500 Internal Server Error

There are many reasons for the 500 internal errors in WordPress, but we will tackle this issue because a corrupted .htaccess is usually the leading cause.

WordPress uses the server configuration .htaccess file to control the redirects of your website.

A corrupted .htaccess file can create an infinite redirect loop, which causes WordPress to ‘give up’ and display an internal error.

The quickest way to fix the internal error or conflict is to generate a new .htaccess file.

To do that, navigate to Settings -> Permalink -> and click the Save Changes button without changing anything.

If you don’t have access to your WordPress website’s backend, you’ll need to access it using FTP or your hosting company’s file manager interface.

The .htaccess file is located in WordPress’s parent directory.

First, back up the .htaccess file by renaming it to something else.

A simple change to .htaccess_old will do the trick. We can always return to it and rename it to its original name if necessary.

Then, we must create a new .htaccess file inside the root folder by clicking the +File button.

Name the file .htaccess and save it.

A new empty .htaccess file was added to your WordPress’s root folder, and you’ll need to populate it with default rules.

Therefore, right-click on the file and select Edit.

Paste the following code into the code editor and save the file.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Once saved, visit your website and refresh it to ensure it’s working.

Internal Server Error – Frequently Asked Questions