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500 Internal Error

I was working on trying to speed up my site after putting on a new theme, and now I'm getting a 500 internal error when I try to access the site. It's not happening in the admin, but any time I go to the front-end, I get it. I've tried the following things:

– refreshing the .htaccess file

– disabling and enabling plugins one by one

– downloading WordPress.org new admin and includes files

I'm not sure where to go next, so any guidance would be really appreciated!

And I promise, next time I will backup before I do anything big. I got too antsy!

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 15:24:18
  • splaquet
    • WordPress Warrior

    If you have caching or minifying turned on, you’ll need to disable those pieces. And make sure your cache folder is empty as well (via FTP).

    Clear cookies and browser cache.

    Also, check it out on the front end using Incognito mode.

    If it’s still a no-go, try disabling SmartCrawl, if you have installed.

    Also, often forgotten about… Most hosts do monthly account backups on the server level. Worst case, you can restore your database and/or files from an earlier time.

  • Ash
    • Code Norris

    Hello Sammi

    It looks like there is a php error. You need to debug using FTP access.

    So, would you please enable debug mode and check if there is any error? To enable debug mode please go to wp-config.php and change

    define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );

    to

    define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
    
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
    
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );

    Now refresh the front end. That will create a file called debug.log inside wp-content folder. Open that file, check the very bottom and you will see the latest errors. Please send me those.

    Have a nice day!

    Cheers,

    Ash