There’s usually four problems that cause a 500 error. Follow our available solutions to resolve it.
What is a 500 error?
A 500 error means there’s an issue in the PHP code of your site. To identify the issue, start by enabling debug. Then, follow our four available solutions.
Is the 500 error happening because I’m running out of memory?
The most common cause for a 500 error is running out of memory. To check if this is the problem, see if the error log file shows:
Allowed memory size of YOUR_LIMIT bytes exhausted (tried to allocate SOME_MEMORY bytes) in...
- If YOUR_LIMIT is below 128M, you need to increase the memory allocated to PHP. For more information, see WordPress memory settings.
- If YOUR_LIMIT is above 128M, your code may be running an infinite loop. To fix this, please open a ticket in our support forum.
Is the 500 error happening because of a code conflict?
The second most common cause for a 500 error is conflict between different plugins and themes. Since your site is stuck, you’ll need to use an FTP program to resolve the code conflict.
To resolve a code conflict with an FTP program:
- Go to the plugins directory (wordpress → wp-content → plugins).
- Delete any plugin you suspect to be related with the conflict, including WPML.
Deleting WPML won’t affect your site’s language information. Once you resolve the conflict, all your language information will be restored when you re-enable WPML.
Is the 500 error happening because of compatibility issues with WordPress versions?
The 500 error can happen when you don’t run the newest version of WordPress, or WPML. To check if this is the problem, update WordPress and WPML to the newest version.
Is the 500 error happening because of compatibility issues with PHP versions and extensions?
In rare cases, hosting companies switch off some of WPML’s PHP versions and extensions. If this happens, the error log will show an extension or function doesn’t exist.
To resolve this issue, open a ticket in our support forum.