What is a 500 Internal Server Error

The generic error 500 means there is something wrong with the website server, but it doesn't provide
further information. An administrator should log into the server to troubleshoot and investigate the issue.

Several issues can cause this error, but most of the time, it means server-side problems such as the
following issues:

  • Permissions on website content files or folders.
  • Issues with the .htaccess file.
  • Scripting errors.
  • Specific errors with the content management system (such as Wordpress® or Magento®).

Additional references

The following articles offer help with related topics:

File permissions

Server logs

HTTP response status codes