wp_update_post meta causing 500 error

I was able to find a solution by following the advice in this article (https://www.godaddy.com/community/Building-and-Managing-a-Website/fatal-error/td-p/31814):

Open your hosting account, go to File manager and access this folder: wp-content
Rename this file object-cache.php to object-cache-OLD.php

As a developer I don’t know how to prevent this for future clients without a greater understanding. Comments and new answers welcome.