Internal Server 500 Error

  • Resolved Autohaus

    (@autohaus)


    9 years, 2 months ago

    I have been getting this error for two weeks now.

    “Internal Server Error

    The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

    Please contact the server administrator and inform them of the time the error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

    More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
    Apache Server at autohaus.net Port 80″

    I first noticed the error when making changes to my site through WordPress. When I was saving changes, I was getting the error message. It was happening every other time I went to save. Then I started to notice it on the website itself. It would appear on a random page after a random number of clicks.

    I contacted my host company (GoDaddy) many times and they say there is nothing wrong on their end. One support person said that he noticed my .htaccess file was larger than it should be. It turned out that my website was hacked and there were 1000 redirects to “adult” websites.

    I updated to the latest version of WordPress only after first discovering the 500 error, two weeks ago Tuesday. When that did not solve the problem, I then updated my theme and my plugins. I use Yoast SEO, Revolution Slider, and visual composer. I may have a few other plugins, but I am certain that it is not any of these. I tried disabling each one individually and still got errors.

    Godaddy then directed me to Sitelock, who scrubbed the site and were confident that the malware was cleared from all of my files. I am still getting the error message. They finished a week ago and they say that GoDaddy should be helping me. GoDaddy said that it is something with my code. I contacted Envato (my theme is from Themeforest) and they tell me that Sitelock is a scam and that GoDaddy is no good and it’s all their fault.

    Yesterday, I tried renaming my .htaccess file and generating a new one from WordPress. This did not work, as I was still getting the error code, so I changed it back to the file, minus the porn links. Sitelock did not alter the code in my .htaccess file other than deleting the lines of links (lines 138 to 1000+, there are still about 138 lines of code in that file). I am wondering if there is an issue with this code still?

    I am going to contact GoDaddy and try to get into their advanced support and see if they can take a look at the error logs. I have no knowledge of code, so all I can do is read forums and try troubleshooting on my own.

    Is anyone familiar with these issues?

    I am considering changing to managed wordpress hosting with Godaddy and just starting up a new site with a temporary url. I would have to reload the theme and plugins and start from scratch configuring the site, but this seems to be the best way to get a new start.

    Someone else suggested that just migrating the site to the managed wordpress hosting would solve this issue, but that just doesn’t sound logical to me.

    Godaddy said they do store a backup of my site, but their latest backup might be after the site was hacked, so that seems like a bad idea.

    I have had this site running with no problems, using this theme, since May last year. I have used godaddy and wordpress with a different theme for years and I have never seen this error message, or any error message in all of that time.

    I need to update inventory and other pages ASAP, so I need to solve this issues ASAP. Should I start from scratch? Hire a developer? Is there a simpler fix?

    Thanks!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • First try what many consider to be the simplest fix for 500 server errors, which is simply to increase the PHP memory limit – when sites get large they need more memory, yours might fall into that category if you have a lot of inventory/products.

    To do that, just create a plain text file, name it php.ini and in that file have only this:

    memory=256MB

    No other blanks lines or spaces. Then upload that via FTP to your /wp-admin folder. You may need to go even higher, 512MB, but try that first.

    I personally know of many people who were unhappy with GoDaddy hosting, but I have no personal experience…..if you’re going to change to managed WP hosting, you should also look at WP Engine, they are among the best and highest rated by users for that type of thing. I’m certain they can also help with the migration if you go with them. I do know they are FAR more helpful and responsive than GoDaddy.

    Lastly, 138 lines is a lot in your .htaccess file – the normal htaccess file created by WP is only around a dozen lines or less – to that I normally add some standard functions, for example to redirect calls to my site that aren’t prefaced with ‘www’ to the ‘www’ version, I setup a custom 404 page, block a few nasty folks by their IPs, etc., but that still only adds another half-dozen or so lines.

    Do you know what all of those extra lines do? That might be something to look at.

    It could be that upping your PHP memory limit and regenerating a stock WP .htaccess file might do the trick – be sure to backup your existing .htaccess file first in case you really do need all those extra commands.

    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.

    @autohaus, Tara’s advice is spot on and should be followed IF increasing your PHP memory limit doesn’t work.

    I’ve been building websites (hundreds of them) with WordPress since version 1 (the last 10 years). I’ve encountered the dreaded 500 error many times over those years, across many sites. In every single case it’s been resolved by increasing the PHP memory. I’ve never gotten it due to a plugin or theme conflict, although I do believe some folks do. It’s definitely worth going through that extra work if raising the PHP memory limit doesn’t help, but I’d try the simple fix first.

    You can also raise the WP memory limit by adding this to your wp-config.php file, again you can go up to a higher number if needed.

    define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’);

    On a couple of my larger sites I’ve had to go up to 512M, but for most sites 256M is more than adequate.

    Thread Starter Autohaus

    (@autohaus)

    Thank you both for your help! It was both a corrupted .htaccess file and a low PHP memory limit. I had two plugins writing to the .htaccess file that I have deleted. One was for caching and one was for redirects. Renaming and resubmitting a new .htaccess file from wordpress and increasing the PHP memory limit fixed the issue, but then I went ahead and switched to Managed WordPress hosting, as it just seemed like a better idea for security etc. Everything is running well so far!

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    Glad to know it ??

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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