Intermittent 500 and 503 Errors

  • jrkamrath

    (@jrkamrath)


    8 years, 6 months ago

    Hey, I have a site that is intermittently getting 500 and 503 errors. The site works for hours at a time, and then gets 500/503 errors for 10 minutes to an hour. I know the typical answer is disable your theme/plugins, but between the time the site was working 100% and I started getting the 500/503 errors, I didn’t change or update my theme or any plugins. It’s also hard to test one plugin at a time, because the errors are so irregular. In the error logs, I’m getting a lot of “End of script output before headers:”, which I understand doesn’t give a lot of information about the actual problem. While I can handle HTML and CSS and a little bit of JS, I know zero PHP or anything Apache, so I’m hoping I can resolve this without checking all code on the site.

    My hosting provider gave me a typical line about it possibly being the specific server my site is on and that it can be upgraded for a small fee (and that anything beyond that advice cost money for “expert support”). I certainly recognize it could be the server, but I would like to make sure it’s not something more problematic. Anyone have advice?

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts, so if you have access to your Dashboard, try deactivating all plugins. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, try manually resetting your plugins (no Dashboard access required). If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

    If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Twenty Seventeen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your Dashboard, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel (consult your hosting provider’s documentation for specifics on these), navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.

    If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your SFTP or FTP client to view invisible files.

    If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that specific time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

    Thread Starter jrkamrath

    (@jrkamrath)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Since posting this, I haven’t seen any more 500 or 503 errors. It only occurred for about a day and a half. Does that mean it’s most likely just the server?

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    8 years, 6 months ago

    Yeah, if it hasn’t come back, there’s nothing to worry about. It could have been the server itself, server configuration, or a plugin or theme that was recently updated.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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