HTTP 500 Error on every page – nothing is helping!

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.

Hi, chembuddy, & welcome. Please open your wp-config.php file & change wp_debug from ‘false’ to ‘true’. Then try going to your site & copy/paste any error messages that appear.

Please also paste a copy of your .htaccess file in your next reply. You can do this either by viewing it in your hosting provider’s file manager or via FTP (hopefully secure FTP). Please enclose it in backtics (), ie,

 beginning
middle
end

Please consult your WordPress root folder & any subfolders for files called error.log or error_log & send entries.

Please check your hosting provider’s control panel for an aplet called “errors” or “error logs” & paste entries, if available, to your next reply.

Please check your entries to ensure that they do not contain credentials before pasting them to this very public forum.

This is extensive, for which I apologize, but in order to ascertain what’s occurring, we need the information.

Okay, I’ve gone through everything and here is what I have.

HTAccess (what is in the file):
–# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Here is what is in my WP_config file (just before the stop editing notice):

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
define(‘WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY’, true);
define(‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, true);
define(‘WPCF7_LOAD_JS’, false);
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’);

I tried enabling the different error logs but nothing different has been coming up! When I try and access the website it simply says:

This page isn’t working
https://www.mesnz.org.nz is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500

I could not find any files in the root folders which could show errors or anything like that.

I’m using Google Chrome to access these web pages if that helps at all. I’m using FileZilla to edit the files of the website too.

Here’s the error I’m getting:
“Error
The character encoding of the HTML document was not declared. The document will render with garbled text in some browser configurations if the document contains characters from outside the US-ASCII range. The character encoding of the page must be declared in the document or in the transfer ”

Are your database entries correct in wp-config.php?

Sorry for my very late response! I’m double checking with my associate to make sure that these details are correct. She will be back to me very shortly. If the details are correct, what would be the next course of action?

chembuddy, sorry I’m asking so many questions, but does this site have content on it?

No need to apologise. I really want to get to the bottom of this! Yes it does, it has a fair bit of content.

Chembuddy, how large is your database, do you know? Do you have shared, vps, or dedicated hosting?

I advise that you first back up your database using either PhpMyAdmin or similar, or conversely, the command line. You should also back up any user-generated content, ie, images, documents, etc, as well as any purchased plugins or themes. It might be instructive to download the database & examine it in a text editor that can accommodate large files. This might reveal large numbers of unnecessary entries that can safely be deleted, thereby reducing the database to a more manageable size. Sometimes plugins just inundate the database w/stuff that can be deleted, especially if the plugin has been uninstalled.

This can also be caused by a broken theme. You might wish to try renaming your active theme folder & then try logging in. If you can, then changing and/or reinstalling the teme is likely the solution, though if the theme is outdated, changing is likely the better option. Also try renaming your plugins folder by adding a 1 or .old to the end of the folder name & trying to log in. If it works, then you may wish to rename the plugins folder back, then go through each folder in the plugins folder & rename them, except for 1, ie, Akismet, for example, which is core. Then rename the folders, back to their original names, 1 at a time, & try to access the site after each rename. If you rename a folder back to its original & you can’t log back in, you know you’ve found the problem. Once you log in, try to access the homepage. If you cannot, then change the theme to a default theme (they begin w/the word ‘twenty’).

Hopefully this provides at least a few ideas. Truthfully, the error regarding character encoding might suggest a broken theme.

Alright we have an update! Apparently there was an issue with the host being used, and they have given us a new reseller server running cpanel and the website is working (according to them). I just need to point our domain DNS towards the new IP Address…I don’t know how to do this. I’m not sure if this is even a WordPress issue that can be discussed here. If I’m able to continue this thread for further support that would be great. If not please let me know! I just want to know what my next steps should be. I feel like I’m so close to fixing this!

Thank you so much for everyone’s support. This has been exceptional!

I just need to point our domain DNS towards the new IP Address…I don’t know how to do this.

No, that has nothing to do with the WordPress core.

Please contact your hosting provider about this.

You’re correct, chembuddy, that it’s not a WordPress issue at this point. You’ll need to find out the DNS details from your hosting provider, ie, the IP address of the nameservers, then go to the domain registrar & put those in. From here on out, nothing is standardized, ie, each domain registrar has different terminology, different placement of elements on the page, etc, so it’s difficult to provide any specific assistance. I’m sorry for that.

Sorry to be pedantic, but the issue is to go back to the domain name registrar and adjust the nameserver settings to those given to you by your hosting support.
The distinction is relevant because many times the hosting company is NOT the same as the domain registrar.
You may need technical support from BOTH your domain registrar and hosting company.

Thank you so much everyone for your support! I really could not have asked for a better group of people to help me. I’ll go ahead and continue with fixing this issue.

Thank you again!

Hey, chembuddy, if you decide you still need help w/this, you’ve always got the option of posting a job on jobs.wordpress.net. I guess perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch, as at this point it doesn’t appear to be a WordPress issue, or at least not entirely so, but that may be something you’ll want to look into, just in case.

chembuddy, you’ve got your wp_debug set to ‘true’ in your wp-config.php file. Please change this immediately, as the errors are being displayed on your site, which poses a significant security risk.