Title: HTTP ERROR 500 Last modified: February 9, 2024 --- # HTTP ERROR 500 * Resolved [mohammedkadhim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mohammedkadhim/) * (@mohammedkadhim) * [2 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-error-500-232/) * Hello, * I’ve been using WordFence for years with no problem until today after updating PHP from 7.4 to 8.1 I got HTTP ERROR 500 on both front end and even on WordPress dashboard. * After going through all plugins one by one it turned out that WordFence was causing this issue. * Tried to manually uninstalling WordFence and all of its data and tables then installed the plugin again this time the site worked until I ran the Firewall optimization process again I started getting HTTP ERROR 500. * Stripping user.ini and htaccess from WordFence codes also seem to fix the problem but then this means the Firewall is not optimized which is not what I want. * What could be the problem? * Kindly note that sometimes when I get HTTP ERROR 500 I keep refreshing the page 4 to 6 times the site works temporarily but then again when I refresh once more it shows ERROR 500 again. Very strange! * Kind regards, * Mohammed Kadhim Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * Plugin Support [wfpeter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfpeter/) * (@wfpeter) * [2 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-error-500-232/#post-17412171) * Hi [@mohammedkadhim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mohammedkadhim/), the last part does sound strange. * The error 500 with .user.ini/.htaccess usually suggests that the `auto_prepend_file` path to **wordfence-waf.php** doesn’t match its actual location. Having said that, it would be an issue until it was modified or removed rather than intermittent. * If you’ve checked the path there is definitely correct, it’d be great to see your diagnostic report. Send it to **wftest @ wordfence . com** directly from the link at the top of the **Wordfence > Tools > Diagnostics** page. Then click on **“Send Report by Email”**. **Please add your forum username where indicated and _respond here after you have sent it._** * **NOTE:** It should look as follows – Screenshot of [Tools > Diagnostic > Send by Email](https://www.wordfence.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/diagnosticsendbyemail.png) * Thanks, Peter. * Thread Starter [mohammedkadhim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mohammedkadhim/) * (@mohammedkadhim) * [2 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-error-500-232/#post-17412477) * [@wfpeter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfpeter/) * Thank you for the reply. * Indeed!, it either working fine or doesn’t. Can’t be something in middle. But as strange as it sound, when I get error 500 I keep refreshing the page a couple times and it work. But again when I refresh once more the website stops again. * Also not sure why this happened after going from php 7.4 to 8.1. * Regarding Diagnostics data, I’ve already sent it to the email you suggested yesterday. But also sent the data once more a couple moments ago including my forum username“ mohammedkadhim” just so that you can easily find it. * Kindly note that currently WordFence is enabled but without optimization since, as mentioned, it will break the website. * Appreciate your help, * Mohammed Kadhim * Plugin Support [wfpeter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfpeter/) * (@wfpeter) * [2 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-error-500-232/#post-17412999) * Hi [@mohammedkadhim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mohammedkadhim/), thanks for sending that over. * Some of our information about server platform, timeouts etc. is obtained from` phpinfo()` but I see that is disabled. There don’t appear to be incorrect or strange values from what I can see, but without optimization and the extra PHP information it might be hard to diagnose. * Do you have any other functions besides phpinfo in the `disable_functions` section of your **php.ini** file? If you’d be willing to do that and temporarily re-optimize the firewall, we might be able to see if anything stands out. You can set everything back again immediately after sending the diagnostic once again with your forum username. * Thanks, Peter. * Thread Starter [mohammedkadhim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mohammedkadhim/) * (@mohammedkadhim) * [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-error-500-232/#post-17414640) * [@wfpeter](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfpeter/) * Thanks for your reply. * The problem is fixed and it wasn’t an issue with WordFence and I’ll explain below how it got fixed. * When I updated PHP to 8.1 Apache got bugged and started randomly throwing error 500 especially when executing resource intensive process such as the Firewall optimization process by WordFence. * All I had to do is restart php_fpm and Apache and things are working fine now. I managed to optimize WordFence without issue. * Big thanks to you in fact I wouldn’t go through these steps without you notifying me about phpinfo() which wasn’t disabled in phpini but only then I realized that the server is bugged and needed restart. * Thank you! Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) The topic ‘HTTP ERROR 500’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/wordfence/assets/icon.svg?rev=2070865) * [Wordfence Security - Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordfence/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordfence/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordfence/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordfence/reviews/) * 4 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [mohammedkadhim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mohammedkadhim/) * Last activity: [2 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/http-error-500-232/#post-17414640) * Status: resolved