Ghost error

Updated 11 October 2026

Short answer

If you host Ghost yourself, the Ghost CLI has two tools for this. ghost doctor checks your server setup. When ghost start fails, ghost run starts Ghost directly and prints every error to your terminal, including ones that never reach the log files. The usual culprits are MySQL not running, wrong database settings, file permissions, or Nginx in front of Ghost. If you're on Ghost(Pro), the hosting is managed: check Ghost's status and support.

What's the problem

Your Ghost site shows a 502 or 503, Ghost won't start after an update, or the admin area errors.

Why it happens

  • MySQL isn't running or the database settings are wrong.
  • Ghost crashed or failed to start after an update.
  • File permissions on the Ghost folder.
  • Nginx not running or misconfigured, giving 502 errors.
  • Out of memory on a small server.
  • A theme error after a theme update.

How to fix it

  1. Run ghost doctor in your Ghost folder and fix the first failing check.
  2. If it won't start, run ghost run to see the full error.
  3. Check MySQL is running and the database details in Ghost's config.
  4. Check Nginx is running. See Nginx error.
  5. Check memory and disk on the server.
  6. Restart with ghost restart once fixed.

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; uptime checked every 5 minutes, with an email when the site goes down and when it is back; up to 50 pages from your sitemap, listing any that fail or are slow, plus broken links on them; your DNS: nameservers, addresses, DNSSEC, and records pointing at services that no longer exist; whether HTTPS works and http visitors are sent to it. It has no connection to your site builder, so check its status page as well.

Run your free report

Your first report is free, no card needed. Then A$50 a month, up to 10 domains. Read-only: it never changes anything.

Sources

  1. Ghost: Ghost CLIofficial docsIf running ghost start gives an error, try use ghost run to start Ghost without using the configured process manager.
  2. Ghost: Ghost CLIofficial docsAll the output from Ghost will be written directly to your terminal, showing up any uncaught errors or other output that might not appear in log files.
  3. Ghost: Ghost CLIofficial docsFirst, it will run ghost doctor to check your environment is compatible.

Related

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. Nginx error Nginx's error log names the problem. 502 means the app behind Nginx is down; 504 means it's too slow; a failed reload means a config typo. Run nginx -t first. 502 Bad Gateway The server in front of your app got a bad answer, or none, from your app. Usually the app has crashed, isn't running, or is listening on the wrong port. Node crash By default, an uncaught exception makes Node.js print the stack trace and exit. Read that trace, fix the error, and run Node under a process manager.

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

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