Running into errors on your WordPress site can exist intimidating. However, virtually errors give yous some clue as to what acquired them, which tin make troubleshooting these mutual issues a lot easier. The 503 error is non as polite, unfortunately, and doesn't requite you much information to become on.

It helps to understand what the most mutual causes are for the 503 mistake in WordPress. After that, you'll need to be methodical when information technology comes to troubleshooting the error, which means following several steps in club to locate the root cause.

In this article, we'll cover what the 503 mistake is and how it typically manifests. Then we'll guide you lot through six steps in order to troubleshoot information technology. Allow'southward get to work!

What Is an HTTP Mistake 503?

The Internet Applied science Task Force (IETF) defines the 503 Service Unavailable as:

The 503 (Service Unavailable) condition code indicates that the server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overload or scheduled maintenance, which will likely be alleviated afterwards some filibuster. The server MAY transport a Retry-After header field to suggest an advisable amount of time for the client to wait before retrying the request.

When you see the 503 mistake, it means that the server in question is unavailable. That could exist because it's too decorated, for example, or it'south nether maintenance. Unlike other similar error codes, 503 signifies that your website is online and running, but can't be reached at the present moment.

What'due south so vexing most this particular fault is that information technology barely gives you any information to go along. Nigh of the fourth dimension, it just shows upward with a "Service temporarily unavailable" bulletin. That's the equivalent of calling a restaurant via phone, only to have them tell yous that they're closed simply pass up to let yous know when they'll be open up once again.

If you're lucky, the 503 mistake code will have occurred because your WordPress website is nether maintenance. WordPress very briefly sets your site to maintenance mode when you're updating a plugin, a theme, or the core software:

HTTP 503 Error in WordPress
Maintenance mode

Ordinarily, this timeout is so brief that no one will notice it. Yet, in those cases where the 503 error persists, y'all'll have a bigger problem to deal with. Afterward all, not only will users be unable to visit your site, only yous'll lose access to your WordPress admin area as well. That means you can't update your site in any way, and in order to troubleshoot it, y'all'll need to dig into its files.

503 Error Variations

The 503 error tin testify up in a lot of ways. However, almost every variation comes accompanied past that 503 code, making it piece of cake to identify.

Hither are some of the variations you might run across, depending on your server configuration and browser:

  • 503 Service Unavailable
  • 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable
  • HTTP Server Mistake 503
  • HTTP Error 503
  • Error 503 Service Unavailable
  • The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance reanimation or capacity problems. Please try once again afterward.

Any the code you run into might wait like, information technology means you lot need to get to work fast before it affects your users negatively.

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How to Fix the 503 Fault in WordPress (6 Steps)

Since you oftentimes tin can't be certain what acquired the 503 error in any given situation, you lot'll need to become about troubleshooting it methodically. The following six sections each cover a potential ready, aimed at resolving the different potential root causes.

After each stride, take a moment to render to your website and run into if the 503 mistake is gone. If it is, you've successfully fixed the event. If not, continue on to the next step in the procedure.

1. Temporarily Deactivate Your WordPress Plugins

One of the most common causes of the 503 error in WordPress is plugin compatibility problems. To determine if that'southward what's happening, you'll demand to disable all of your site's plugins.

Since the 503 error prevents you from accessing the WordPress admin area, you lot'll need to apply an FTP customer for this footstep. If you don't accept one set upwardly, nosotros recommend FileZilla.

In one case your FTP customer is prepare, connect to your website through it and navigate to your WordPress root folder. In case y'all can't observe it, information technology's normally called public_html, html, public, www, or your site'due south name. If you're a Kinsta client, it's your public folder.

WordPress root folder SFTP
WordPress root folder SFTP

Open that folder, and navigate to the wp-content directory. Within, you'll meet a folder chosen plugins, which contains individual subdirectories for each of the plugins installed on your site (both agile and inactive).

What you're going to do at present is right-click on the plugins folder, and rename it to something else. Nosotros recommend plugins.quondam or plugins.deactivated, so you tin easily recognize information technology later.

WordPress plugins folder renamed
WordPress plugins folder renamed

WordPress volition now not be able to find any of your plugins. When that happens, information technology will automatically disable those plugins.

Now, attempt accessing your WordPress dashboard. If the 503 mistake is gone, then y'all tin can assume that one of your plugins was the culprit. All y'all take to do is effigy out which one was at fault.

Return to the wp-content directory, and rename your original plugins folder correctly. And then, you'll need to disable each of your plugins 1 by one, until you lot find the culprit.

To do this, open the wp-content/plugins directory. Within, yous'll notice one folder for each of your plugins. The procedure you're going to follow is much the same as before:

  1. Start with the first folder, and rename information technology to annihilation you similar.
  2. Check your website to come across if the fault is gone.
  3. If it isn't, render the plugin folder from the previous footstep to its original name.
  4. Motion on to the next plugin on your list, repeating the in a higher place steps.

This process can take a while if y'all have a lot of plugins, but it's vital to check each plugin in plow. If at any point you place the plugin that's causing the fault, you can uninstall it or supercede it with some other tool.

If you brand it to the end of these steps without finding a solution, you lot can move on to the next stage of troubleshooting.

2. Deactivate Your WordPress Theme

Now that y'all've ruled out your plugins as the cause of the 503 error, it's time to do the same with your active theme. In fact, your theme could besides be creating compatibility bug.

Unfortunately, the process doesn't piece of work the same as to a higher place. WordPress won't revert to the default theme if simply rename the theme folder, y'all would end up with an error like "The theme directory "theme proper noun" does not exist." Or if you try to rename the entire theme directory folder, yous end upward with "Mistake: The themes directory is either empty or doesn't be. Delight cheque your installation."

The theme directory does not exist error
The theme directory does not be fault

Therefore, you lot demand to access your WordPress database by logging into phpMyAdmin. If you're a Kinsta client, this tin be found inside the "Info" section of the MyKinsta dashboard.

MyKinsta phpMyAdmin
MyKinsta phpMyAdmin

Click into the "wp_options" table, so click on the "Search" tab. Yous will desire to search under the "option_name" for template.

phpMyAdmin wp_options table
phpMyAdmin wp_options table

Under the "option_value" column you will see the current name of your theme. Modify this to i of the default themes, such as "twentynineteen."

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wp_options template name
wp_options template name

Cheque your website once again to see if this has fixed the error. If it did, it simply means it's a trouble with your WordPress theme and you might want to endeavour reinstalling it or reverting to your most recent backup.

3. Temporarily Disable Your Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Sometimes, the 503 fault will show upwards not because of a problem on your website, simply because of your Content Delivery Network (CDN). If you lot're using a CDN, a quick way to figure out if that's the case is to temporarily disable it.

Every CDN should include some feature that enables you to interruption its services. If you're on Kinsta, you can disable your Kinsta CDN by navigating to CDN → "Disable CDN" inside your MyKinsta dashboard:

MyKinsta CDN enable/disable option
MyKinsta CDN enable/disable option

The process you lot need to follow may exist different depending on which CDN y'all're using. Cloudflare has also been known to cause 503 errors sometimes. If you tin't find the option to intermission yours, check out your service'south cognition base, which will ordinarily contain detailed instructions.

If y'all don't use a CDN or find that pausing your service doesn't help with your issue, there are yet a few more than fixes to try. Do remember to reactivate your CDN before moving on.

4. Limit the WordPress 'Heartbeat' API

The WordPress Heartbeat is an API built into WordPress, which the platform uses for car-saving content, showing you lot plugin notifications, letting you know when someone else is working on a post yous're trying to access, and more.

Only like a regular heartbeat, the API works in the groundwork with a high frequency then that it doesn't miss anything. As you might imagine, this API consumes server resources. Ordinarily, that'south non a problem only in some cases, it may lead to a 503 error if your server can't handle the load.

The quickest way to determine if the Heartbeat API is at the center of your problems is to temporarily disable it. To practise that, connect to your WordPress website via FTP once more, and and so open your current themes binder and look for the functions.php file inside:

WordPress theme functions.php file
WordPress theme functions.php file

Correct-click on the file and select the View/Edit option, which will open up it using your local text editor. Once it'due south open, you'll demand to add the following code snippet within:

          add_action( 'init', 'stop_heartbeat', 1 ); function stop_heartbeat() { wp_deregister_script('heartbeat'); }        

Those three lines of lawmaking tell WordPress to disable the Heartbeat API. Salve the changes to the functions.php file, shut information technology, and endeavor to access your website again.

If the 503 mistake is gone, you'll know that the API was the trouble. Disabling it altogether removes a lot of useful functionality, even so. Instead, we recommend that you 'tiresome down' the Heartbeat, and then that information technology doesn't cause problems.

The easiest way to practise that is by installing the Heartbeat Command plugin. Activate the plugin and navigate to the Settings > Heartbeat Command section. Await for the Modify Heartbeat options, and driblet the frequency to the lowest possible number:

Heartbeat Control plugin frequency
Heartbeat Command plugin frequency

Save the changes to your settings and return to the functions.php file you lot tweaked a while dorsum. For the above changes to work, you lot'll need to remove the cord of lawmaking you lot added before and save your changes to the file.

At this stage, the 503 fault should exist gone if the Heartbeat API was the problem. If it isn't, and so information technology's fourth dimension to try something different.

v. Increment Your Server's Resources

If the 503 error is nevertheless occurring despite all your attempts to set up it so far, then there'south a good chance the problem might be due to a lack of server resources. That is to say, you'll demand to upgrade your hosting plan to see if that fixes the outcome. This is peculiarly truthful if you're using cheap WordPress hosting, as they tend to throttle resources. Nosotros don't do this at Kinsta.

Upgrading your plan is a big decision, however. The smart move is to offset contact your web hosting support service and talk over the 503 error with them, too as the steps you've taken then far to try and solve it. The support squad should be able to assistance yous piece of work out the cause and propose you on whether you need to upgrade your plan or not.

At Kinsta, our support team is more than happy to take a expect for you. Nosotros can even temporarily enable New Relic to come across if we tin pinpoint the issue downwardly to something on your site that is causing the problem.

6. Review Your Logs and Enable WP_DEBUG

Y'all should also take reward of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta customer, you tin easily see errors in the log viewer and enable WordPress debug mode in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can aid you quickly narrow downward the issue, especially if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

Check error logs for HTTP 503 errors
Check fault logs for 503 errors

If your host doesn't have a logging tool, you can likewise add the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

                      ascertain            (            'WP_DEBUG'            ,            truthful            )            ;            define            (            'WP_DEBUG_LOG'            ,            true            )            ;            define            (            'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY'            ,            fake            )            ;                  

The logs are typically located in the /wp-content directory. Within information technology, look for a file called debug.log and open it upwardly.

Others, similar here at Kinsta might take a dedicated folder called "logs".

WordPress error logs folder (SFTP)
WordPress error logs folder (SFTP)

Interpreting your debug log can be a bit intimidating but information technology'due south non every bit difficult to read as you might imagine. In a nutshell, the log contains each error that pops up on your site in chronological social club. It shows which file caused each error, as well as which specific lines of code were involved.

Beware: y'all're non going to find directly references to the 503 fault within your log. Yet, if all else fails, it tin indicate you in the right direction by showing you what files are causing problems. That mode, you'll know where to focus your efforts side by side. As nosotros mentioned in the previous stride, now is a good fourth dimension to make it touch on with your hosting provider if you need farther aid resolving this error.

You can also cheque the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are usually located here:

  • Apache: /var/log/apache2/error.log
  • Nginx: /var/log/nginx/error.log

To learn more, please cheque out our web server showdown: Nginx vs Apache.

If you're a Kinsta client you can as well have advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the total number of 503 errors and encounter how often and when they are occurring. This can aid y'all troubleshoot if this is an ongoing upshot, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

If the 503 error is displaying considering of a fatal PHP fault, yous tin can also endeavour enabling PHP error reporting. But add the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically you can narrow down the file in the panel tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

                      ini_set            (            'display_errors'            ,            ane            )            ;            ini_set            (            'display_startup_errors'            ,            1            )            ;            error_reporting            (            E_ALL            )            ;                  

And you might need to as well modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors            =            on        

Summary

If you're lucky, the 503 error will only prove up when you lot put your website into maintenance mode. All the same, if it appears without warning, and then you'll take to curl up your sleeves and do some troubleshooting.

To get at the root cause of the 503 error, you'll demand to follow these steps to set up it:

  • Temporarily conciliate your WordPress plugins.
  • Deactivate your WordPress theme.
  • Disable your CDN.
  • Limit the WordPress Heartbeat API.
  • Increase your server resources.
  • Review your logs and enable WP_DEBUG.

Have y'all ever encounter the HTTP 503 fault in WordPress? Share your experiences with usa in the comments section below!


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