WordPress Internal Server Error 500 with 1and1 WebHosting

Problem: After updating the blog to WP 2.9 everything was running smooth. But when opening some of the plugin setting pages the server responded with a “500 Internal Server Error” – especially when using plugins like “XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress” . After a while I found out I can’t even login to my admin panel.

Diagnosis: PHP is running out of memory.

Solution: If you are running your own root, dedicated or virtual server this is an easy bugfix: You just have to change the php.ini of your server and provide more memory to your PHP installation. On a shared hosting server – like at the webhosting solutions at 1and1 you often don’t have access to that central php.ini. But there is an easy workaround:

Create a text file and name it “php.ini” (without the quotes) and with a single line of code in it:

memory=20MB

This file has to be placed into the directory /wp-admin/ within your WordPress installation.

That’s it!

Thanks Christian this saved one of my blogs.