changed directories

Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts, so if you have access to your admin panel, try deactivating all plugins. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, try manually resetting your plugins (no Dashboard access required). If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Twenty Fourteen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via FTP or SFTP, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.

If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via FTP or SFTP and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your FTP or SFTP client to view invisible files.

If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

OK, i tried to deactivate the plugins, that didn’t work but I wasn’t allowed to rename them all.

I already use the 2014 theme, is there another way to try that fix?

I don’t have an .htaccess file, I have a web.config file, will renaming that do the same thing?

oh wow, renaming the web.config file did the trick. do I need to name it back now? i’m a little confused now, isn’t that file neccesary…but I have two, the one that I copied to the root, which is turned off, and the one in the original file….but thanks though, I’ll be back with the next problem when I find it!

found it, I’ve got the admin page, and the home page, but no other pages, I can’t get to anything else, 500 internal server errors still present….

so, I changed the name of the web.config file, was able to get back into the admin panel, but wp generated another web.config file and automatically put it back into the root with the same results…internal server errors, and it keeps adding these other files as well with a .tmp suffix?

WordPress doesn’t generate web.config files, your server does.

At this point, I recommend reporting the problem to your hosting provider and specifically letting them know that it works when you rename web.config (until the server generates a new one).

I figured it out, I disabled the web.config file in the wordpress file and now all is working as it should.

Thanks for sharing your solution!