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Diagnosing Site Errors

Last modified: 2026 July 24

Overview

When a page or request on your site fails, your error log can help you figure out why. Use the Performance hub’s Recent Errors tab to read the log and search for entries from around the time something broke. For example, if a visitor reports that a page on your site won’t load, search the log for entries from around that time to see whether a missing file or a misconfigured .htaccess file caused the problem.

Reading the error log

To view your account’s recent errors, perform the following steps:

  1. Go to the Performance hub.
  2. Click the Recent Errors tab, or click the Errors metric card at the top of the Performance hub.
  3. Review the list to find the error log entry for the problem you are troubleshooting.
    • The list shows your website’s 300 most recent entries, newest first. If no errors have occurred recently, a No recent errors message displays instead.
    • To find a specific error, search for a word from its message (such as a filename or error type), or sort by date to find errors from around the time something broke.

Each entry lists when an error occurred and the error message itself. Error messages often include a short module tag (for example, core:error) that identifies the problem’s source.

Note:

The log only includes application-level errors from your website’s Apache® logs. It doesn’t include errors from other services, such as email or DNS, or connectivity issues on a visitor’s end (for example, if their own internet connection was down). A timeout or failure that occurs while Apache tries to reach another resource may still appear. If your server uses NGINX® with Reverse Proxy, only Apache-logged web traffic errors appear here.

Diagnosing common errors

404 and 500 errors are some of the most common errors in website error logs.

For a full list of HTTP status codes and their general causes, read our HTTP Error Codes and Quick Fixes documentation.

Diagnosing a 404 error

A 404 Not Found error indicates that the server couldn’t find the file that a visitor requested. This usually happens when you move, rename, or delete a file, or when a link points to the wrong address.

Most 404 errors come from automated bots that scan sites for vulnerabilities or nonexistent pages. If the requested path in the log entry looks unfamiliar or unrelated to your site’s content, you can ignore the error.

If the 404 error instead comes from a real, broken link to your site, perform the following steps:

  1. Find the error log entry for the 404 error by searching for the file or path that the message listed.
  2. Update the link that points to the missing content so that it points to the correct location. If you intentionally moved or deleted the content instead, set up a redirect to point the old link to an existing location.
  3. Reload the page that generated the error to confirm that it no longer occurs.

Diagnosing a 500 error

A 500 Internal Server Error message indicates that the server encountered a problem while it tried to fulfill a request, but the response doesn’t say what caused it.

To find the cause of a 500 error, perform the following steps:

  1. Find the error log entry for the 500 error.
  2. Look for a .htaccess entry in the message text. An entry that mentions the .htaccess file usually indicates that there was a syntax error or unsupported directive in that file. Open the file in the Files hub’s File Manager and review your recent changes.
  3. Examine the file that caused the error and make any necessary updates to it.
  4. Reload the affected page to confirm that the error is gone.

Additional Documentation