Fix Elementor “Server Error (500 error)” When Saving Posts

What is a 500 Error?

A 500 Server Internal Error is an HTTP status that tells the browser something went wrong on the server while trying to handle the request. Unfortunately, this generic error response doesn’t provide any useful information about the root cause. 

When this happens while saving an Elementor page or post, it usually indicates an issue with the request using a larger than normal amount of server resources.

Common Cause: Too Many Post Revisions

Excessive post revisions are by far the most frequent cause of a 500 error when saving changes in Elementor. 

WordPress automatically saves revisions of posts and pages every time you update them, building up over time. When you try to save the page with too many revisions in Elementor, too much processing needs to be done by the server, which results in a 500 error.

Why Revisions Cause Problems

Each revision is a separate record in your WordPress database. So, if a page is complicated and has gone through numerous edits, the SQL (database) query required to store the current version becomes bloated. This can overload the available memory or server processing capacity.

How to Fix It: Optimize Your Database to Remove Old Revisions

The easiest and most common solution for this problem is to optimize your site’s database, decreasing the number of stored revisions. Two great plugin options to simplify this task are:

WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize offers comprehensive and granular database optimization tools, including cleaning up post revisions with a few clicks.

Steps to Optimize Your Database with WP-Optimize:

1. Install and activate the plugin from the WordPress Plugin repository.
2. Go to WP-Optimize > Database from the WordPress dashboard.
3. Click Remove revisions option.
4. Review other cleanup options that may exist, such as auto-draft removals and spam comments, for further cleanup.
5. Click Run Optimization.

WP-Optimize also allows you to schedule regular cleanups, helping to prevent future issues caused by excessive revisions.

WP Sweep

WP Sweep provides similar functionality for managing and cleaning up unwanted database entries.

How to Use WP Sweep:

1. Install and activate WP Sweep.
2. In the WordPress dashboard, go to Tools > Sweep.
3. Under the “Revisions” section, click Sweep to remove old post revisions.
4. Optionally, sweep other sections like deleted comments and transients for a deeper clean-up.

Both of these plugins are safe to use and offer a backup option, though it always is a good idea to back up your site manually before making major changes to your database. 

In addition to our automated backups, Pressable also provides the option to take on-demand manual backups.

Other Possible Causes and Solutions

While too many post revisions is almost always the cause for this error, the 500 error can be due to other underlying issues in some cases. 

While Pressable already has server limits set well above Elementor’s recommendations, the following troubleshooting steps may be of help for sites hosted elsewhere:

Increase PHP Memory Limit

Elementor requires adequate server memory to operate, but Pressable allows each and every PHP request to use up to 512MB (double Elementor’s recommended 256 MB). Any more than that is unnecessary for well-written code.

​Some plugins inherently use a lot of memory, in which case a well-written plugin would typically break up larger processes into several PHP requests. Since Pressable allows sites to burst up to 110 PHP workers to cope with brief surges in resource needs, this means your site has access to up to 55GB of memory if all workers are used. 

Because of this, it’s not possible (or necessary) to increase your Pressable memory limit through edits to the wp-config.php file.

More information on PHP limits and considerations at Pressable can be found here.

If your site is hosted elsewhere, you may have a lower memory limit. In this case, you can try to address a 500 error by increasing the PHP memory limit:

1. Log in to your site’s root directory via FTP or your hosting control panel.
2. Edit the wp-config.php file.
3. Just add the next line right above the “That’s all, stop editing!” comment:
4. define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');
5. Save the changes and try saving the page again.

Check for Plugin or Theme Conflicts

Conflicts with other plugins or themes can also cause 500 errors. To identify the culprit you will need to perform a conflict test. 

Note: Conflict tests should be done on a temporary clone of your site so it does not impact the live site.

How To Perform a Conflict Test:

1. Clone your site to create a staging site for testing
2. Disable all plugins except Elementor and, if relevant, Elementor Pro
3. Try saving the page again
4. If the error is gone, re-activate plugins one by one, trying to save after each reactivation, until the error returns
5. The last plugin you re-activated before seeing the error recur will be the one conflicting with Elementor 

If plugins are ruled out, switch to the default theme like Twenty Twenty-Five to eliminate possible theme conflicts.

Check Server Logs

Server logs may offer additional clues about the root cause of the 500 error. Pressable offers easy access via a site’s control panel to multiple useful log types:

1. Server logs
2. PHP error logs

Upgrade Your Hosting Plan

While all of Pressable’s standard hosting plans already come with higher limits than a well-optimized Elementor site should need, working with huge Elementor pages, or running a high-traffic website may benefit from a custom plan with additional resources allocated. 

Contact the Pressable sales team to learn more.

Preventing Future Problems

Once you’ve fixed the 500 error, it makes sense to take some steps now to prevent it from happening again:

Limit Post Revisions 

Add the following line to your wp-config.php to limit the number of revisions per post. This will keep only the last five revisions. 

define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, 5);

Schedule Clean-Ups on Regular Basis

Keep your database from bloating with periodic cleanups using WP-Optimize or WP Sweep.

Reduce Resource Needs

1. Use lightweight plugins wherever possible (for example, if you just need a single feature of a larger plugin, look for an alternate plugin that only has the functionality you actually require) 
2. Optimize Elementor pages by keeping design as simple as possible. Multiple recursively nested page elements not only increase resource needs but also slow down page load, impacting user experience

Please do not hesitate to reach out to Pressable support for their assistance if needed.