What causes 500 Internal Server Errors?
Here are the three most common reasons:
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- Incorrect file permissons – Most commonly having a file as “world” writeable. This is a very common issue with PHP files. In general on our servers, PHP file permissions should not be higher than 775. Keep in mind too that the permissions of the parent folders/directories need to be set correctly too. See our File Permissons article for more information, including how to change those permissions.
Leaving file permissions set incorrectly after manual installation of content management systems, forums, blogs, etc.
Coding errors in the .htaccess file.
Correcting a 500 Server Error:
To track down what is causing the error, you will want to start with the error log in cPanel. Once you are logged into your cPanel look for and click on the “Error Log” icon under “Logs.”
For example, if I set a PHP file to 777 permisions (writeable by the world) this will cause a 500 Internal Server Error.
