Running into errors on your WordPress site can be intimidating. All the same, almost errors requite yous some clue equally to what caused them, which tin make troubleshooting these common problems a lot easier. The 503 error is not equally polite, unfortunately, and doesn't give yous much data to go on.

Information technology helps to sympathize what the most common causes are for the 503 fault in WordPress. Subsequently that, you'll need to be methodical when information technology comes to troubleshooting the error, which means post-obit several steps in social club to locate the root crusade.

In this commodity, we'll encompass what the 503 error is and how it typically manifests. Then we'll guide y'all through 6 steps in gild to troubleshoot it. Permit's become to work!

What Is an HTTP Error 503?

The Internet Applied science Task Strength (IETF) defines the 503 Service Unavailable every bit:

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 after some delay. The server MAY transport a Retry-After header field to suggest an advisable amount of time for the client to wait before retrying the asking.

When you encounter the 503 fault, it means that the server in question is unavailable. That could be considering it's likewise busy, for example, or it's under maintenance. Unlike other similar fault codes, 503 signifies that your website is online and running, merely can't be reached at the nowadays moment.

What's then vexing about this particular error is that information technology barely gives you any information to go on. Nigh of the time, it simply shows upwards with a "Service temporarily unavailable" message. That'due south the equivalent of calling a eatery via phone, only to have them tell you that they're closed only refuse to let you know when they'll exist open over again.

If you're lucky, the 503 error code will accept occurred considering your WordPress website is under maintenance. WordPress very briefly sets your site to maintenance manner when you lot're updating a plugin, a theme, or the core software:

HTTP 503 Error in WordPress
Maintenance manner

Ordinarily, this timeout is so brief that no one will find information technology. However, in those cases where the 503 fault persists, you'll accept a bigger trouble to deal with. Afterward all, not simply will users exist unable to visit your site, just you lot'll lose admission to your WordPress admin area as well. That ways y'all can't update your site in any way, and in order to troubleshoot it, y'all'll need to dig into its files.

Check Out Our Video Guide to The 503 Error

503 Error Variations

The 503 error can prove up in a lot of ways. However, almost every variation comes accompanied by that 503 code, making information technology easy to place.

Here are some of the variations y'all might come across, depending on your server configuration and browser:

  • 503 Service Unavailable
  • 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable
  • HTTP Server Error 503
  • HTTP Error 503
  • Mistake 503 Service Unavailable
  • The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or chapters problems. Please try again subsequently.

Whatever the code y'all run into might look like, it means you demand to get to work fast before it affects your users negatively.

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How to Fix the 503 Error in WordPress (half-dozen Steps)

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

After each step, 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, continue on to the side by side step in the process.

i. Temporarily Deactivate Your WordPress Plugins

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

Since the 503 error prevents you from accessing the WordPress admin expanse, you'll need to apply an FTP client for this stride. If you don't accept 1 fix, 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 tin't find information technology, it's commonly called public_html, html, public, world wide web, or your site'southward proper name. If you're a Kinsta client, it's your public folder.

WordPress root folder SFTP
WordPress root folder SFTP

Open that binder, and navigate to the wp-content directory. Inside, y'all'll see a folder called plugins, which contains private 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 binder, and rename it to something else. Nosotros recommend plugins.erstwhile or plugins.deactivated, then y'all can hands recognize it afterwards.

WordPress plugins folder renamed
WordPress plugins folder renamed

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

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

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

To do this, open up the wp-content/plugins directory. Inside, you'll find one folder for each of your plugins. The process you're going to follow is much the aforementioned every bit before:

  1. Showtime with the first folder, and rename information technology to anything you 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 name.
  4. Motion on to the next plugin on your list, repeating the above steps.

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

If you make it to the end of these steps without finding a solution, you can move on to the side by side phase of troubleshooting.

ii. Deactivate Your WordPress Theme

At present that you've ruled out your plugins as the cause of the 503 mistake, it'southward fourth dimension to do the same with your active theme. In fact, your theme could also be creating compatibility issues.

Unfortunately, the procedure doesn't piece of work the same as above. WordPress won't revert to the default theme if only rename the theme binder, you lot would end upwardly with an mistake like "The theme directory "theme proper name" does not exist." Or if yous try to rename the unabridged theme directory binder, you end 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 not exist fault

Therefore, y'all need to access your WordPress database by logging into phpMyAdmin. If you're a Kinsta client, this tin can be institute within the "Info" section of the MyKinsta dashboard.

MyKinsta phpMyAdmin
MyKinsta phpMyAdmin

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

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phpMyAdmin wp_options table
phpMyAdmin wp_options table

Under the "option_value" column you will see the current proper noun 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 again to see if this has stock-still the error. If it did, information technology but means it's a problem with your WordPress theme and you might desire to try reinstalling it or reverting to your nigh recent backup.

three. Temporarily Disable Your Content Delivery Network (CDN)

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

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

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

The process you need to follow may be different depending on which CDN you lot'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 will normally comprise detailed instructions.

If you don't utilise a CDN or find that pausing your service doesn't assist with your consequence, in that location are yet a few more fixes to try. Exercise 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 motorcar-saving content, showing you plugin notifications, letting you know when someone else is working on a post you're trying to access, and more than.

Just similar a regular heartbeat, the API works in the background with a high frequency so that it doesn't miss annihilation. As y'all might imagine, this API consumes server resources. Usually, that'southward not a problem but in some cases, information technology may lead to a 503 error if your server can't handle the load.

The quickest way to make up one's mind if the Heartbeat API is at the eye of your problems is to temporarily disable it. To do that, connect to your WordPress website via FTP in one case more, and so open up your current themes folder and look 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 option, which will open it using your local text editor. Once it'southward open up, yous'll need to add the following code snippet inside:

          add_action( 'init', 'stop_heartbeat', ane ); office stop_heartbeat() { wp_deregister_script('heartbeat'); }        

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

If the 503 mistake is gone, y'all'll know that the API was the problem. Disabling it altogether removes a lot of useful functionality, nevertheless. Instead, we recommend that you 'slow down' the Heartbeat, so that information technology doesn't crusade bug.

The easiest way to do that is past installing the Heartbeat Control plugin. Activate the plugin and navigate to the Settings > Heartbeat Control section. Wait 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 lot'll demand to remove the string of code yous added earlier and save your changes to the file.

At this stage, the 503 fault should be gone if the Heartbeat API was the problem. If information technology isn't, then information technology's fourth dimension to try something unlike.

5. Increase Your Server's Resources

If the 503 error is still occurring despite all your attempts to set up it and then far, and then there's a adept chance the problem might be due to a lack of server resources. That is to say, you'll need to upgrade your hosting programme to see if that fixes the issue. This is especially true if you're using inexpensive WordPress hosting, as they tend to throttle resources. We don't do this at Kinsta.

Upgrading your plan is a large decision, however. The smart motility is to first contact your web hosting support service and discuss the 503 error with them, also as the steps you've taken so far to try and solve it. The support squad should be able to help you lot piece of work out the cause and advise you on whether you need to upgrade your plan or not.

six. Review Your Logs and Enable WP_DEBUG

You should also take advantage of your fault logs. If yous're a Kinsta customer, you can easily come across errors in the log viewer and enable WordPress debug mode in the MyKinsta dashboard. This can help y'all quickly narrow downward the event, especially if information technology's resulting from a plugin on your site.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interpreting your debug log tin can be a bit intimidating but information technology's not as difficult to read equally 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 not going to find straight references to the 503 mistake inside your log. Nevertheless, if all else fails, it tin point you in the right management past showing you what files are causing bug. That way, you'll know where to focus your efforts next. As we mentioned in the previous step, now is a good fourth dimension to get in bear on with your hosting provider if yous demand further help resolving this error.

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

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

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

If you're a Kinsta client you can also take advantage of our analytics tool to get a breakdown of the full number of 503 errors and see how oftentimes and when they are occurring. This can help you lot troubleshoot if this is an ongoing event, or perhaps something that has resolved itself.

If the 503 error is displaying because of a fatal PHP error, you lot can also try enabling PHP error reporting. Simply add the following code to the file throwing the fault. Typically you 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 yous might need to also modify your php.ini file with the following:

          display_errors            =            on        

Summary

If y'all're lucky, the 503 error volition only show upwards when you put your website into maintenance way. All the same, if it appears without warning, then you'll take to curlicue up your sleeves and do some troubleshooting.

To become at the root cause of the 503 error, you lot'll need to follow these steps to set up 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 e'er run into the HTTP 503 error in WordPress? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below!


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