Internal Server Error help, 500 error

Internal server errors can be caused by a few different things. Please check the Error Logs in cPanel for specific information.

Here are the most common reasons for 500 errors:

(1) Bad permissions, Writable by group

Directories and folders should be 755. Executable scripts within the cgi-bin folder must be 755. Images, media, and text files like HTML should be 644.

(2) Bad .htaccess, Invalid command

In the (dot) htaccess file, you may have added lines that are either worded badly or conflicting. The best way to troubleshoot this is comment out the lines in the htaccess.

You can comment out a line in the .htaccess by adding # to the beginning. You are wise to save an original copy of any file before you make changes.

For example, if the .htaccess looks like

Then try something like this

Broken lines and lines that start with php_flag are the most common mistakes. If you cannot determine which line is the problem, then comment out every line.

(3) Exceeding resources, nothing in the Error Log

It is possible your 500 error is caused by too many processes in the server queue.

With SSH (shell) access, you can view the processes running on your account. Simply type this command:

Or type this to view a specific user's account (be sure to replace username with the actual username):

Once you have the process ID ("pid"), type this to kill the specific process (be sure to replace pid with the actual process ID):

Our server administrators will be able to advise you how to avoid this error. Please send email to support@hostgator.com along with the steps needed to see the 500 error on your site.