Troubleshooting a ‘500 internal server’ error

If your website is displaying a 500 Internal Server error this usually indicates that your file permissions are incorrectly set.

Check your Error Log

The error log stored inside cPanel will most likely have further information on the error and can assist in resolving it.

The error log can be found by:

1. Login to cPanel
2. Open the File Manager
3. Navigate to public_html
4. Open the Error_Log

File permissions and ownership

As we operate a PHP environment, most files’ permissions should be set to 644 and folders set to 755. There are some exceptions to this rule – such as configuration files, which should be set lower. If you would like to reset all file and folder permissions to these values, you may use the VIPcontrol permissions fixer:

1. Log in to VIPcontrol.
2. Click the My Services link on the top → Hosting from the tabs underneath.
3. Click the Manage button on the relevant service.
4. Click on Permissions Fixer (found in the left menu).
5. Read the recommendations and follow the prompts.

Temporarily disable your .htaccess file

If the above permissions fixer fails, try temporarily renaming the .htaccess file to see if that rectifies the issue. In some circumstances the error may also be triggered by incorrect configuration of this file, this can include broken mod re-write configurations or PHP calls.