Sometimes when you browse the Internet, things may not go well and you get error messages. Error Code 500 is one of the common HTTP errors met with when the web server encounters an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request by the client for access to the requested URL. Have no clue what makes it happen? Tried to resolve this issue but ended up with failure? Here we will give a further explanation about error code 500 and provide troubleshooting ideas for your case.
Symptoms & Causes of HTTP 500 Server Error:
Error Code 500 usually indicates that something has gone wrong on the websites’ server. It may be a general error caused by configuration issues with the websites programming, PHP or system permissions. When using WordPress, you may receive the error 500 message showing up like “The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request”. You may also incorrectly receive a HTTP 500 error message when you request an ASP.NET resource or a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) resource that is hosted on Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0. Here are some ways that you might see this error:
- “500 Internal Server Error”
- “HTTP 500 – Internal Server Error”
- “Internal Server Error”
- “HTTP 500 Internal Error”
- “500 Error”
- “HTTP Error 500″
As is mentioned above, there are many possible cause of internal server error 500, such as, there is a configuration error in the section of the Web.config file or a global error in the IIS configuration files. In other words, 500 Internal Server Error can occurs on a server using Microsoft IIS software. Mostly it is related to the website’s programming, but there’s certainly a chance the problem is on your end. Don’t fret. Follow the methods below to fix Server Error Code 500 effectively.
How Can I Fix 500 Internal Server Error?
Way 1: Review Event Log to Help Troubleshoot Error 500
First of all, you can open Windows Event Viewer to get more information about the Error 500. Event Viewer is a tool that displays detailed information about significant events that a Windows computer can encounter, and the event logs can be helpful in troubleshooting problems and errors with Windows or other programs. If we find the root cause of error 500, it will be much easier to solve. How to review Event Log:
- Log on as an administrator to perform the following steps.
- Click on Start menu > Control Panel > System and Security.
- Click on Administrative Tools and then double click on Event Viewer to open it.
- Double click on the even log in the left pane to view the details of the error.
Way 2: Check If .htaccess File Is Properly Structured
When you receive an error “Internal server error 500″ on your site, you can check the error log in your cPanel for more information. If you encounter error 500 while using WordPress (and many users do), the first thing you can do is to check htaccess file. The htaccess syntax is very strict so even one wrong character or command will cause the server to return an Internal Error 500. And it may be of help to make a backup of your htaccess and regenerate the htaccess file. How to rename the .htaccess file:
- Login to your site using the FTP.
- Locate the .htaccess file in the directory where you will see folders like wp-content.
- Rename your main .htaccess file to something like .htaccess_old.
- Ensure that both folder and .htaccess file within are set with 755 permissions.
After you have performed these steps, reload your site and see if it solves the internal server error 500. If fortunately that works, don’t forget to go to Settings > Permalinks to save the change. In that way a new .htaccess file will be generated with proper rewrite rules to ensure that your post pages do not return a 404.
Way 3: Set The Error Pages Feature to Read/Write
According to Microsoft, if an error occurs when an ASP.NET resource is processed, the HTTP Detailed Errors feature should let the response that ASP.NET returns appear in the browser. If the HTTP Detailed Errors feature encounters an error when the HTTP Detailed Errors feature reads the section of the Web.config file, the HTTP Detailed Errors feature returns a 500 error message.
The most common cause of this problem is that the Error Pages feature in Feature Delegation is set to Read Only on the server. If so, you need to set the Error Pages feature in Feature Delegation to Read/Write to resolve this problem. Additionally, you can also review the HTTP detailed error information when you request a non-ASP.NET resource locally from a server that is running IIS 7.0. For more details, click here.
Way 4: Fix Internal Server Error 500 with Automated Tool
The last but not least, Error Code 500 might be caused in one way or another by misconfigured/damaged system files on your Windows OS. It is often be neglected that, many system or program errors can be avoided if you keep Windows registry in the best condition. So remember to optimize registry at regular intervals. If you lack adequate experience to modify Windows Registry properly, using an automated fix tool becomes a better option to diagnose your registry and get those detected issues repaired effortlessly. To troubleshoot any possible error, follow the instructions below:
- Launch the fix tool and click on the Scan button to scan the Windows Registry.
- Click on Fix button to resolve all the detected issues listed in the scan results.
- Restart your computer to take effect after the fixing process is finished.
In this article several approaches are listed to fix 500 internal server error. Other options you can do are like, clearing your browser’s cache, deleting your browse’s cookies, troubleshooting as a 504 Gateway Timeout error instead, or contacting the website directly. If none of them can solve your problem, this error is more likely caused by the web server itself, and it can only be resolved by fixes to the Web server.
The post Troubleshoot Guide – Fix Internal Server Error Code 500 appeared first on How-to Guides to Fix Windows Errors.