Running into errors on your WordPress site tin can be intimidating. However, nigh errors give yous some inkling as to what caused them, which tin brand troubleshooting these mutual issues a lot easier. The 503 fault is not equally polite, unfortunately, and doesn't give yous much information to go on.

It helps to sympathize what the most common causes are for the 503 mistake in WordPress. After that, you'll demand 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. Then we'll guide you through six steps in order to troubleshoot it. Let's get to work!

What Is an HTTP Error 503?

The Internet Engineering Chore Force (IETF) defines the 503 Service Unavailable equally:

The 503 (Service Unavailable) status lawmaking indicates that the server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overload or scheduled maintenance, which will probable be alleviated after some filibuster. The server MAY send a Retry-After header field to suggest an appropriate amount of time for the client to wait before retrying the asking.

When you lot run into the 503 mistake, information technology means that the server in question is unavailable. That could exist because it'due south besides busy, for case, or it's under maintenance. Unlike other like error codes, 503 signifies that your website is online and running, simply tin't be reached at the present moment.

What's so vexing most this particular fault is that it barely gives you any data to go on. Almost of the fourth dimension, it just shows up with a "Service temporarily unavailable" message. That's the equivalent of calling a eatery via phone, only to accept them tell you that they're airtight but reject to allow you know when they'll exist open up again.

If yous're lucky, the 503 error code will have occurred because your WordPress website is under 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 manner

Usually, this timeout is so cursory that no one volition notice it. However, in those cases where the 503 error persists, y'all'll have a bigger trouble to deal with. Subsequently all, not simply volition users be unable to visit your site, but you lot'll lose access to your WordPress admin expanse every bit well. That means you lot tin can't update your site in any fashion, and in gild to troubleshoot it, y'all'll demand to dig into its files.

Check Out Our Video Guide to The 503 Error

503 Error Variations

The 503 error tin prove upwards in a lot of means. Still, most every variation comes accompanied by that 503 lawmaking, making it piece of cake to identify.

Here 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 Error 503
  • HTTP Fault 503
  • Error 503 Service Unavailable
  • The server is temporarily unable to service your asking due to maintenance downtime or chapters issues. Delight attempt again later.

Whatever the code you encounter might look similar, it means y'all need to become to work fast earlier it affects your users negatively.

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

Since you oft can't exist certain what caused the 503 fault in any given state of affairs, you'll need to go about troubleshooting it methodically. The post-obit 6 sections each cover a potential set, aimed at resolving the different potential root causes.

Afterward each stride, take a moment to render to your website and see if the 503 error is gone. If information technology is, y'all've successfully stock-still the issue. If not, go along on to the next pace in the process.

one. Temporarily Deactivate Your WordPress Plugins

One of the almost mutual causes of the 503 error in WordPress is plugin compatibility issues. To decide if that's what'due south happening, you'll need to disable all of your site's plugins.

Since the 503 mistake prevents you lot from accessing the WordPress admin area, you lot'll demand to use an FTP customer for this step. If you don't have i set up, we recommend FileZilla.

Once your FTP client is ready, connect to your website through it and navigate to your WordPress root folder. In case yous can't find information technology, it'due south usually chosen public_html, html, public, www, or your site's proper noun. If you're a Kinsta customer, it'south your public binder.

WordPress root folder SFTP
WordPress root folder SFTP

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

What you're going to practise now is right-click on the plugins folder, and rename information technology to something else. We recommend plugins.former or plugins.deactivated, so you can easily recognize information technology later.

WordPress plugins folder renamed
WordPress plugins folder renamed

WordPress will now not exist able to notice whatsoever of your plugins. When that happens, it will automatically disable those plugins.

At present, try accessing your WordPress dashboard. If the 503 mistake is gone, then you tin can assume that one of your plugins was the culprit. All you have to do is figure out which one was at fault.

Return to the wp-content directory, and rename your original plugins binder correctly. Then, y'all'll need to disable each of your plugins one by one, until y'all find the culprit.

To practise this, open the wp-content/plugins directory. Inside, you'll discover 1 folder for each of your plugins. The process yous're going to follow is much the aforementioned as earlier:

  1. Starting time with the offset folder, and rename information technology to anything you similar.
  2. Check your website to see if the error is gone.
  3. If it isn't, return the plugin folder from the previous stride to its original proper name.
  4. Move on to the next plugin on your list, repeating the to a higher place steps.

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

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

two. Conciliate Your WordPress Theme

Now that you've ruled out your plugins as the cause of the 503 fault, it's time to practise the same with your agile theme. In fact, your theme could also exist creating compatibility problems.

Unfortunately, the procedure doesn't work the same as above. WordPress won't revert to the default theme if simply rename the theme folder, you would end up with an error similar "The theme directory "theme proper name" does not be." Or if you attempt to rename the entire theme directory folder, you cease up with "ERROR: The themes directory is either empty or doesn't exist. Please check your installation."

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

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

MyKinsta phpMyAdmin
MyKinsta phpMyAdmin

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

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phpMyAdmin wp_options table
phpMyAdmin wp_options table

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

wp_options template name
wp_options template name

Check your website again to run across if this has fixed the error. If it did, it simply means information technology'southward a problem with your WordPress theme and you might desire to endeavour reinstalling it or reverting to your nearly contempo backup.

3. Temporarily Disable Your Content Commitment Network (CDN)

Sometimes, the 503 error will show upwards not considering of a problem on your website, but because of your Content Delivery Network (CDN). If yous're using a CDN, a quick way to figure out if that'southward the case is to temporarily disable it.

Every CDN should include some feature that enables y'all to pause its services. If you lot're on Kinsta, you tin can disable your Kinsta CDN past 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 be different depending on which CDN you're using. Cloudflare has also been known to cause 503 errors sometimes. If you can't find the option to pause yours, check out your service's knowledge base, which volition usually contain detailed instructions.

If you don't apply a CDN or find that pausing your service doesn't help with your issue, there are notwithstanding a few more fixes to endeavor. Do remember to reactivate your CDN before moving on.

4. Limit the WordPress 'Heartbeat' API

The WordPress Heartbeat is an API congenital 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 yous're trying to access, and more.

But like a regular heartbeat, the API works in the background with a high frequency and then that information technology doesn't miss anything. Equally y'all might imagine, this API consumes server resources. Unremarkably, that'south not a problem but in some cases, it may lead to a 503 mistake if your server can't handle the load.

The quickest way to decide if the Heartbeat API is at the centre of your problems is to temporarily disable information technology. To do that, connect to your WordPress website via FTP once more, and and then open your current themes folder and look for the functions.php file inside:

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

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

          add_action( 'init', 'stop_heartbeat', 1 ); function 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 information technology, and try to access your website again.

If the 503 error is gone, y'all'll know that the API was the problem. Disabling it altogether removes a lot of useful functionality, all the same. Instead, nosotros recommend that you 'tedious down' the Heartbeat, so that it doesn't cause problems.

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

Heartbeat Control plugin frequency
Heartbeat Control plugin frequency

Relieve the changes to your settings and return to the functions.php file yous tweaked a while back. For the in a higher place changes to work, you'll need to remove the string of code you added before and save your changes to the file.

At this phase, the 503 error should be gone if the Heartbeat API was the trouble. If it isn't, then information technology'southward fourth dimension to try something different.

v. Increment Your Server's Resource

If the 503 error is nevertheless occurring despite all your attempts to fix it and then far, then there's a skilful chance the problem might exist 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 especially true if you lot're using cheap WordPress hosting, as they tend to throttle resources. We don't practice this at Kinsta.

Upgrading your programme is a big decision, nevertheless. The smart move is to start contact your web hosting back up service and discuss the 503 error with them, too as the steps you've taken so far to try and solve it. The back up team should exist able to aid y'all work out the cause and advise you on whether you need to upgrade your plan or not.

6. Review Your Logs and Enable WP_DEBUG

You should also take advantage of your error logs. If you're a Kinsta client, you lot can hands come across errors in the log viewer and enable WordPress debug way in the MyKinsta dashboard. This tin can assistance you lot speedily narrow down the issue, 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 the following code to your wp-config.php file to enable logging:

                      ascertain            (            'WP_DEBUG'            ,            true            )            ;            define            (            'WP_DEBUG_LOG'            ,            true            )            ;            define            (            'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY'            ,            imitation            )            ;                  

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

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

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

Interpreting your debug log tin can exist a flake intimidating merely it's not as hard to read as you might imagine. In a nutshell, the log contains each fault that pops up on your site in chronological social club. It shows which file caused each fault, besides as which specific lines of code were involved.

Beware: you're not going to detect directly references to the 503 error within your log. Still, if all else fails, it tin can bespeak yous in the right direction by showing you lot what files are causing problems. That manner, you'll know where to focus your efforts next. As we mentioned in the previous pace, now is a good time to make it touch with your hosting provider if you need further assistance resolving this error.

You tin as well 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 acquire more, please cheque out our web server showdown: Nginx vs Apache.

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

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

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

And you might demand to as well modify your php.ini file with the post-obit:

          display_errors            =            on        

Summary

If you lot're lucky, the 503 mistake volition only show upwardly when you put your website into maintenance way. However, if it appears without alarm, then you'll have to whorl upward 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.
  • Deactivate your WordPress theme.
  • Disable your CDN.
  • Limit the WordPress Heartbeat API.
  • Increment your server resources.
  • Review your logs and enable WP_DEBUG.

Take yous 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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