Changed structure, now get 500 message –

Delete your .htaccess file. A 500 server error message is a configuration error or whatever.

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ve opened all the directories and I don’t find an .htaccess file. Is it an invisible file? I am using Transmit as my ftp application, and I can’t find it anywhere. I am hopeful that’s a solution – if I could only find it.

Yes, all files starting with a . are hidden files. Check your FTP client’s settings.

Thank you! I don’t get the 500 error anymore. Should I now just delete everything in that directory and start over installing wordpress from the original clean installation files I downloaded yesterday? I’m so sorry for being a bother. You are a life saver.

Nope, everything is fine. There was just a structure error in your .htaccess file. You can re-create it now if you wish.

The problem was either from something you already had in the .htaccess file and WordPress incorrectly added to the file or you put in a permalink structute that broke the file.

Yikes … but when I go to mydomain.com/blog it’s just a blank page! I have no idea how to recreate an .htaccess file.

Would it be better to just start over? I’ve only been using wp for less than a day. I’m learning fast, but that’s not something I know how to do yet.

Uh, is /blog/ a virtual directory? Having no .htaccess shouldn’t affect WP displaying the index page.

/blog is a directory (folder) under my domain into which I installed wordpress

My site structure is: myname.com/blog

When I go to that address https://www.myname/blog I just get a blank white page in the browser, nothing else.

If you gave us your actual domain, we could make an attempt at troubleshooting. Otherwise, we’re just flying blind.

yes, my domain is https://www.karenwinters.com/kblog

and /kblog is where I put all my wordpress stuff, and that’s where the index.php is, etc.
Everything is in there (except for the .htaccess file, which has been deleted.)

I can see my blog again, but any posts past the first page don’t show up due to the “structure” problem, which I don’t know how to solve.
A new .htaccess has been generated, I see.

The posts are in the database, but due to the “structure” error I made in Options>Permalinks now WP can’t find any posts beyond the first page. Can you help me change it back to the way I had it by default? I can live without pretty links if I can just get it to work.

This was what I typed in the structure field (big mistake – that’s when everything screwed up)
and that’s what shows up now. Previously the field was blank.

/Structure: /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

Edited to add: my host is 1and1.com and I am pretty sure they use Apache servers.

Also: if I even go to the tab for Structure to look at it, it corrupts the .htaccess file again and I get another 500 error. (Then I have to delete it to be able to get back to wp-admin again)

If you want to get your blog working again by not using permalinks, just empty the boxes that you created your peralinks with in the first place and WordPress will stop making permalink URLs.

As for viewing and then 500’ing, that’s because each time you view the page, it wants to re-create the rules into your .htaccess file. As I said in this post, empty the fields and save it and then delete the .htaccess file.

Oh, and before you go and delete your .htaccess again, open it with a text editor, paste the contents at PasteBin and link us to it so we can maybe figure out what’s up (assuming it isn’t just a server mis-configuration).

That sounds great – I will do that and post it. (Sorry, I had to catch a few hrs sleep – it was almost 4 in LA. Assuming I can undo what I did, is there a “right” way to make good permalinks ? After making my error and reading through the support files I seem to remember something about editing the .htaccess file in a certain way? If I can be pointed to the right instructions to follow, I’d like to do it. Should I ask that question in another forum? I’d rather have a bit of guidance to do it the right way than to annoy everyone with troubleshooting questions.

Here is the pastebin link with the contents of the .htaccess file, after the 500 error appeared again:

https://pastebin.com/328519

And here is the text that I had copied and pasted into the structure box:
/Structure: /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

I followed your instructions but the problem remains. Even though I have deleted that bad text from the field in the Permalinks tab and hit “update” … and then removed the newly-corrupted .htaccess file using my ftp client, and then gone back to wp-admin so I no longer get a 500 error, I still cannot see any “previous entries” – only the entries on the first page of my blog. When I click “the previous entries” link at the bottom of the page I get a “404” error. Thank you for your help, I appreciate it greatly.