Issue with Plugins–Error 500 Internal Server Error

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. 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 (WordPress 1.5 – 2.9.2) or the Twenty Ten theme (WordPress 3.0 and higher) to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via FTP or SFTP, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the Default theme (WordPress 1.5 – 2.9.2) or the Twenty Ten theme (WordPress 3.0 and higher) 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 FTP or SFTP and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your FTP or SFTP 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.

Hey James:

Thank you so much for getting back to me. Through a bit (A LOT) of searching, I was able to find this article https://aintageek.com/solution-for-500-internal-server-error-wordpress-at-1and1-server.htm which for at least a brief period was able to fix the issue. I added the php.ini file he suggested at 20MB and then changed the .htaccess file as well. However, I’m still having issues now and again.

It seems as if the NextGen plugin was one issue, and once I got rid of that, I’m doing OK for now and able to activate other plugins. However, I’ve had the same server error with the WP eCommerce plugin as well. It doesn’t seem to be an issue with the theme, and rather seems to be more of an issue with 1and1 hosting. (This is my first time dealing with them, and so far, I am not at all impressed.)

I’m still plugging along and trying to figure out everything, so I’ll let you know what I figure out. Long story short, I’m trying to set up a photography site that acts as both a gallery as well as an ecommerce site. (Which is a fairly large undertaking as someone who’s fairly new to this game, but I’m confident that with the help of folks such as yourself and Google searches that I’ll be able to eventually get it right.)

Thank you for your help so far, and I’ll let you know if I run into more issues as I continue plugging away. I know there’s a way to set up a great shopping cart for these photos while still having a beautiful site, it’s just taking some time. And in case you want to check it out, this is the site that I’m working on: https://www.dmogalleries. (I know that it breaks every rule in the world to not have the maintenance mode splash page up, but with the number of issues I’ve had with plugins I took it down for a bit.)

Thanks, and may be in touch soon to ask you more questions…

Laura

So far, WP ecommerce plugin and NextGen gallery plugin don’t work and have this same error–however, all in one seo pack, exclude pages, maintenance mode, platinum seo pack and wp simply paypal shopping cart all work fine–anything that I’m missing here that’s in common with the group that will activate properly and the group that won’t?

Do I need to change that php.ini file to something else larger? The only commonality I can come up with between the two that aren’t working is that they use a ton more memory. But I may be missing something else here…

Are there any errors listed in the server error log when you activate the plugin? If you don’t have access to your server error log, note the date and time and ask your hosting provider to look for you.

I got the 500 trying to activate the NextGen plugin. The solution given on https://kevinbaggs.com/2010/04/17/fixing-500-internal-server-error-with-wordpress-and-1and1-com-hosting/comment-page-1/#comment-125720 fixed it right up! Hope this helps someone else.