GoDaddy 500 Internal Server Error
November 26th, 2007 | 
Author: Today I had an interesting afternoon thanks to GoDaddy and WordPress. I have been working with my blog a lot over the past few days and I noticed that I was getting a lot of “Error 500 – Internal server error” messages. I was getting this error about 50% of the time. I went to my Control Panel on the GoDaddy site and turned on Error Logging. The only thing the Error Log was showing was a few lines that said ‘mod_rewrite: maximum number of internal redirects reached. Assuming configuration error. Use ‘RewriteOptions MaxRedirects’ to increase the limit if necessary.’
From this error messages I assumed the problem was being caused by mod_rewrite but after several hours of playing with it and spending 1/2 hour on the phone with GoDaddy Tech Support, I discovered that it was not to culprit.
After doing much searching on the Internet I stumbled upon a forum post talking about the same problem. I discovered that the problem was not with mod_rewrite but was instead with the WP-Cache plugin that I had installed in WordPress. There seams to be some kind of compatibility problem with GoDaddy and WordPress with the WP-Cache plugin enabled. Disabling the plugin got rid of the 500 Internal server error messages.
I did not want to get rid of the WP-Cache plugin because it did speed up my site so I decided to see if anyone had a work around and I found a great blog post that told me how to fix it. The post is at Using WP-Cache on GoDaddy (500 Error).
I found thinkdj’s post over at Blogulate that has a GZIP version of WP-Cache that will work with GZIP enabled so I started with that version and added the GoDaddy fix. I took it a little further and found some optimization for WP-Cache as well. I have it fully working on GoDaddy now with no more 500 Internal Server Error messages. To save you all a lot of work I have created a .zip file containing the fixes and optimization to WP-Cache. Just download wp-cache.zip and unzip it into your wp-content/plugins directory. Your site should be faster and error free. I have only tested it on GoDaddy so I don’t know if it will work on other hosts.
Recommendation: Remove WP-Cache and Install WP-SuperCache. It works much better, you don’t need to edit it, it is updated regularly and does not cause any problems with GoDaddy.
Refrences:
Original GoDaddy Fix site
Original GZIP Version of WP-Cache
Original Speed Optimization site
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Good job Givver
Hope it helps out more GoDaddy users facing the same problem. I had trouble finding out that WP-Cache was actually causing the problem.
Yeah me too. Took me several hours of looking at error logs and searching on the internet before I found a solution. I even spent 1/2 hour on the phone with GoDadddy.
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I had this same problem way back when, and the solution was much the same.
However, I would highly recommend using WP-Super-Cache at this point. It has WP-Cache built into it, it works on GoDaddy hosting, and most importantly, it supports the “super cache”, which is a lot better than the basic WP-Cache caching system as it makes the files truly static and, optionally, gzip compressed.
Wow, you rule! Thank you for the awesome fix. You made my day. I am sure it would have taken mre 10-40 hours to figure this out, since I am new to Apache, GoDaddy, and WordPress.
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Thanks a bunch. I was at loss as to the issue.
So, what if WP SuperCache doesn’t work on GoDaddy, as it doesn’t and hasn’t ever (in my own humble experience)? So far, none of the following plugins have both cached pages and prevented 500′s, in any possible configuration that I’ve found.
WP-Cache
WP-Cache II
WP-Cache (GoDaddy Version)
WP-SuperCache
Since WP-SuperCache now goes out and rewrites your .htaccess file, could that be why your GoDaddy version of WP-Cache doesn’t work? My apologies for being new to PHP. Also, the original WP-Cache supposedly allows you to keep a portion of your site dynamic if need be with the mclude and mfunc tags… does your version change anything in this particular area?
I don’t use SuperCache I only use the original WP-Cache modified with the fixes from GoDaddy Fix Site and the other some other changes listed above. I have not had an 500 errors since using it. If you are still getting 500 errors after using my version then it might be due to a conflict with some out pluging. I would suggest that you disable all plugins except WP-Cache My version and see if the 500 errors go away.
Excellent work. Thanks so much for saving me the time on troubleshooting this myself. I had the same problem and this seems to have cleared it up.
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HUZZAH! Excellent work! Thank you so very much.
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With your version of wp-cache (using GoDaddy) I’m still not serving up cached pages. I’m STORING them (like before), but using them. I can visibly see with FTP that there’s a ton of files in the cache, but the plugin in the admin screen always says 0.
If you have GZIP turned on then try turning it off. I have noticed that this plugin seam to turn itself off if GZIP is on, even thought it is not supposed to.
Just wanted to add my thank you to the long list. I had the exact same problem and assume this will fix it.
Best -
Thanks for that. After finding and implementing your solution, all is working well
I tried the fix, installed perfectly, but still, there were many 503 errors. I ended up removing it, :::sigh:::
This fix is for 500 server errors not 503.
A 503 Server Error is usually caused by:
* It can mean that a required program has not yet been started on the server or has crashed
* HTTP 503 might indicate other types of network or server errors.
* You often see HTTP 503 when a website has exceeded its monthly bandwidth allowance.
* A Connection to a database has failed or is misconfigured
* The server may be forbidden from giving you the requested document
http://www.crewpix.com/phpESP/public/survey.php?name=CrewPixSurvey2
You could also try the WordPress Super Cache plugin instead of the regular cache plugin. I have used it without problem on GoDaddy (Using the go daddy fix)
http://www.givveronline.com/wordpress/godaddy-wp-super-cache/
I installed your modified version of WP Cache on my GoDaddy hosted site and it seems to be working well.
Thanks.
Many thanks, dude!
It works wonders.
Still facing the same problem even after installing your plugin, I can’t even access the plugins page for me to disable other plugins…
Let me know if you can help!
Increible!!
Amazing…
Thanks a lot
Hi. We installed WP on GoDaddy and were writing our blog, and it worked great. This week, when we went to hit Publish, we started getting those Server 500 Errors. I installed your WP-Cache fix, activated it, then enabled it. I do not have any other active plug-ins going. We are still getting the same error when we go to publish- any additional advice?
Many thanks in advance for all!
This fix will only work if you were using the original WP-Cache and were getting the 500 errors. If you still get them with no plugins active then you are having a different problem.
It might be a problem with your php.ini located in the root directory of your hosting site. (not a sub directory).
Mine contains:
register_globals=on
allow_url_fopen = on
expose_php = Off
max_input_time = 60
variables_order = “EGPCS”
extension_dir = ./
upload_tmp_dir = /tmp
precision = 12
SMTP = relay-hosting.secureserver.net
url_rewriter.tags = “a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=,fieldset=”
upload_max_filesize = 5M
post_max_size = 10M
Hope this helps.
Smotri i y4is,
yes, I get the same problem. by the way, how to turned on Error Logging? I dont see this option in their hosting control pannel. I called their support. But seems their supports are less of base techonology.
To turn on Error Logging on GoDaddy:
Login in GoDaddy then go into My Hosting Account.
Click Manage Account
Click on Settings
Click on Error Log
Click Update
Error Logging is now on.
Click Launch CGI Admin to see the log.
It will only turn the logging on for 24 hours, then it will be automatically turned off again.
Thank you thank you! This has fixed my headache with the 500 error! Can you share the changes you made the the plugin to make it work and will you be offering updates when wp-cache is updated again?
The changes I made are linked at the bottom of the article. But here is the link again. http://www.littleredrails.com/blog/2007/09/08/using-wp-cache-on-godaddy-500-error/
[...] 97% of the time we were up, but 97% is not acceptable to us. I discovered an article titled “GoDaddy 500 Internal Server Error” and it was the simple answer to all of our problems. This article detailed how Wp-Cache [...]
Still have this problem .. I don’t know how to fix it ..
I change permalinks to /%postname%/ after that when I go to make a post .. and I press publish it give me a 500 Internal Server Error
Please help
If this doesn’t work for you then you should try WordPress Super-Cache at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/
Super-Cache works great for me and does not require any modification to work well with GoDaddy.
Also, I like to use /%category%/%postname%/ as my permalink.
Thanks Givver. I edited my php.ini file according to your instructions and now I solved a problem which made me lose lots of hours in front of my computer, lookin’ for a solution.
You’ve helped me to save my website
Thanks
Glad I could help.
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HI,
Even I am getting the same problem. But, I am not using the wordpress. Once I fix the error by updating the .htaccess file, agian the same time next day I am getting the error. I don’t know why i am getting the problem.
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Hi, I use WP Cache at Freehostia and also had the 500 Internal Server Error Problem.
Your .zip fixed it.
Thanks!
It seems that this problem isn’t JUST caused by WP Cache. I’m having the same problem – brand new Godaddy site, freshly unzipped WP.
I’ll let you all know when I get to the bottom of it.
It might be some other plug-in. Or the version of WordPress that you are using, If you installed it through the GoDaddy backend it might not be the latest version. I am currently using WordPress 2.8.2 with 16 plug-ins and have not seen the 500 error since I first wrote this blog entry. Let me know if i can help in any way.
I belive the 500 error is cause by a hacker. My sites have recently been under attack by netlynx technolgies in India. I have had to resolve, Bad Iframes, Gumbler attacts, Passwords beeing hacked, and when I figured that out. They caused this 500 server error. Its not you its them. I have no plug ins, and my sites have uploaded thousands of photos perfectly no error. Now freekin error fkin hackers
They may have changed some files in the WordPress install. I would refresh all the wordpress files by backing up all the wordpress files then deleting all the WordPress files except the config and template. Then reupload a fresh copy of WordPress. That way if they messed with some of the files then that will fix it.
(Always backup first)
To all those using godaddy, sometimes they have small errors that just seem to happin. Some by hacker and someothers just by accident. One of the many corrected issues i had to resolve was for some reason the file upload was turned off. I have gone through many errors with this company but with patients and many emails they were resolved. And always have strong passwords Bob@!!.lhg or something i had many errors cause by hacker playing in my playground,