Running into errors on your WordPress site can be intimidating. However, most errors give you some clue every bit to what caused them, which can make troubleshooting these common issues a lot easier. The 503 error is not as polite, unfortunately, and doesn't give y'all much data to go on.

It helps to understand what the most common causes are for the 503 error in WordPress. After that, you'll demand to be methodical when information technology comes to troubleshooting the mistake, which ways post-obit several steps in order to locate the root cause.

In this commodity, we'll encompass what the 503 error is and how it typically manifests. Then we'll guide yous through six steps in order to troubleshoot it. Permit's go to work!

What Is an HTTP Error 503?

The Cyberspace Engineering Task Forcefulness (IETF) defines the 503 Service Unavailable equally:

The 503 (Service Unavailable) status 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 after some delay. The server MAY transport a Retry-After header field to suggest an appropriate corporeality of fourth dimension for the client to wait earlier retrying the asking.

When you encounter the 503 error, it ways that the server in question is unavailable. That could be because it's likewise busy, for example, or it's under maintenance. Unlike other similar error codes, 503 signifies that your website is online and running, but tin can't be reached at the present moment.

What's and so vexing about this particular error is that it barely gives you any information to become on. Well-nigh of the fourth dimension, information technology just shows up with a "Service temporarily unavailable" bulletin. That'due south the equivalent of calling a restaurant via phone, simply to take them tell you lot that they're closed but refuse to permit you know when they'll exist open again.

If yous're lucky, the 503 error 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

Usually, this timeout is so brief that no i will notice information technology. However, in those cases where the 503 mistake persists, you'll accept a bigger problem to deal with. Subsequently all, non only will users be unable to visit your site, merely you'll lose access to your WordPress admin area equally well. That means you can't update your site in any way, and in order to troubleshoot it, you lot'll need to dig into its files.

Check Out Our Video Guide to The 503 Error

503 Mistake Variations

The 503 error can bear witness upward in a lot of means. Nevertheless, almost every variation comes accompanied past that 503 lawmaking, making it piece of cake to identify.

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

  • 503 Service Unavailable
  • 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable
  • HTTP Server Error 503
  • HTTP Error 503
  • Error 503 Service Unavailable
  • The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Delight try again later.

Whatever the code yous come across might look like, information technology means yous need to get to work fast earlier it affects your users negatively.

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How to Gear up the 503 Error in WordPress (half dozen Steps)

Since yous often tin can't exist sure what caused the 503 error in any given situation, you'll demand to go about troubleshooting it methodically. The following six sections each embrace a potential fix, aimed at resolving the different potential root causes.

Later each footstep, take a moment to return to your website and see if the 503 error is gone. If information technology is, you've successfully fixed the issue. If not, go along on to the side by side step in the procedure.

i. Temporarily Conciliate Your WordPress Plugins

I of the nigh common causes of the 503 error in WordPress is plugin compatibility bug. To make up one's mind if that's what'south happening, you'll need 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 client for this stride. If you don't have i prepare, we recommend FileZilla.

Once your FTP client is prepare, connect to your website through information technology and navigate to your WordPress root folder. In example you can't notice it, it's usually called public_html, html, public, www, or your site's proper noun. If you're a Kinsta customer, it's your public folder.

WordPress root folder SFTP
WordPress root binder SFTP

Open up that binder, and navigate to the wp-content directory. Inside, you'll encounter a folder called plugins, which contains individual subdirectories for each of the plugins installed on your site (both active and inactive).

What you're going to do now is right-click on the plugins folder, and rename it to something else. Nosotros recommend plugins.old or plugins.deactivated, so you can easily recognize it later.

WordPress plugins folder renamed
WordPress plugins folder renamed

WordPress will now not be able to detect any of your plugins. When that happens, it will automatically disable those plugins.

Now, endeavor accessing your WordPress dashboard. If the 503 error is gone, so you lot can assume that one of your plugins was the culprit. All y'all have to practise is effigy out which ane was at error.

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

To practice this, open up the wp-content/plugins directory. Inside, you lot'll find one folder for each of your plugins. The process you're going to follow is much the same as earlier:

  1. Start with the first folder, and rename it to annihilation y'all like.
  2. Check your website to see if the error is gone.
  3. If it isn't, return the plugin folder from the previous step to its original proper noun.
  4. Move on to the next plugin on your list, repeating the above steps.

This process can take a while if yous take a lot of plugins, but it'south vital to cheque each plugin in turn. If at any point yous identify the plugin that's causing the fault, you tin can uninstall it or replace it with another tool.

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

2. Deactivate Your WordPress Theme

Now that you've ruled out your plugins as the crusade of the 503 error, it'south time to do the aforementioned with your agile theme. In fact, your theme could also exist creating compatibility bug.

Unfortunately, the procedure doesn't work the aforementioned as above. WordPress won't revert to the default theme if merely rename the theme folder, you would end upwards with an error similar "The theme directory "theme proper name" does not exist." Or if you try to rename the unabridged theme directory binder, you stop up with "Error: The themes directory is either empty or doesn't be. Please check your installation."

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

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

MyKinsta phpMyAdmin
MyKinsta phpMyAdmin

Click into the "wp_options" table, and then click on the "Search" tab. Y'all will want to search under the "option_name" for template.

Subscribe At present

phpMyAdmin wp_options table
phpMyAdmin wp_options tabular array

Under the "option_value" column you lot will come across the electric current name of your theme. Change this to one of the default themes, such as "twentynineteen."

wp_options template name
wp_options template name

Check your website once more to see if this has stock-still the error. If it did, information technology simply means it's a problem with your WordPress theme and you might want to endeavour reinstalling it or reverting to your nigh recent fill-in.

iii. Temporarily Disable Your Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Sometimes, the 503 error will show up not because of a trouble on your website, but because of your Content Delivery Network (CDN). If you're using a CDN, a quick manner to figure out if that's the case is to temporarily disable it.

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

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

The process you need to follow may be different depending on which CDN yous're using. Cloudflare has also been known to cause 503 errors sometimes. If you can't find the option to break yours, check out your service's cognition base, which will ordinarily contain detailed instructions.

If you don't apply a CDN or find that pausing your service doesn't help with your event, in that location are still a few more fixes to try. Exercise recollect to reactivate your CDN earlier moving on.

4. Limit the WordPress 'Heartbeat' API

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

Simply similar a regular heartbeat, the API works in the groundwork with a high frequency so that it doesn't miss annihilation. As yous might imagine, this API consumes server resource. Unremarkably, that's not a trouble but in some cases, it may lead to a 503 error if your server tin can't handle the load.

The quickest style to determine if the Heartbeat API is at the middle of your problems is to temporarily disable it. To do that, connect to your WordPress website via FTP over again, and so open your current themes folder and await for the functions.php file within:

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

Right-click on the file and select the View/Edit pick, which will open up it using your local text editor. Once it'due south open, you'll need to add together the post-obit lawmaking snippet within:

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

Those three lines of code tell WordPress to disable the Heartbeat API. Relieve the changes to the functions.php file, close it, and try to access your website again.

If the 503 mistake is gone, yous'll know that the API was the problem. Disabling it altogether removes a lot of useful functionality, however. Instead, we recommend that you 'slow down' the Heartbeat, and so that it doesn't cause issues.

The easiest way to do that is by installing the Heartbeat Control plugin. Activate the plugin and navigate to the Settings > Heartbeat Control department. Look for the Modify Heartbeat options, and drop the frequency to the lowest possible number:

Heartbeat Control plugin frequency
Heartbeat Control plugin frequency

Save the changes to your settings and return to the functions.php file you tweaked a while back. For the above changes to work, you'll demand to remove the string of code you added before and save your changes to the file.

At this stage, the 503 error should exist gone if the Heartbeat API was the problem. If it isn't, and then it's time to try something different.

5. Increase Your Server'due south Resources

If the 503 error is still occurring despite all your attempts to ready it so far, and so there'south a practiced adventure the problem might be due to a lack of server resources. That is to say, you lot'll demand to upgrade your hosting plan to see if that fixes the issue. This is peculiarly true if you're using inexpensive WordPress hosting, equally they tend to throttle resources. We don't practise this at Kinsta.

Upgrading your plan is a big decision, even so. The smart move is to commencement contact your web hosting back up service and discuss the 503 error with them, as well every bit the steps y'all've taken then far to effort and solve information technology. The support squad should be able to help you work out the crusade and propose you lot on whether you need to upgrade your plan or not.

half dozen. Review Your Logs and Enable WP_DEBUG

You should likewise take advantage of your mistake logs. If you're a Kinsta customer, you can hands see errors in the log viewer and enable WordPress debug mode in the MyKinsta dashboard. This tin help you apace narrow down the event, especially if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

If your host doesn't have a logging tool, you can also add together 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'            ,            false            )            ;                  

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

Others, like here at Kinsta might have a defended binder called "logs".

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

Interpreting your debug log can be a scrap intimidating but it'south not equally hard to read as you might imagine. In a nutshell, the log contains each error that pops up on your site in chronological order. It shows which file acquired each error, as well as which specific lines of code were involved.

Beware: you're non going to find direct references to the 503 error within your log. All the same, if all else fails, it can point you lot in the right management past showing you what files are causing problems. That manner, you'll know where to focus your efforts side by side. As we mentioned in the previous step, now is a good time to get in touch with your hosting provider if you lot need farther help resolving this error.

Yous can besides check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are usually located here:

  • Apache: /var/log/apache2/mistake.log
  • Nginx: /var/log/nginx/fault.log

To larn more, delight check out our web server showdown: Nginx vs Apache.

If y'all're a Kinsta client yous can besides take reward of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the total number of 503 errors and see how often and when they are occurring. This tin can help yous troubleshoot if this is an ongoing effect, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

If the 503 error is displaying considering of a fatal PHP fault, yous can too try enabling PHP error reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the error. Typically you tin can narrow downwards the file in the console tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

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

And you might demand to besides alter your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors            =            on        

Summary

If you're lucky, the 503 error will only show up when you put your website into maintenance style. Even so, if information technology appears without alarm, then you'll accept to scroll upward your sleeves and practice some troubleshooting.

To go at the root crusade of the 503 error, you lot'll need to follow these steps to prepare it:

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

Have you ever run into the HTTP 503 error in WordPress? Share your experiences with united states of america in the comments section below!


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