A 500 ISE(internal server error) is a generic error message generated when the website cannot be displayed. This error can occur for many reasons, but often it is WordPress, a plugin, theme, .htaccess or the wp-config.php for your website. Let's look at how you can determine the cause of a 500 ISE.
Symptoms
The following is a list of symptoms:
- White screen of death(WSOD) - A blank white page that loads instead of your website.
- The site is experiencing technical difficulties - An error message displayed by WordPress instead of loading your website.
Note: You should always make a backup of your site before troubleshooting or making any changes.
Troubleshooting steps:
- Go to your Heart Internet control panel and open the Managed WordPress product page.
- Click manage next to the product that hosts your WordPress website.
- Temporarily disable the .htaccess by renaming the file using FTP.
- Load your website again to see if the error has disappeared.
- If the error is gone, then reset your site's Permalinks. This will recreate your control file. You should review the disabled control file for scripting issues.
- If the error is still present, continue to the next step.
- If the specific error isn't visible on your website, you'll need to enable debug mode to expose the error.
Note: If you recently made changes to your wp-config.php this is a good time to correct any syntax errors.
- If the debug log shows a problem with the theme or plugin folders you can begin fixing the error by disabling your plugins or changing your theme to a default theme.
- If you can't locate an error, then you should disable all of your plugins, if you haven't already done so.
- If that fixes the problem, enable the plugins one at a time until the problem or error occurs.
- Once the error occurs, you have likely identified the plugin causing the problem, you can then move on to fixing it or finding a replacement.
Next steps
- Stay a step ahead by installing a plugin like Debug Bar from WordPress.org.
More info
- Review the common WordPress errors at WordPress.org.