Typically, when users receive a 500 internal server error warning through phpMyAdmin, it comes down to an issue of permissions. phpMyAdmin requires specific permission settings and should this change for some reason, it can produce a 500 series error. Often, this is due to changes made when upgrading cPanel to newer versions.
Luckily, by updating the permissions of a couple specific files, you can usually resolve this issue in just a few steps.
Updating Permissions for phpMyAdmin
To change the permissions settings, follow these steps:
- To start, check the current permissions settings for the following files:
/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/php
/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/php-cgi
To check the permissions, you’ll need to use the command:
ls -l
- The files listed above should be set to 755 permissions. When listed out using the ls -l command, they should look like: rxxr-xr-x. If not, then change the permission to 755 using the command:
chmod 775
followed by the location of the file you’re changing.
- Once the permissions have been changed, execute the command shown below from the shell.
/scripts/makecpphp
Now, with these permissions fixed, you should not receive the phpMyAdmin 500 internal server error anymore.