500 Internal Server Error is a common HTTP error code the server output when it is unsure what happened in the backend. The error code indicates that your web server has run into some issues such as a server overload or a bad configuration. This error can be also implemented as any one of the following based on the server configuration and web browser you are using.
- 500 Internal Server Error
- Temporary Error (500)
- HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error
- Internal Server Error
- 500 Error
- HTTP Error 500
- HTTP 500 Internal Error
- 500. That’s an error
If you are the Webmaster
If you are the Webmaster of the page that we are talking about, you can do one of the following things to fix the internal server error 500.
Server load
One of the most common causes of internal server error is server overload. If the resources available on your server are not enough to serve the processes, it is most likely that your web server gets overwhelmed and it just goes down. In this situation, the quickest fix will be just restarting your server so that the locked resources will be freed letting the server use them again. But if the problem is not temporary, it is most likely that it is going to happen again. So you might want to troubleshoot the issue further and find a permanent solution for it.
If you are on a shared hosting service, you may not be able to restart your server by yourself. So you can contact the customer care. They will help you with the issue. You may also ask them to check the errors in the error log and let you know if there are any certain processes or applications that is causing the internal server issues.
You may also try increasing the server resource limits such as the memory limits set in WordPress. If you have some resource intensive applications running on the server and if it is not able to complete the processes because of the limits you set, the server can crash. So try increasing such limits if there is any and see if the problem gets fixed.
Permission issues
Another scenario is that your server does not have enough permission to access certain files or folders. If you incorrectly set the permissions for the folders or the files on your application, when the server has to access them, it won’t be able to do that. It will result in several errors including the 500 internal server error.
The fix for this issue is setting the correct permission for your folders and files based on the application that you are running. For example, if you are running WordPress, the recommended file permissions for folders is 755 and for files is 644. So you might want to research it a bit and change the file and for the permissions accordingly to give enough space for the server to access them without any restrictions but block external access to it.
Coding errors
If there is a problem in the code of any of your files or newly installed services or updates, it can cause the web server to crash. If you recently made any changes just before the 500 internal server error appearing, it is most likely that the certain change you made is the cause. Just roll back those changes and see if the error is gone.
For example, if you are on an Apache server, and you just made some changes to the .htaccess file. All of a sudden your server started showing the 500 internal server error, it is obvious that those changes made it happen. So be sure to check the changes you made and make sure that there are no errors in the code. If there is, just to rollback those changes.
If you are a user
If you are a user who came across a 500 internal server error on any of the web pages you can do the following things to get it fixed.
Reload the page
In some cases just a page reload may fix the issue. All you have to do is press the F5 button on your keyboard or click the reload icon on the browser toolbar. The page will immediately reload and most probably if the error was temporary, the page will start working again. Not just for the 500 internal server error, a simple page reload can fix almost any of the temporary errors caused due to several reasons on the server backend.
Clear Browser Cache
Browser’s cache web pages to make them load faster when you visit them again. So if the browser cached the page when there was an error, it is likely that the cache is being served from that period of time. So, if the error persists for a long period of time you may try clearing your browser cache. It may help you to solve the problem. As modern web servers are configured correctly to not cache such error pages, it is unlikely this to happen, however, you may try clearing the caches.
Contact the Webmaster
If You strongly believe that the error is not specifically on your device and lasts long enough, you may try contacting the Webmaster and I ask them to fix the issue. They will probably start working on it almost instantly and fix the issue for you.