Updating plugins often causes dashboard to go down

  • Hello,

    I have been running into an issue lately where my WP dashboard goes down when I update plugins.

    The first time it happened, I regrettably did not document which plugins I was updating. I believe I selected multiple plugins to update at once including Event Tickets and Event Tickets Plus as well as a couple others. Since then, the issue has come up nearly every time I run an update. My database administrator, who refreshes the server to fix it, said the issue had not been seen prior to my working on the site.

    After selecting a plugin update (This time it was Yoast SEO, v5.0.2 to v5.1) and running the update, the dashboard becomes unreachable. The /wp-admin login is available, but after entering my credentials and logging in, I receive a 500 Internal Server Error page.

    If I load the site’s main page (not the dashboard), The site loads normally and I can see from the black toolbar along the top that I am logged in, I just cannot access the dashboard.

    Today after running into the problem, I left it alone to see if it would correct itself and after about 45 minutes it did, but I would still like to find the cause of the problem and try to prevent it. If anyone else has come across this issue, or knows how to fix it, please let me know.

    Thank you.

    • This topic was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by jrkreke.
Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Internal server errors (error 500) 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 specific time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

    I am having similar troubles today — I’m going to cry! After updating several plugins and having trouble with pretty permalinks, which I found on the boards that I was to reset the permalinks to basic, save it, and then I could reset to a custom setting. And now I can log in and see the website, but not the back end of any page or post. I have the tool bar at the top, but when I click on the dashboard or edit page, I get this message: “Warning: Creating default object from empty value in /home6/saintray/public_html/wp-content/themes/platformpro/core/library/class.layout.php on line 163” throughout the whole page (with ascending line numbers). Unfortunately, the site did not “correct itself” after 2 hours as jrkreke’s did.

    I don’t know how to get to the dashboard so that I can reset the permalinks again or deactivate the plugins.

    Thread Starter jrkreke

    (@jrkreke)

    Yikes, that sounds like a real problem. It seems like its an issue with a particular plugin. I found this video while researching solutions today that might help:

    How to Fix the 500 internal server error in WordPress

    At about 1:20 they recommend locating the plugins folder using FTP. Renaming that folder may be able to deactivate all of your plugins, removing the error and allowing you to get back to the dashboard.

    If you don’t know how to use an FTP like FileZilla or WinSCP, you could contact your hosting service or server administrator and they may be able to help you.

    I hope this helps, and good luck!

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by jrkreke.
    • This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by jrkreke.

    I will try that — thank you! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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