Source of 500 Error in Header?

[W David Bayless]

I’ve been experiencing a 500 (Internal Server) error on my site, http://humanscalebusiness.org. WP Engine, my web host, says it appears to be caused by a header used by my Social Learner/Boss theme. Can you help me identify and fix the problem?

Here’s my original message to WP Engine:

I’m experiencing exceedingly slow page load times on my homepage (e.g. from 8 to 15 seconds). Attached are partial Pingdom results that indicates an Internal Server Error. Could that be the problem? If so, what’s the best way for me to figure out how to fix it?

Here’s the response I received from WP Engine:

I took a look into your request and saw the 500 error was coming from the header. It would seem that you theme is trying to load two headers and one is getting 500 error. Looking through inspect element, I can see this is not the one you are using from the shopping cart icon is not being loaded.

[Michael]

The site is very slow to load (7 sec to first byte) but I don’t get a 500 error.

Have you tried to optimize it using the output from:
http://www.webpagetest.org
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

[Varun Dubey]

Hi @dbayless, are you getting any error message in your error log, Please check the error log once and send those details
It might be cache issue.
Site is running on browser , I am also getting internal server error when testing site with gtmetrix.com
Regards
Varun Dubey

[W David Bayless]

Hi @vapvrun! I’ve attached the blog error log from WP Engine. Is that what you were asking for?

[W David Bayless]

Thanks, Michael. When I ran tools such as PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, etc., they were all coming back with the 500 error indication. As you noted, the site is accessible, but the load time varies from 9 to 15 seconds.

[Varun Dubey]

Hi @dbayless, Please deactivate autoptimize and try it again
Regards
Varun Dubey

[W David Bayless]

@vapvarun, deactivating the Autoptimize plugin eliminated the 500 error and reduced the page load speed to about 3 seconds. Thanks!

Can you tell from your end the nature of the conflict? I would like to be able to minify my site.

[Varun Dubey]

Hi @dbayless, You will need to discuss with WpEngine, they have some folder permission issues. You can chat with them, hopefully their live chat will solve it quickly.
you can check error log is full with Autoptimize issues , also ask them to check error log
Regards
Varun Dubey

[W David Bayless]

@vapvarun, thanks for your help! I’ll go back to WP Engine with the information you’ve proved. Much appreciated.

[W David Bayless]

Varun, my site is performing pretty well now, so I share the following from WP Engine just for your information in case it might indicate a more general issue with the theme.

Looking in your error log today, I can see that there are no fatal errors that would be causing detrimental performance to your page. There does seem to be a persistent database error though:

[Tue Oct 06 06:26:47.393700 2015] [:error] [pid 27042] [client 17.142.156.169:61793] WordPress database error Table 'wp_hsb.wp_term_relationships' doesn't exist for query SELECT COUNT(*) FROM wp_yctw_posts WHERE (post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'bp_doc' AND post_author='0' AND ID NOT IN (SELECT object_id as post_id FROMwp_term_relationshipsWHERE term_taxonomy_id IN (SELECT term_taxonomy_id FROMwp_yctw_term_taxonomywhere taxonomy='bpdw_is_wiki'))) /* From [humanscalebusiness.org/] in [/nas/wp/www/cluster-40606/hsb/wp-content/themes/boss/buddyboss-inc/theme-functions.php:2774] */ made by require('wp-blog-header.php'), require_once('wp-includes/template-loader.php'), do_action('template_redirect'), call_user_func_array, bb_child_doc_menu_count_tabs

This does seem to be due to the theme calling for a table that doesn’t currently exist in your database, and I would empower you to reach out to the themes developer regarding this database error.

[Varun Dubey]

Hi @dbayless, I have notified developer about it.
Please confirm you have BuddyPress Docs plugin active not not
Regards
Varun Dubey

[Michael]

Hi @vapvarun

I am also experimenting with BuddyPress Docs on my developer site since this plugin provides some very nice tools for student collaboration. Overall it fits quite nicely into the theme but I have noticed a few pages where the theme seems to be missing layout templates. Is the idea to make the BuddyBoss Social Learner compatible with this plugin?

I believe that would certainly be a great advantage for the social learner community.

Best regards,
Michael

[Varun Dubey]

Hi @mln83, we have added support for the BP DOC in our previous version.
Regards
Varun Dubey

[Michael]

Hi @vapvarun

Thanks I will share some bugs I have found in another topic. Stay tuned.

Regards,
Michael

[Varun Dubey]

🙂