Deploying Website: 500 - Internal Server Error

First, you need to enable and view detailed errors for web messages , as this is a general message that provides no information on what is actually happening for security reasons.

With detailed errors, you can find the real problem here.

Also, if you can run a browser on the server , you can get details about the error because the server will recognize you as a local user and show you the error. Alternatively, if you can read the server 's log using Event Viewer , you will also see the details of the error.

on IIS 6

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off"/>
        <compilation debug="true"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

on IIS 7

<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <httpErrors errorMode="Detailed" />
        <asp scriptErrorSentToBrowser="true"/>
    </system.webServer>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off"/>
        <compilation debug="true"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Note: You can avoid Debug=true . You just have to turn off custom errors for a while and get the detailed error page.

Reference: Enabling Windows Custom Error Messaging in Go Daddy's help article .

Also, this may help you: How to enable detailed error messages (from IIS).