Getting a 500 error

[Square Wheels]

I haven't made any changes in at least a week.

This morning all was well.  I checked the site this afternoon, and now I get a 500 error.

The host said the server and database are both running and talking to each other.  They do not see any errors on their end.

There's a php.info file on the site, that's responding fine.

Thoughts on how to fix this?

[Mark H]

I'm seeing the 500 error on the front end, but "white pages" at the ACP and upgrade URL's. White pages are usually a suppressed PHP error. Are you confident that your host is looking at the relevant error logs?  There should be something showing in them.

Can you also grab the most-recent ips4.php requirements checker from our Marketplace and upload that, then run it?

(I tried to visit the filename blindly and got a white page there as well. But I can't tell if that's because the file actually doesn't exist, or if it does but won't run.)

[Mark H]

Actually, hang tight, I'm investigating this now. I was using the wrong URL.

[Square Wheels]

3 minutes ago, Mark H said:

I'm seeing the 500 error on the front end, but "white pages" at the ACP and upgrade URL's. White pages are usually a suppressed PHP error. Are you confident that your host is looking at the relevant error logs?  There should be something showing in them.

Can you also grab the most-recent ips4.php requirements checker from our Marketplace and upload that, then run it?

(I tried to visit the filename blindly and got a white page there as well. But I can't tell if that's because the file actually doesn't exist, or if it does but won't run.)

https://squarewheelscycling.com/ips4.php - claims all is well.

The acp is not the standard name.

I just got into the acp, cleared the system cache, same problem.

I disabled all third party apps, it's loading now.

Now that I am in, I see others have been posting.

Thoughts now?

[Mark H]

If everything works with all 3rd-party items (apps, plugins, and Themes) disabled then the issue has to be something within one of those.

We'd suggest disabling them all again, then re-enable one by one to see which one or ones are the cause. 

And from your description... are you certain that your host didn't make a server-level change?

As you noted, if you changed nothing then something else had to have changed somewhere.

[Square Wheels]

Just now, Mark H said:

If everything works with all 3rd-party items (apps, plugins, and Themes) disabled then the issue has to be something within one of those.

We'd suggest disabling them all again, then re-enable one by one to see which one or ones are the cause. 

And from your description... are you certain that your host didn't make a server-level change?

As you noted, if you changed nothing then something else had to have changed somewhere.

I will confirm with them that there were not any server changes.

Were able to log in to the acp and view some of the System logs?  There are many errors related to themes.  New errors still being posted even though I have all themes turned off (I have everything turned off).

Thank you for helping out.

[Mark H]

The errors I immediately see look like an issue in a custom Theme (perhaps simply out of date?). 

And might be one or more of your apps/plugins, though I can't be certain.

We'd still recommend disabling all 3rd-party items and re-enabling one by one, then testing each. 

But start with a completely un-customized Theme, then disable apps/plugins if that doesn't fix the issue.

[Square Wheels]

A

Just now, Mark H said:

We'd still recommend disabling all 3rd-party items and re-enabling one by one, then testing each. 

But start with a completely un-customized Theme, then disable apps/plugins if that doesn't fix the issue.

Everything is turned off, all apps, all themes, I'm still getting 15 - 20 errors a minute in the system log related to themes.

[Square Wheels]

OK, here's something odd.  There were several Default themes.  I made one of them the theme for all members and set it as default.  I deleted the others, and the errors seem to have stopped piling up in the System log.

My other themes are from @Ehren, I will turn those on.

Edited June 3, 2022 by Square Wheels

[Square Wheels]

Well, seems the extra "Default" themes may have been the issue.

I prune at 30 days, I have almost 1000 pages of errors.

I was getting 15 - 20 entries a minute, I have not had any errors logged in the last 24 minutes.

I will turn on apps later, all seems well for now.

[Marc]

Glad things now look fine for you. I woudl suggest switching them on one at a time as mentioned by my colleague above

[Square Wheels]

4 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

Glad things now look fine for you. I woudl suggest switching them on one at a time as mentioned by my colleague above

Unfortnualtey it ended up not being fine.  Still getting errors with custom themes.  Not sure why.  Over 20 thousand errors in the database and I prune every 30 days.  The only reason it's not worse, is I turned off the themes.

[Marc]

I suspect there is an issue with writing template disk cache which you have switched on. I have just switched that off for you. Please could you check again to see if that resolves your issue?

[Square Wheels]

1 minute ago, Marc Stridgen said:

I suspect there is an issue with writing template disk cache which you have switched on. I have just switched that off for you. Please could you check again to see if that resolves your issue?

Sure thing, I'll turn a few on now.  Would that be a server issue?

[Marc]

It would indeed if thats the case. 

[Square Wheels]

13 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

It would indeed if thats the case. 

Hmm, thanks for finding this.  I turned on one theme, no errors so far.  I'll turn the others on now.

Would you be able to help just a little more and let me know what I need to tell my host?  They are really helpful and very responsive, I just don't know what to tell them.

Thank you for finding this!

[Marc]

Its essentially that its not written properly to the location you choose for template cache. Before you do anything else, if you wish to switch it on, try deleting the contents of that folder and switching it back on

It does need to be noted, only switch this on if you have a reason to do so. While it 'may' improve performance, that doesn't necessarily mean it will. It could be different from host to host.

[Square Wheels]

3 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

Its essentially that its not written properly to the location you choose for template cache. Before you do anything else, if you wish to switch it on, try deleting the contents of that folder and switching it back on

It does need to be noted, only switch this on if you have a reason to do so. While it 'may' improve performance, that doesn't necessarily mean it will. It could be different from host to host.

I assume you mean this: Enable template disk caching?

I found this, is this where they are stored? /home/xxxxxxxxx/public_html/uploads/logs.

The permissions are set to 755, is that what it should be?

Either way, I'll leave it the way you set it.

[Jim M]

1 hour ago, Square Wheels said:

I assume you mean this: Enable template disk caching?

I found this, is this where they are stored? /home/xxxxxxxxx/public_html/uploads/logs.

The permissions are set to 755, is that what it should be?

Either way, I'll leave it the way you set it.

I would not recommend placing it in logs, rather it's own directory but this is your call. 

The permissions should be writable for your server. If you are unsure what these are, please contact your hosting provider.

With all the above said, if your community is running fine without template disk caching, you may not require it at all.

[Square Wheels]

42 minutes ago, Jim M said:

With all the above said, if your community is running fine with template disk caching, you may not require it at all.

I will go this route.

Thank you both.

[Marc]

Yours I believe was stored in /cache/ . It can actually be stored wherever you choose. When you enable that option, it asks where you want to store it. If its causing you issues, you are indeed best to simply leave that option switched off though, so glad to see you are online now 🙂