How to Fix the 503 Service Unavailable Error In WordPress?
Does your website show 503 Service Unavailable error in your WordPress site?
Most of the users encounter this error when they are running the site. This error doesn’t give any clue to a web developer about what causing, which is frustrating for the beginners.
Today, We identify the root of the 503 Error in WordPress.
In this article, we will talk about What 503 Service Unavailable Error mean, and What causes it? Also, guide you how to troubleshoot it and how to prevent it from happening again in future.
What 503 Service Unavailable Error mean?
The 503 Error is not related to WordPress only, It is a universal message which appears when you want to reach a website, but the server is not available to handle the request. In some cases, the Browser display 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable message, which tells you to try again after some time.
You can also see these error codes instead of 503 code unavailable:
- “Http/1.1 Service Unavailable”
- “HTTP Server Error 503”
- “503 Error”
- “HTTP 503”
- “HTTP Error 503”
- “Service Temporarily Unavailable”
Causes of 503 Service Unavailable Error
There are several possible reasons for this error.
1. Problem with Your Theme or Plugins
In WordPress, the most common cause of the 503 error is PHP script. When your Server request to your Plugins or Theme then one of the Plugin or Theme, which is unable to load and it returns a 503 error.
2. Custom Script
WordPress users may try to add custom scripts to their site. A same as above case, it might also lead same server error.
3. Server Downtime
Most web hosting companies provide a fixed amount of resources allocated to each server. When your website, can not handle the heavy usage of the server on the share hosting limit. It causes your server is unavailable temporarily due to overloading or maintenance.
4. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
Cyber attacks are have become quite common, the most common cyber attack is the DDoS attack, that creates an artificial attack and overloads your website server. At rare cases, your website is targeted by a DDoS attack, which makes your site slow down and inaccessible.
Methods to Fix the Error
Unfortunately, if the problem relates to your server, then there is nothing you can do on your end, but make sure you contact your web host and ask to fix it. Before you contact your web host, you should make sure problem is not on your end. For this you have to follow the following steps:
Method 1) Disable your Plugins
In WordPress, the faulty plugins are responsible for the 503 error. WordPress Plugins are Php script, most people use multiple plugins simultaneously, which increase the chances of incompatibility.
If you encounter the error after installing the particular plugin then, you know the culprit plugin, deactivate that plugin to solve the issue.
When you have no idea which plugin exactly causing the 503 error, then deactivate all your plugins. For this follow the below steps:
1. Log In to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Plugin Section.
3. Click on the Checkbox to select all plugins, then select the Deactivate option from the drop-down list.
4. Click on the Apply button, to disable all the plugin at once.
If it resolves the issue, then activate the plugins step by step and find out the culprit plugin.
But how do you deactivate all plugin if you are unable to access the WordPress admin Dashboard? Maybe you are unable to access Dashboard because of this 503 error.
1. Then you have to go to your File Manager in the cPanel.
2. In the Root Directory of the File Manager click on Rename to change the name of the Plugin folder.
3. Enter the New Name of the Plugins folder in the pop-up window.
4. Click on Ok button. It helps you to Disable all the plugins once.
If this method does not solve the issue, then move to the next step.
Method 2) Disable your Theme
If deactivating Plugin fails to resolve the problem, then try by deactivating your current WordPress Theme to the default Theme.
Like Plugins, WordPress Themes include the Php code, when you disable your activated Theme it automatically switches to WordPress default Theme.
When you are unable to access the WordPress Dashboard, then follow the below steps to disable the WordPress Theme:
1. Go to your File Manager in the cPanel.
2. To change the name of the Themes folder click on Rename.
3. Enter the new name of the Theme folder in the pop-up screen.
4. Click on the Ok button your activated theme is disabled and reload your site to check.
When you find the solution, download the latest version of the Theme to get your old Theme back. After downloading a new version of the Theme if the error still there, then you have to start looking for other alternatives.
Method 3) Enable Debug Custom Feature
Most people lose track custom code of additions, which may have caused the problem. First, we need to enable it because by default its disable.
But the 503 error often expels you out of your WordPress admin, for this we use WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG, WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY and @ini_set constants available in WordPress.
To enable the debug mode in WordPress, you have to follow the below steps:
1. Open the Root directory of the File Manager in the cPanel.
2. Look for wp-config.php file.
3. Click on Edit option, which will open by using your default text editor.
4. Scroll down to the line that says /*That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.*/
5. Above this line, Insert the below code:
define ('WP_DEBUG', true);
define ('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define ('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
@ini_set ('display_errors', 0); Save changes and close the file. Reload your site to provoke the error. When you add this code in your wp-config.php file, then it helps you to shows the error detail on your website. In most of the cases, the error message will also mention which file causes an error with the specific line of code.
Note: Due to the security reasons of WordPress, you have to revert the changes, after you fixed the error.
Method 4) Contact your Web Host Provider
Many server related issue can cause the 503 error, some time this error automatically disappear, after a few minutes. If you suspect that you are under DDoS attack, which causes downtime issue to evaluate the situation, then you have to contact your web host support team.
Migrate your server to another one, when your host provider does not resolve your problem. Modern web hosts come with marvelous uptime records, so there are rare chances of random crashes.
How to Avoid in Future 503 Server-Based Errors?
To avoid to fall into these issue in future, you need to do the following things.
1. Upgrade to a Better Hosting Plan
Due to the insufficient power, some of the hosting providers, do not able to accommodate the heavy traffic. That’s why we recommend you to upgrade your plan so that it will not trouble you in the future.
2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
CDNs are the group of servers which decreases the load on the servers. It creates the copies of the pages of the site and serves them when needed. It acts as an intermediate between the visitors and us. CDNs also protect our site from the attacks, such as DDoS attack or a traffic spike. To make your site fast and more secure, think about it to use on your site.
We hope this article helps you to get rid of 503 Service Unavailable error.
