Site has HTTP ERROR 500

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.

Hi Marc

I would check the apache error log and see if there is anything specific, if you are able. If you have access to the files as well, you can rename the folder wp-content/plugins to anything else so WordPress won’t find your plugins, and you can rule out if it is a plugin issue. If it comes back with the plugin folder renamed, then name it back and start renaming individual plugins until you find the cause. You could also use wp cli to enable and disable the plugins if you have that tool. You can also try renaming the .htaccess file in the WordPress install directory just to see if it is causing the 500 error. See if you can post any log entries and I might be able to assist more specifically.

The hard part is I have a company that does my hosting for me, and I’ve not been able to get in touch with them. I can’t access phpMyAdmin or FTP – is there anything I can do?

Also – this is the last “log” that I have when checking my activity via WordPress.com: “Contextual Related Posts 2.6.1, Download Monitor 4.4.2 and 2 more
Plugins updated”

It sounds like it could be a conflict created by a recent plugin update. One of those two you mentioned (and others you might have seen in the log) would certainly be high on the list of suspects. The most logical first thing to try would be to disable the recently updated (or all) plugins for diagnosis, but that would indeed require access either by FTP client, or by logging into your hosting account and temporarily renaming the plugins using the file manager in the control panel. It will require direct file access. (FTP, Control Panel, Secure Shell)

Sounds good – I have it under Bluehost, so I’m in my cPanel now. Where’s the best place to find the plugin folder? I have been looking for it

Probably something like /public_html/wp-content/plugins – or a similar path in your root directory, might be something like /www/wp-content/plugins, as well.