Running into errors on your WordPress site can exist intimidating. All the same, most errors give y'all some inkling every bit to what acquired them, which tin brand troubleshooting these common problems a lot easier. The 503 error is not equally polite, unfortunately, and doesn't give you much information to go on.

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

In this article, we'll encompass what the 503 error is and how it typically manifests. And so we'll guide you through six steps in order to troubleshoot it. Allow's get to work!

What Is an HTTP Error 503?

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

The 503 (Service Unavailable) status code indicates that the server is currently unable to handle the asking due to a temporary overload or scheduled maintenance, which will likely be alleviated later some delay. The server MAY send a Retry-After header field to advise an appropriate corporeality of time for the client to look before retrying the asking.

When y'all encounter the 503 fault, it means that the server in question is unavailable. That could be considering it's too busy, for example, or information technology's nether maintenance. Dissimilar other similar mistake codes, 503 signifies that your website is online and running, only can't be reached at the present moment.

What's and so vexing near this item error is that it barely gives you any information to continue. Almost of the fourth dimension, it just shows up with a "Service temporarily unavailable" message. That'southward the equivalent of calling a restaurant via phone, only to accept them tell yous that they're closed but refuse to let you lot know when they'll be open again.

If you'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 yous're updating a plugin, a theme, or the core software:

HTTP 503 Error in WordPress
Maintenance fashion

Usually, this timeout is so cursory that no 1 will notice information technology. However, in those cases where the 503 error persists, you'll take a bigger problem to deal with. After all, not only will users be unable to visit your site, but y'all'll lose access to your WordPress admin area likewise. That means you can't update your site in any manner, and in order to troubleshoot information technology, you'll need to dig into its files.

503 Mistake Variations

The 503 mistake can show upwards in a lot of ways. However, nearly every variation comes accompanied past that 503 code, making it easy to identify.

Here are some of the variations you might encounter, depending on your server configuration and browser:

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

Whatsoever the code you run into might look similar, it means y'all need to get to work fast before it affects your users negatively.

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How to Prepare the 503 Fault in WordPress (half dozen Steps)

Since yous often can't be sure what caused the 503 error in any given situation, you'll demand to get near troubleshooting information technology methodically. The following six sections each cover a potential prepare, aimed at resolving the different potential root causes.

After each step, have a moment to return to your website and see if the 503 error is gone. If it is, you've successfully fixed the issue. If not, continue on to the side by side step in the process.

1. Temporarily Deactivate Your WordPress Plugins

One of the most common causes of the 503 fault in WordPress is plugin compatibility issues. To determine if that'south what's happening, yous'll demand to disable all of your site'due south plugins.

Since the 503 fault prevents yous from accessing the WordPress admin area, you'll need to use an FTP client for this stride. If yous don't have one set up, we recommend FileZilla.

Once your FTP customer is gear up, connect to your website through it and navigate to your WordPress root folder. In case y'all can't detect it, it'south usually called public_html, html, public, world wide web, or your site's proper noun. If y'all're a Kinsta client, information technology'southward your public binder.

WordPress root folder SFTP
WordPress root folder SFTP

Open up that folder, and navigate to the wp-content directory. Within, you'll run across 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. We recommend plugins.quondam or plugins.deactivated, and so you can easily recognize information technology later.

WordPress plugins folder renamed
WordPress plugins folder renamed

WordPress will at present not be able to find any of your plugins. When that happens, it will automatically disable those plugins.

Now, effort accessing your WordPress dashboard. If the 503 error is gone, then you can presume that ane of your plugins was the culprit. All you have to do is figure out which one was at error.

Return to the wp-content directory, and rename your original plugins binder correctly. Then, yous'll need to disable each of your plugins 1 past ane, until y'all detect the culprit.

To do this, open the wp-content/plugins directory. Within, you'll find 1 binder for each of your plugins. The process you're going to follow is much the aforementioned as earlier:

  1. Outset with the beginning folder, and rename it to anything you like.
  2. Cheque your website to encounter if the error is gone.
  3. If it isn't, return the plugin folder from the previous step to its original name.
  4. Move on to the next plugin on your list, repeating the higher up steps.

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

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

ii. Deactivate Your WordPress Theme

Now that you've ruled out your plugins as the cause of the 503 mistake, information technology'south time to do the same with your active theme. In fact, your theme could besides be creating compatibility problems.

Unfortunately, the process doesn't work the same every bit in a higher place. WordPress won't revert to the default theme if simply rename the theme folder, you would end upward with an error like "The theme directory "theme proper name" does not exist." Or if you try to rename the unabridged theme directory folder, you lot end up with "ERROR: The themes directory is either empty or doesn't be. Please bank check your installation."

The theme directory does not exist error
The theme directory does not exist error

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

MyKinsta phpMyAdmin
MyKinsta phpMyAdmin

Click into the "wp_options" tabular array, then click on the "Search" tab. You will want to search under the "option_name" for template.

phpMyAdmin wp_options table
phpMyAdmin wp_options table

Under the "option_value" cavalcade you will run into the current name of your theme. Alter this to one of the default themes, such as "twentynineteen."

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wp_options template name
wp_options template name

Check your website again to see if this has stock-still the error. If information technology did, it simply means it'due south a problem with your WordPress theme and you might desire to try reinstalling it or reverting to your most recent backup.

3. Temporarily Disable Your Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Sometimes, the 503 error will evidence up non because of a trouble on your website, but because of your Content Delivery Network (CDN). If you're using a CDN, a quick fashion to effigy out if that's the case is to temporarily disable information technology.

Every CDN should include some feature that enables you to pause its services. If you lot'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 pick

The procedure you demand to follow may exist different depending on which CDN you're using. Cloudflare has also been known to crusade 503 errors sometimes. If you tin't detect the option to intermission yours, check out your service's cognition base, which volition usually contain detailed instructions.

If you lot don't utilise a CDN or find that pausing your service doesn't help with your issue, there are still a few more fixes to try. Practice recall 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 auto-saving content, showing you plugin notifications, letting you know when someone else is working on a mail service you're trying to admission, and more than.

Just like a regular heartbeat, the API works in the background with a high frequency so that information technology doesn't miss anything. As you might imagine, this API consumes server resource. Usually, that's not a problem but in some cases, information technology may pb 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 again, and then open your current themes folder and wait 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 selection, which volition open it using your local text editor. Once information technology'southward open, you lot'll need to add the following code snippet within:

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

Those iii lines of lawmaking tell WordPress to disable the Heartbeat API. Save the changes to the functions.php file, close it, and endeavour to admission your website over again.

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

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

Heartbeat Control plugin frequency
Heartbeat Command plugin frequency

Save the changes to your settings and render to the functions.php file you lot tweaked a while back. For the above changes to work, you'll need to remove the string of lawmaking you added before and relieve your changes to the file.

At this stage, the 503 error should be gone if the Heartbeat API was the problem. If it isn't, and then it'southward fourth dimension to endeavor something different.

v. Increase Your Server's Resources

If the 503 mistake is still occurring despite all your attempts to fix information technology so far, then there's a good adventure the problem might be due to a lack of server resources. That is to say, you'll need to upgrade your hosting plan to see if that fixes the issue. This is particularly true if you're using cheap WordPress hosting, as they tend to throttle resources. We don't exercise this at Kinsta.

Upgrading your program is a big decision, notwithstanding. The smart motility is to first contact your web hosting support service and discuss the 503 mistake with them, besides as the steps yous've taken and then far to try and solve information technology. The support team should be able to help you work out the cause and advise you on whether yous need to upgrade your plan or not.

At Kinsta, our support squad is more than happy to take a look for yous. We can even temporarily enable New Relic to meet if we can pinpoint the issue downward to something on your site that is causing the problem.

6. Review Your Logs and Enable WP_DEBUG

You should as well take advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta client, you can easily meet errors in the log viewer and enable WordPress debug fashion in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help you rapidly narrow down the consequence, peculiarly if it's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

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

                      define            (            'WP_DEBUG'            ,            true            )            ;            define            (            'WP_DEBUG_LOG'            ,            true            )            ;            define            (            'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY'            ,            simulated            )            ;                  

The logs are typically located in the /wp-content directory. Inside information technology, look for a file chosen debug.log and open information technology upwards.

Others, like hither at Kinsta might have a dedicated folder called "logs".

WordPress error logs folder (SFTP)
WordPress fault logs binder (SFTP)

Interpreting your debug log tin can be a bit intimidating but information technology'due south not as hard to read as you might imagine. In a nutshell, the log contains each fault that pops upwards 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 not going to find direct references to the 503 error within your log. Even and so, if all else fails, it tin can point y'all in the right direction past showing y'all what files are causing bug. That way, y'all'll know where to focus your efforts adjacent. As we mentioned in the previous stride, at present is a practiced time to become in touch on with your hosting provider if you need further assistance resolving this error.

Y'all can also check the log files in Apache and Nginx, which are commonly located here:

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

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

If you're a Kinsta customer you can also take advantage of our analytics tool to become a breakdown of the total number of 503 errors and see how oft and when they are occurring. This can assistance yous troubleshoot if this is an ongoing effect, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

If the 503 error is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, you tin as well try enabling PHP error reporting. Only add the post-obit code to the file throwing the fault. Typically you can narrow downward the file in the console tab of Google Chrome DevTools.

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

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

          display_errors            =            on        

Summary

If you're lucky, the 503 mistake volition only show up when you put your website into maintenance mode. Nevertheless, if it appears without alarm, then you'll accept to curlicue up your sleeves and practise some troubleshooting.

To get at the root cause of the 503 error, you'll need to follow these steps to fix 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 meet the HTTP 503 error in WordPress? Share your experiences with usa in the comments section below!


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