When a page fails, the server wrote down what happened in two places that cPanel shows you in the Metrics section: the Errors page, with the latest messages from the web server’s error log, and Raw Access, with the raw log of every request made to your site. One tells you why it failed, the other tells you what was asked and what we answered. Together they almost always point to the guilty file or request.
The two logs, side by side
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Errors |
Raw Access |
| What it is |
The most recent entries of the web server’s error log. |
The access log, one line per request, which you download to read on your computer. |
| Answers |
“Why did this error happen?” |
“Who asked for what, when, and with what result?” |
| Good for |
A 500 error, a blank page, a missing file, a .htaccess rule that does not work. |
Checking that a page was really requested, which code it returned, and whether someone is hammering the same address. |
Step by step
| 1 |
Reproduce the error and note the time. Open the page that fails, look at the clock and write the exact time down. Without it you are looking for a needle among many lines.
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| 2 |
Open Errors in cPanel (the Metrics section) and look for the lines from that time. Each line carries the date, the address of whoever asked, the file involved and the reason. Copy the whole line.
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| 3 |
Open Raw Access, download the log for the domain in question and open it in a text editor. Search for the page path (for example /contact) or the time.
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| 4 |
Read the response code. It comes right after the request (see the table below). A 200 is success, a 404 is “does not exist”, a 500 is an error in the server or in the code.
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| 5 |
Put the two clues together. The reason from the Errors page and the request from Raw Access, at the same time, tell the story. Paste both into the support ticket, with the page address.
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How to read a line of the access log
A line always has the same shape. This is an invented example, using an address reserved for documentation:
203.0.113.7 - - [10/Oct/2026:14:02:11 +0200] "GET /page HTTP/1.1" 500 1234 "-" "Mozilla/5.0"
| Part |
Meaning |
| 203.0.113.7 |
The IP address of whoever made the request. |
| [10/Oct/2026:14:02:11 +0200] |
The date, time and zone. It is the server’s time, which may not be yours. See what time the server is on. |
| "GET /page HTTP/1.1" |
The method and the page requested. |
| 500 |
The response code. It is the number that matters most. |
| 1234 |
The size of the response in bytes. |
| "Mozilla/5.0" |
The program that asked (browser or robot). |
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These pages show what is recent. If the error was days ago it may no longer be there. Tell us in the ticket when it happened, and also look at the error_log files in the site folders, where PHP writes its own errors: see where the PHP error log is.
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Got the error line and the matching request? Paste them into a ticket and we will tell you what they mean.
Open a support ticket
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