Upon searching the web everything is linked to a page on this site that points to the .htaccess file as the problem - this is not a solution and yet is stated as such. I delete the .htaccess and disable Joomsef in phpmyadmin plugins and still 500 error.

How about telling us how to remove Joomsef once it breaks our site and the backend is not accessible.

I use .htaccess on hundreds of subdomains so that is not the issue. I really don't care what the issue is just please tell me how to remove this extension!

Please help!

Hello,

please note that just installing JoomSEF or it presence among other Joomla components CANNOT cause 500 Internal Server Error. It is simply technically not possible, as JoomSEF is JUST a Joomla component, while 500 error is generated BEFORE even Joomla starts, at webserver level.

That can only be caused by unsupported rules in .htaccess file or by similar reason. If the problem does not dissapear after removing .htaccess file (deleting it or renaming to other name) then you will need to check the server error logs to determine what the problem is. Except .htaccess file, it might be related to global server configuration, wront settings of file permissions, etc.

I started getting these after installing JoomSEF too. However, what's interesting is that in a list of articles, some of the links work, and the rest cause errors. How is that possible?

playsomnia.com/test/baza-igara/eyepet - This one works
playsomnia.com/test/baza-igara/brink - internal server error

Hello,

in such case, there could be a problem of conflict of the SEF URL and real path existing in the website structure or some rewrite rule.
Make sure that there do not exists folders, that might interfere with the SEF URL (baza-igara/brink) or that there are no rewrite rules that could match this URL except the Joomla ones.
Also, check the webserver error log for more detailed info about possible reason of the problem.

Had this same thing happen to me...

Server error codes kept pointing to /mysite.com/.htaccess RewriteBase: .........

Now my answer might be a little noob, but, I figured I would share it anyway cause I'm sure it will pop up again.

My error came upon editing the .htaccess in the Artio SEF component while in my joomla backend. Once I saved the .htaccess my site instantly returned the dreaded: Internal Server Error 500. In a panic I went in and manually turned of SEF operations in my joomla configuration file. No change, I then went in and manually disabled the component in its configuration file. Still no change. Now at this point my site is useless, Internal Server Error frontend, backend, and nothing is happening. I read volumes of htaccess references until I finally came to the conclusion that the htaccess.txt file I had should with all reason work just fine.

The one thing that could've saved me the time and aggravation; was remembering to rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess! note: I just grabbed a working htaccess.txt file from one of my other installations, uploaded it to my server, renamed it, and voila!

Once I did that my site was back in action. Now that may or may not be what's happened to you but the amount of sh@t I went through you'd think there would be a little more emphasis on that kinda thing. Again, probably a noob oversight but I've been up all night and I'm tired as hell and needed to rant about it somewhere.

Hope that helps somebody!
Goodnight