Laravel error

Updated 11 October 2026

Short answer

A Laravel site in production shows a plain "Server Error" page, which is correct: Laravel's docs say APP_DEBUG must be false in production, or you risk exposing sensitive details. The real error is in the log file, by default storage/logs/laravel.log. The usual causes are .env settings (database, keys), cached config that's out of date, folder permissions on storage and bootstrap/cache, or a database migration that didn't run.

What's the problem

Your Laravel app shows "500 Server Error", "419 Page Expired", a blank page, or a database error.

Why it happens

  • .env settings: wrong database details, or a missing APP_KEY.
  • Stale cache: config or routes cached before a change.
  • Permissions: the web server can't write to storage or bootstrap/cache.
  • Missed migrations on the production database.
  • Session or CSRF problems (419 errors), often cookies or session settings.
  • Composer dependencies not installed or out of date.

How to fix it

  1. Read storage/logs/laravel.log for the latest error and its stack trace.
  2. Check .env on the server: database details and APP_KEY.
  3. Clear and rebuild caches (php artisan config:clear, then cache again if you use caching).
  4. Fix permissions on storage and bootstrap/cache.
  5. Run migrations on production if new ones exist.
  6. Never turn on APP_DEBUG on a public production site.

What Preventionlabs checks

One click runs the full report on your domain. For this problem it shows whether your site loads, how fast, and where its redirects go; up to 50 pages from your sitemap, listing any that fail or are slow, plus broken links on them. With Cloudflare connected, it also shows which pages returned server errors (5xx) to visitors, and when; recent deploys and account changes, with their times. It doesn't read your server logs, so the exact error message is in your host's logs.

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Sources

  1. Laravel: Error Handlingofficial docsIn your production environment, the value of APP_DEBUG should always be false .
  2. Laravel: Loggingofficial docs'path' => storage_path('logs/laravel.log'),

Related

500 Internal Server Error Your server hit an error it didn't handle. The cause is in the server's error log: usually a code bug, a bad config change, a failed plugin or a lost database. Database connection error Your app can't reach its database: the database is stopped, the address or password is wrong, or a firewall is blocking it. Check them in that order. MySQL error Read the error number: 1045 is access denied, 2002 means the server isn't reachable, 1040 is too many connections. The MySQL error log says the rest. Apache not working Check the Apache error log first: it's where Apache records every problem. If Apache won't start, test the config with apachectl configtest.

Preventionlabs is independent and not affiliated with Laravel. Product names are used only to describe the problem.

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