Need some help with our site - HTTP Status 500 - java.lang.NullPointerException

[teddy bouchereau]

For the past 2-3 weeks our company wiki has not been working. This was an application setup by someone who is no longer with our company and I am not all that familiar with how to resolve the current issue and need some help. Hoping will be able to guide me or remote assist . send detailed info on how to get this matter resolved. The site as of recently began giving an error and i cant figure out what is causing it 

HTTP Status 500 - java.lang.NullPointerException

---

type Exception report

message java.lang.NullPointerException

description The server encountered an internal error that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference$InitializationException: java.lang.NullPointerException
	com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference.getInterruptibly(LazyReference.java:149)
	com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference.get(LazyReference.java:112)
	com.atlassian.confluence.setup.ConfluenceEncodingFilter.getGlobalSettings(ConfluenceEncodingFilter.java:47)
	com.atlassian.confluence.setup.ConfluenceEncodingFilter.getEncodingInternal(ConfluenceEncodingFilter.java:37)
	com.atlassian.confluence.setup.ConfluenceEncodingFilter.getEncoding(ConfluenceEncodingFilter.java:29)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.encoding.AbstractEncodingFilter.doFilter(AbstractEncodingFilter.java:38)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractHttpFilter.doFilter(AbstractHttpFilter.java:31)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.HeaderSanitisingFilter.doFilter(HeaderSanitisingFilter.java:44)
	com.atlassian.confluence.servlet.FourOhFourErrorLoggingFilter.doFilter(FourOhFourErrorLoggingFilter.java:65)
	com.atlassian.confluence.web.filter.DebugFilter.doFilter(DebugFilter.java:50)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractHttpFilter.doFilter(AbstractHttpFilter.java:31)

root cause

java.lang.NullPointerException
	com.atlassian.spring.container.ContainerManager.getComponent(ContainerManager.java:33)
	com.atlassian.confluence.util.LazyComponentReference$Accessor.get(LazyComponentReference.java:46)
	com.atlassian.util.concurrent.Lazy$Strong.create(Lazy.java:85)
	com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference$Sync.run(LazyReference.java:321)
	com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference.getInterruptibly(LazyReference.java:143)
	com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference.get(LazyReference.java:112)
	com.atlassian.confluence.setup.ConfluenceEncodingFilter.getGlobalSettings(ConfluenceEncodingFilter.java:47)
	com.atlassian.confluence.setup.ConfluenceEncodingFilter.getEncodingInternal(ConfluenceEncodingFilter.java:37)
	com.atlassian.confluence.setup.ConfluenceEncodingFilter.getEncoding(ConfluenceEncodingFilter.java:29)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.encoding.AbstractEncodingFilter.doFilter(AbstractEncodingFilter.java:38)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractHttpFilter.doFilter(AbstractHttpFilter.java:31)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.HeaderSanitisingFilter.doFilter(HeaderSanitisingFilter.java:44)
	com.atlassian.confluence.servlet.FourOhFourErrorLoggingFilter.doFilter(FourOhFourErrorLoggingFilter.java:65)
	com.atlassian.confluence.web.filter.DebugFilter.doFilter(DebugFilter.java:50)
	com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractHttpFilter.doFilter(AbstractHttpFilter.java:31)

note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/7.0.47 logs.