Intermittent 500 type error

  • My website shows me 500 errors very often. Sometimes it is images not loading. If I go to my media dashboard and look at my error console it shows many 500 that images could not be loaded. When I update pages I get these errors. I have seen them in the plugin panel when updating plugins.

    I have been in contact with my hosting company and they never see them. They also say they are not showing in the server logs. Does anyone have any idea how I can get to the bottom of this? My analytics is showing higher bounce rates, lower time on site, etc. and I am suspecting these 500 errors are the cause.

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  • Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    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 default theme for your version of WordPress to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, 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 SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your SFTP or FTP 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.

    Thread Starter montanan

    (@montanan)

    Thank you so much for your in-depth answers. Since the 500 errors are not consistent it would be hard to take down my site (change the theme or disable plugins) for a day or so to test it. The other thing is I have another site on the same hosting plan/server that does not have all the same plugins and it gets 500 errors too.

    I have contacted my hosting company and told them I a getting these error, right when I am either on the phone or chatting and they look at the logs and they say there are no errors in the log.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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