Internal Server Error trying to login to Multisite Subsite

  • Hello,

    I have set up a new multisite install in a subdirectory of my server root.

    Currently, there exist 3 separate WP sites that I want to move into the multisite network.

    One of the domains is the primary domain and is installed in the server root. The other two websites are add-on/subdomains and have their own WP installs in subfolders.

    I am trying to achieve that when someone tries to access one of the 3 independent sites, they are re-directed to the appropriate site in the multisite network.

    I read elsewhere in the forum that I need to change the document root for the subdomains/addon to my multisite. Then I need to log into my multisite dashboard and edit the Site Address URL for my subsites.

    I’ve done this and this seemed to work for the most part when I access my subsite on the front-end, but trying to log in to the backend by clicking on ‘dashboard’ from my multisite backend makes me have to log in again. When I log in, I get the error that Cookies are not enabled, etc..

    I followed the advice and added define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ); to the wp-config of my multisite install but I’m not able to get around this even after deleting cookies/hard-refreshing the browser.

    When I try to login to a subsite directly via the subsite.com/wp-admin address, I get an Internal Server Error with no detail, just saying there is an error.

    I’m not sure what to do. I figure this is something in my cPanel, or maybe something to do with .htaccess either from my server root or from the install directory of my multisite.

    I also tried ‘Saving Changes’ in my Network Settings hoping to refresh the permalinks or something like that but still nothing.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Dave Gaskin.
Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • The clearest, cleanest multisite install is in the server root.

    You make that your multisite…

    With cPanel I recommend getting the domain for the server running WordPress, get that site running well, get that site running via Pretty Permalinks, and then convert that WordPress install to your multisite.

    htaccess is important… htaccess is best run from an Xnix based box with Apache… Anything else is more complicated.

    Your htaccess will change a bit for multisite.

    You’ll then add on the next domain, point that to the same ‘main WordPress directory’ which almost has to be the server root, create your new site in the Multisite, and map that to the new domain…

    Doing anything else is more complicated.

    If you can’t do that on your present server then you might want to build the multisite on a new server… Anything else is more complicated.

    htaccess is important… htaccess is best run from an Xnix based box with Apache… Anything else is more complicated.

    So, install WordPress on the webroot.

    Get WordPress converted to multisite.

    Add on the first site… Get that running… Anything else is more complicated.

    Thread Starter Dave Gaskin

    (@peakwebsites)

    Thanks @jnashhawkins. I would have liked to have done that (install the multisite in the server root) but there was already an active site there. I guess I can attempt to use the Staging feature in cPanel to create a copy of the current live site and attempt to make the transition there. I wish I would have known that form the start! lol

    I feel like I’m really close on the current set up but that to fix the issue would require a search and replace in the database for the subsite and I still don’t know if that would fix the issue.

    I just wanted to impress on you that ‘Anything else is more complicated’.

    Once you’ve thought about what I said then we are more than willing to help.

    Let us know what you need to continue on and we’ll try to help.

    And a staging site is just something else that might be… ‘Anything else is more complicated’.

    I’d concentrate on whatever site you are running your multisite from… maybe tell us the domain and/or subdomain you are using there.

    Build from there if you must.

    Thread Starter Dave Gaskin

    (@peakwebsites)

    I created a new staging site in the server root and converted it to multisite. So far so good.

    Now trying to add ‘New Sites’…

    I can only use subdomains in this case. Problem is, the subdomains I want to use already exist on the server.

    So after adding them and clicking on ‘Dashboard’, I’m sent to login to my existing subdomain.

    How can I get around this? Create another staging site of my subdomains??

    Thread Starter Dave Gaskin

    (@peakwebsites)

    Alright, I solved this.

    Before, I was stuck in a redirect loop when I tried logging in to my subsites from my main network admin dashboard.

    With the help of this article https://bobcares.com/blog/wordpress-multisite-redirect-loop/, I simply added the following lines to my wp-config in the folder where my multisite install lives after all the multisite definitions and still in the “safe zone”.

    define('ADMIN_COOKIE_PATH', '/');
define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', '');
define('COOKIEPATH', '');
define('SITECOOKIEPATH', '');

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Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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