Cannot fix Error 500, cannot log in…

  • batsauvage

    (@batsauvage)


    4 months ago

    Hello WP community!

    I’m having issues with my website, and after spending hours reading blogs and trying things, I’m starting to go nuts. I came to ask for your help.

    Background:

    It started on Friday afternoon. I was logged into my website, trying to manually update some plugins. There had been a problem with the automatic updates apparently. It wasn’t working so I think I tried to deactivate all of the plugins. And it all went downhill from there.
    The page froze, I got logged off, and my website was gone.

    What I’ve tried so far:

    • contacted my host, who assured me there was no issue on their end.
    • tried the usual fixes using the ftp (checked the .htaccess, deactivated the plugins, themes, checked the permissions…)
    • replaced some WP folders (wp-admin, wp-includes) using a fresh install.
    • realised I was probably starting to do more harm than good.
    • went back to my host, restored my database and ftp server to a version from two weeks ago.

    The home page is visible again (yay), although it is missing images and some design items like buttons. The contact page also appears, but not the contact form (I used ninja forms).

    The rest of the website displays a HTTP ERROR 500, including the wp-admin page, so I still cannot log in. When checking on my phone via duckduckgo browser, I get ERR_RESPONSE_CODE_FAILURE.

    I tried again to deactivate .htaccess, as well as the plugins and themes folders. It did not help.
    At this point, I can only access my ftp and database.

    Lastly, when checking logs via my host, these two errors appear on repeat:

    [Mon Nov 18 00:12:09 2024] [error] [client 94.141.120.76] [host baptistesauvage.com] AH00032: Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /homez.897/baptistepm/www/index.html.ovh.old

    [Mon Nov 18 00:12:09 2024] [error] [client 94.141.120.76] [host baptistesauvage.com] AH00687: Negotiation: discovered file(s) matching request: /homez.897/baptistepm/www/index.html (None could be negotiated).

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

    • This topic was modified 4 months ago by batsauvage.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Lina Asenova

    (@linaasenova)

    The symbolic link error means that there’s an invalid link to an old index.html file. You can make a backup of your site and then, via FTP, delete any index.html.ovh.old files that may be conflicting with your WordPress setup. Also check for and remove any broken symbolic links. 

    Generally, your hosting provider should be able to assist you with that.

    nomen1

    (@nomen1)

    If I’m reading this correctly, one of two things are happening. Either homez.897/baptistepm/www/index.html is no longer present. Thus, the page is not able to resolve.

    The second possibility, which seems more on the money to me, is that homez.897/baptistepm/www/index.html has, for whatever reason, been symlinked to homez.897/baptistepm/www/index.html.ovh.old which does not exist. Thus, attempting to navigate to the page (index.html) sends the server looking for a nonexistent file.

    If you don’t know how to deal with symlinks yourself, ask your host to identify whether such a symlink has been created, and if so ask them to remove it. I’m a little concerned as to why this symlink would be created in the first place, and I can’t help but worry that any extant index.html file might not be correct. So it might be worth finding whether index.html.ovh.old also exists, and to save a backup copies of it and the index page, just to be on the safe side.

    Thread Starter batsauvage

    (@batsauvage)

    Thank you both for your fast answers and for explaining the symbolic link error!

    I backed up everything I could via the FTP. About the indexes:

    • www/index.html is still present and looks fine.
    • www/index.html.ovh.old?looks weird. I cannot open it, and cannot do a backup of it. When I try to download it, the zip file is empty. Permissions on it are 777, which I find odd.
      I just deleted it but no changes so far with the front end of the website…

    Otherwise, I don’t know how to deal with symbolic links. I’ll try to ask my hosting provider for some assistance with that, but so far they haven’t been very helpful… If it’s not too crazy complex, maybe I can learn about how to check for broken ones and remove them myself.

    Massive thanks for taking the time to help me out.

    • This reply was modified 4 months ago by batsauvage.
    Thread Starter batsauvage

    (@batsauvage)

    Alright, some news:

    • I asked my hosting provider for help, but got told they don’t do content support.
    • New logs appeared last night after deleting the index.html.ovh.old file.

    AH00687: Negotiation: discovered file(s) matching request: /homez.897/baptistepm/www/index.php (None could be negotiated)., referer: https://baptistesauvage.com/

    AH00687: Negotiation: discovered file(s) matching request: /homez.897/baptistepm/www/index.php (None could be negotiated)., referer: https://baptistesauvage.com/contact/

    AH01276: Cannot serve directory /homez.897/baptistepm/www/wp-includes/: No matching DirectoryIndex (index.shtml,index.htm,index.html,index.cgi,index.php3,index.php,index.wml,index.asp,index.php4,index.php5,index.php6) found, and server-generated directory index forbidden by Options directive

    Any ideas welcome, I really don’t have a next step at this point… Thank you very much in advance.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.