested “Memory = 20 MB” Although they had it set to 30.

1.
      post_max_size = 50M
   2.
      upload_max_filesize = 40M
   3.
      max_execution_time = 900
   4.
      memory_limit = 30M

You mention that they parsed your htaccess file for php 5. What does that mean?

I ran a test on my 1and1 and I am running php 4.9.9. Not exactly 5! LOL.

Did they upgrade you to php 5 and that solved the issue?

Please explain.

Sorry, I mean 4.4.9 for php version.

rock and roll! i thought about php.ini restrictions but hadn’t experimented. i was getting the error 500 in various places in wp-admin and elsewhere (on public pages) on my wp blog and this fixed it. I’m using memory=128mb and wp is quick as a bunny now with no problems. thanks for doing the footwork, peter.

Also, if Peter’s solution doesn’t work, you can edit or create an .htaccess file to make your php files run with php5, since Apache by default may be running an earlier version of php.

Just put the following in the file on its own line:
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php

The .htaccess file can be in the root directory of your blog or website, and is just a text file.

Hope this helps – it worked for me and others for this problem.