• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
NameHero® Blog

NameHero® Blog

Web Hosting Tips & Resources From NameHero

  • Hosting
    • Web Hosting
    • WordPress Hosting
    • WooCommerce Hosting
    • Enterprise Hosting
  • VPS
    • VPS Hosting
    • Flex VPS
  • Reseller
  • Email
  • Gaming
  • Domains
  • Website Builder
  • Account
  • Blog Home
  • Categories
  • Authors

How To Fix The 500 Internal Server Error In WordPress

Ryan Gray

Published on: January 22, 2018

Categories: WordPress 0

Have you ever gotten a 500 Internal Server Error In WordPress?

I don’t know about you, but this makes me want to pull my hair out!

The good news is there is a solution and typically it’s fairly easy to troubleshoot.

Disable Mod Security

If you’re publishing a new post (or page) try logging into cPanel and disabling Mod Security to see if this is the culprit.

We have a video tutorial in our knowledgebase that lets you know exactly how to do this.

If this solves your problem, you can either continue with your publishing and re-enable when you’re finished, or reach out to our support team and see if they can’t whitelist the rule for your website.

Personally, I’ll just leave it disabled, get what I need finished, then re-enable.

If you disable Mod Security and still get the error, then chances are you need to dig a bit deeper.

Rename Your .htaccess File

If disabling Mod Security didn’t do the trick, the next step to troubleshoot is your .htaccess file.

Especially for those that are moving from an old web host, you may have some commands in your .htaccess file preventing the site to load.

I always like to go into File Manager, rename it to .htaccess1 and see if it solves the error.

If it does, you can automatically generate a new .htaccess file inside your WordPress admin area by going to Settings -> Permalinks and clicking save.  This will generate you a brand new .htaccess file.

If you’ve made customizations, you may want to get a default WordPress .htaccess file and modify it accordingly.

Rename Your Plugins Folder

If the above two options didn’t work, it’s possible you have a rouge plugin.

Sometimes developers will release updates and for some reason or another they just don’t work with your setup.

This recently happened on our Name Hero blog and we had to revert back to an older version until they fixed it (that’s why it’s always good to have a backup before you update).

To do this, simply login to your file manager, navigate to the plugins directory (inside wp-content) and rename it to something like plugins1.

If this solves your error, you can rename the plugins1 folder back to plugins, then login to your WordPress admin area and deactivate each plugin one-by-one to find the one creating the error.

Once you find it, you may want to try downloading an update, reverting back to an older version, or submit a ticket to the developer to see if they can help sort it.

Change Your PHP Version / Limits

If you’ve done everything mentioned above and things STILL aren’t working, you may want to try a different version of PHP.

I highly recommend using at least PHP 7.0 for your WordPress website, but if you’re already using that, you may want to try PHP 5.6.

You can then get with the developer of your theme/plugins and see what changes need to be made to make it work with PHP 7.0+.

You may also find that your max_upload_limit needs increased, which you can also do inside of cPanel -> Select PHP version.

At Name Hero, we allow you to take full control over PHP from inside of cPanel, having the ability to choose from multiple versions of PHP.

How To Fix The 500 Internal Server Error In WordPress

I’ve filmed a brief tutorial highlighting all of these options showing you step-by-step how to accomplish them:

If you have trouble completing any of the above steps our team is standing by 24/7/365 to help you out!  Feel free to hit us up on live chat, or log a new ticket!

  • Also See: How to fix the HTTP error when uploading images to WordPress
  • Click Here To Browse Our WordPress Hosting Packages

Ryan Gray

Ryan Gray is the founder and CEO of NameHero, one of the fastest growing independent web hosts in the United States. Ryan has been working online since 1998 and has over two-decades experience in Internet Entrepreneurship.

Related Posts

How to Clear the Cache in WordPress (3 Ways)

In this beginner friendly post, we'll take a closer look at caching and discuss when and how to clear your WordPress cache.

What Is Self-Hosted WordPress?

In this post, we’ll differentiate self-hosted WordPress from WordPress.com, and discuss the benefits of the former.

What Is A WordPress Sitemap? (And How To Generate One)

Learn what sitemaps are, and discuss why you should have one for your WordPress site and how to create a sitemap and submit it.

Why Is WordPress Down? 5 Possible Reasons

Let's go over five reasons that can cause your WordPress website to go down. For each we’ll show you how to fix it and prevent it!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Follow & Subscribe

Exclusive promos, content and more!


Most Popular Posts

NameHero’s Recommended WordPress Plugin and Theme Setup (2024)

WordPress Hosting vs. Web Hosting – What’s The Difference?

How To Increase The InnoDB Buffer Pool Size

How To Fix A Stuck All-in-One WP Migration Import

How To Add A Subdomain In Cloudflare

Top Categories

  • WordPress
  • WordPress Tutorials
  • Enterprise Hosting
  • WooCommerce
  • Web Hosting
  • Resellers
  • Website Security
  • Website Development
  • Website Performance
  • VPS Hosting
  • SEO Tips
  • Announcements
  • Domain Registration
NameHero

NameHero® proudly provides web hosting to over 40,000 customers with 99.9% uptime to over 750,000 websites.

  • Master Card
  • Visa
  • American Express
  • Discover
  • Paypal
Products
  • Web Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • Flex VPS Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting
  • WooCommerce Hosting
  • Reseller Hosting
  • Enterprise Hosting
  • Email Hosting
  • Game Hosting
  • Domains
  • Website Builder
Help & Support
  • NameHero Blog
  • NameHero Gaming Blog
  • Support
  • Help Center
  • Migrations
  • Affiliates
  • Gaming Affiliates
  • Call 1-855-984-6263
Company
  • About Us
  • Contact Sales
  • Reviews
  • Uptime
  • We're Hiring

Copyright © 2025 Name Hero, LLC. All rights reserved.
NameHero® is a registered trademark.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Acceptable Use Policy
  • Payment Policy
  • DMCA