getting 500 intenal error when setting 301 redirect using .htaccess

Question

I am trying to use a 301 redirect to direct users and bots to my new site but when I put the .htaccess live i keep getting a 500 internal error shown.

The site is actually a subdomain which i want to redirect to another subdomain on another site. I'm not sure if that's relevant but I thought I should include this information.

The web server I'm using is Apache and this is the htaccess code I'm using:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.blog.mysite.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

Any idea what might be wrong with this?

Answer 1

Not guaranteed this is it, but try removing a line at a time until the error stops. That'll help you see which particular bit is causing the problem.
Getting a 500 from htaccess is sometimes a sign you're trying to do something you're not allowed to. Is mod_rewrite actually enabled, for example? The same for the Options line; If the server isn't configured with AllowOverride Options then it might be the FollowSymLinks line.

Answer 2

not sure why it wasnt working but got in contact with the host and this is the solution they provided.. put it in the httpdocs folder, works fine

Redirect 301 / http://blog.example.co.uk