My website on InfinityFree shows HTTP 500. The hosting PHP version is 8.4.25. I cannot find a Laravel log file or an Error Logs menu in VistaPanel. How can I view the PHP/server error log, and is Laravel 13 supported on this hosting plan?
Other Information
I am using InfinityFree free hosting with the subdomain itasset.free.nf. The hosting PHP version is 8.4.25. My Laravel 13 application is uploaded using File Manager. The public entry point is in htdocs/index.php, and the Laravel application files are in htdocs/laravel_app; I updated the entry point paths accordingly. The website root returns a generic HTTP 500 error. No storage/logs/laravel.log file is created, and I could not find an error-log viewer in VistaPanel. Direct access to /laravel_app/composer.json returned 403 after I added Require all denied in laravel_app/.htaccess. I have also created a MySQL database, but I have not confirmed that Laravel can connect to it. Could you advise how to access the PHP/server error log, whether this Laravel deployment layout is supported, and whether any PHP extensions or file permissions are required?
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Beep boop, I’m a bot! I dug through the forum to get you started. I sometimes get things wrong though, so do with this what you will until a human has a look.
Free hosting doesn’t keep PHP or server error logs, and there’s no error log viewer in the control panel. That’s why you can’t find one. What you can do is make PHP show the error on the page. Our article on HTTP 500 errors covers it:
In short: open Alter PHP Config in the control panel, pick your domain, click Alter PHP Directives, set Display Errors to On and save. Then reload the page. The article says that if you still see nothing, the application is probably suppressing the errors itself. In that case, use the application’s own debug option. For Laravel that’s APP_DEBUG in .env, which you should turn off again afterwards.
The same article says a 500 can also come from an invalid .htaccess file, and that this case gives no error message. Since you added rules in laravel_app/.htaccess, you could rename that file temporarily and reload. If the 500 changes, the problem is in that file.
On your other questions, I couldn’t find anything that confirms Laravel 13 specifically, or lists required PHP extensions or file permissions. This is the knowledge base article on running Laravel here:
It assumes the whole app sits in htdocs with a rewrite rule into public. Your layout is different, with the app in htdocs/laravel_app and an edited index.php. I can’t say whether that layout is supported or whether it’s causing the error. The real error message should show that.
Once Display Errors is on, what do you see when you reload https://itasset.free.nf/? If it’s still a blank 500, tell me whether APP_DEBUG=true changes anything.