What is a 500 internal server error?
This error occurs due to overload on web servers. 500 internal server error is the most common error people face in their browsing seasons. Due to internal reasons server becomes incapable of the handling process. This Error can be resolved in the following ways. This error can occur due to invalid configuration data or coding on serve. Users can experience this error due to local device issues such as cache, cookies.
How to Fix a 500 internal server error if you are a site visitor?
- Reload the web page. As we said, browsers can cause this error, so if you are getting 500 internal serve mistakes, you need to reload your page. You can reload your page by pressing F5 or by merely clicking reload button in a browser tab.
- Clear your browser’s cache.
If you are getting the same error after reloading the page, you can try deleting your browser cache. We are not saying 500 internal server issues arise due to caching, but we often experienced that if we clear our caches, this error goes away.
- Delete your browser’s cookies.
This HTTP 500 error can be solved by deleting cookies in the browser connected to this site. You can delete cookies and restart the browser so fresh season will start, and this error will go away.
- Contacting the website directly is another option.
If you did all the above steps but still face the issue, you must contact the website owner in different ways, such as on the Facebook page, Twitter handles, etc. Inform them that you are facing this error so they can look up their servers for the same.
- Come back later.
You can wait for few minutes or an hour. This error will be resolved by server providers or by site owners. You can simply try the above steps and then wait for some time.
How to Fix 500 internal server errors if you are site owner?
When you own the website and face 500 internal server errors, you need to take care of it immediately. These errors are mostly server-side errors, so your actions are required to make the site working. We can define the most common causes for these errors on user’s browser as follows
- Incorrect Permissions
We can say incorrect permission on CGI and PHP script can create 5000 server errors on the server-side. We must resolve these incorrect permissions at any file or folder. You can set them as 0755 (-rwxr-xr-x).
- IF PHP gets time out
Many times we load external resources on our website. While loading, if this resource gets time out, your site will face 500 internal server errors. To resolve this issue, you can restructure timeout rules in your scripts. Your script must be capable of handling errors accurately.
- Miss configuration of .htaccess file
IF you get an HTTP 500 error after editing the .htaccess file, it means you miss configured the file. Always make sure you edit this file properly to avoid the mistakes. You can take a backup of the file before editing for safety reasons.
- Check issues with third-party plugins and themes
WordPress based website can face internal server errors if one or more plugins are corrupted or wrongly configured. The corrupted theme can also cause HTTP 500 errors. Reinstall or deactivate plugins one by one to check and resolve the error.
- Reinstall your WordPress core files
Always keep a complete backup of the site for safety. If you tried all and still facing the same error, You may reinstall WordPress core files. After reinstalling wordpress, you can upload backup again on sie.
- Check Database and Database connection with the server
Talk with the hosting provider to check database connection issues as well as you need to check if your database went corrupted.
HTTP 500 errors and its meaning
| Error Code | Meaning |
| 500.0 | Indicates Module or ISAPI error. |
| 500.11 | Denotes break down of application on web server. |
| 500.12 | It tells us that the application is restarting due to the business of the webserver. |
| 500.13 | It shows up when web server gets heavily busy.. |
| 500.15 | This shows up when Direct requests for Global. asax are prohibited.. |
| 500.19 | Denotes that configuration files are invalid. |
| 500.21 | It shows up when Module not gets recognized. |
| 500.22 | An ASP.NET HTTP modules configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode. |
| 500.23 | An ASP.NET httpHandlers configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode. |
| 500.24 | An ASP.NET impersonation configuration does not apply in Managed Pipeline mode. |
| 500.50 | A rewrite error occurred during RQ_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A configuration or inbound rule execution error occurred. |
| 500.51 | A rewrite error occurred during GL_PRE_BEGIN_REQUEST notification handling. A global configuration or global rule execution error occurred. |
| 500.52 | A rewrite error occurred during RQ_SEND_RESPONSE notification handling. An outbound rule execution occurred. |
| 500.53 | This code indicates getting rewrite error While handling RQ_RELEASE_REQUEST_STATE notification. An outbound rule execution error occurred. The rule is configured to be executed before the output user cache gets updated. |
| 500.100 | Internal ASP error. |
Conclusion
We have seen how you can resolve the HTTP 500 errors. IF you are a site owner, we will recommend you contact a web hosting provider to get technical support. An excellent hosting service provider is always important to maintain the user experience. These errors can cause harm to your business. Make sure you do not miss configure any core file, script, theme, or plug-in of the website.
Ashok Arora is CEO and Founder of eWebGuru a leading web hosting company of India. He is a tech enthusiast with more than 25 years of experience in Internet and Technology.
Ashok is Master in Electronics from a leading Indian university.
Ashok loves to write on cloud, servers, datacenter, virtualisation technology.
