Nothing is more frustrating than visiting your WordPress site and seeing the “Internal Server Error” (HTTP 500) instead of your content. It’s one of the most common WordPress issues and almost always fixable.
What Is the WordPress Internal Server Error?
The “Internal Server Error” (sometimes shown as Error 500) means something went wrong on the server but WordPress can’t tell you exactly what.
Typical causes include:
- Corrupted
.htaccess
file - A plugin or theme conflict
- Exhausted PHP memory
- File permission issues
- Server misconfiguration or limits
Step 1: Enable Debug Mode
First, let’s get more information. Open your wp-config.php
file and add these lines (above the “That’s all, stop editing!” comment):
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
@ini_set('display_errors', 0);
Now, reload your site. WordPress will save errors in /wp-content/debug.log
. This file often points directly to the problem plugin, theme, or function.
Step 2: Regenerate the .htaccess File
If you’re on Apache hosting, the .htaccess
file can easily get corrupted.
- Access your site via FTP or your host’s File Manager.
- Rename
.htaccess
to.htaccess.bak
. - Try loading your site again.
If it works, go to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and click Save. This will create a fresh .htaccess
.
A default .htaccess
for WordPress looks like this:
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
Step 3: Check for Plugin Conflicts
Plugins are the most common cause of internal server errors.
- Rename your
plugins
folder inwp-content
toplugins.disabled
. - Reload your site.
If it works now, rename the folder back to plugins
. Then, disable plugins one by one until you find the one causing the problem.
Update or replace the faulty plugin.
Step 4: Switch to a Default Theme
If the error isn’t caused by plugins, your theme may be the issue.
- Rename your active theme folder (e.g.,
wp-content/themes/your-theme
→your-theme.disabled
). - WordPress will automatically switch to a default theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four).
- If your site works now, the issue lies in your theme.
Step 5: Increase PHP Memory Limit
WordPress may run out of memory when handling heavy plugins or scripts.
Add this line to wp-config.php
:
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');
If your host has lower limits, you may need to ask them to increase it.
Step 6: Fix File Permissions
Incorrect file and folder permissions can cause 500 errors.
- Folders →
755
- Files →
644
wp-config.php
→600
or640
Never set permissions to 777
for security reasons.
Step 7: Reupload Core WordPress Files
If WordPress core files are corrupted:
- Download a fresh copy of WordPress from wordpress.org (https://wordpress.org/download/).
- Reupload everything except
wp-content
andwp-config.php
.
This replaces only the core files.
Step 8: Check Server Error Logs
If none of the above worked, check your server logs for more clues:
- In cPanel/Plesk, look for Errors or Logs.
- On Linux servers, check:
/var/log/apache2/error.log
/var/log/nginx/error.log
Common log entries include:
- Memory exhausted → increase PHP memory
- Plugin fatal error → disable that plugin
- Option not allowed → fix
.htaccess
or server config
Step 9: Contact Your Hosting Provider
If you’ve tried everything and still see the Internal Server Error, it may be a hosting-level problem (e.g., PHP-FPM, ModSecurity rules, server limits).
Ask your host to:
- Share the exact error log entry
- Increase PHP memory/process limits if needed
- Verify that your PHP version is compatible with WordPress
In most cases, it comes down to either a plugin, theme, or .htaccess
issue.