HTTP Error 500 – Internal Server Error, What is it and Solution

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Error 500 – Internal server error, is the most common HTTP status code, this means that an error has occurred when trying to access the server, but it is not possible to give more details about what has happened.

This type of error is also known as an internal server error or HTTP error 500.

Although you may also see it as:

500 Internal Server Error
HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error
Temporary Error (500)
InternalServerError
HTTP 500 Internal Error
500 errors
HTTP Error 500
500. That’s an error
Error 5xx

Other common ones are usually , and .

How to fix a 500 error

Solve Error 500 when the website is not ours

It is possible that the 500 error may be due to a problem external to us or that we have no control over it and the browser that warns us with the internal error server message.

In this case we have several ways to solve this HTTP error.

Reload the page: The first thing you should try is to reload the page with F5 or cntrl + R.
Leave some time: Another solution could be to leave a margin of time to try to access the page again, since it is possible that there is some server task that prevents accessing the web at the moment.
Clear the browser cache: If you have entered the web several times and the only thing that shows you internal error server 500 for a long time, it is possible that you have the web cached in your browser, so try to enter in incognito or delete the cache of your browser.
Cookies problems: Another reason may be caused by the cookies that we have saved in the browser and although we have cleared the cache we can continue to keep them, try to delete the Cookies, close the browser and reopen it.

Solve Error 500 on our website

Although this type of HTTP error can occur for various reasons internally and therefore be resolved in different ways, we are going to present the most universal solutions to this situation.

Not having the necessary permissions. By not having the permissions to access a folder or file, the server restricts access.
PHP timeout. If the connection with some type of resource exceeds the waiting time, it will result in a 500 error. Therefore, a solution would be to execute correct waiting times.
.htaccess Another cause could be the .htaccess file, the solution could be to upload a copy of this file prior to the time of the problem.
In the case of not having that copy, the best thing would be to upload or regenerate a new .htaccess file, and always keeping the specific rules that we have in the previous file.

Why can a 500 error happen?

Generally when this happens it is because there is some programming erroror there has been a change in the template or theme of the website, and therefore it is important to take the precaution of making a .

Detecting a 500 error in time to be able to correct it is the difference between maintaining the credibility of your buyers or regular readers, as well as that of the bots that index your content, or losing positioning now in real time! and that your metrics go to waste.

It can happen in cases where the plugin, module or extension is trying to make use of functions prohibited for security reasonssuch as the exec function, shell_exec, passthru, etc.

There are many causes that could lead to a error 500 Internal server error on your website, but if you don’t have a clue or clue it won’t be easy to find the solution quickly.

Where do I find 500 Errors in the error_log?

the files error_log You will find them in several folders of your , although they are usually located in the /public_html/ folder.error_log or in the /public_html/wp-admin/ foldererror_log in the case of a WordPress installation.

There may be error collection files in those folders where PHP files are located that have caused the generation of entries warning of problems with the website.

It is also possible to consult certain errors from the Hosting Panel (WePanel), in the Metrics section, Mistakeswhere you can get information about it.

To assist in this detection process, the apache error log. Every time one of these errors is generated, a file called error_log in which a line is inserted indicating the reason for the error, the file and the line where it occurred.

This is of great help to locate unexpected errors that appear on the web and thus be able to solve them without resorting directly to restoring the web to a time before the problem.

Google takes the usability and user experience of your website very seriously, so it is important that you quickly detect both 500 and 404 errors. your position is at stake!.

Through Google Search Console you can check that the Google robot has not detected errors on your page, although it is always better to anticipate and solve the problems.

In the following video I explain how to access the error_log file, in order to detect the reasons that are causing the http and be able to solve them:

Stephan, your assistant ally!

Stephen is an online assistant available in the Client Area, for all clients, it will help you on numerous occasions to detect these errors and will provide you with clues to solve them.

Problems with file or folder permissions.
Blocking of your IP or IPs of your collaborators.
Active PHP version.
Versions of the CMS you have installed.
Notices of outdated websites.
PHP errors.
Email problems.
Empty or incorrect .htaccess file warnings.
etc…

Avoiding errors on a website throughout its useful life is almost an impossible mission, but knowing how to find these errors in order to correct them and avoid them in the future is an easy task if you have the right tools or know where to look.

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