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 send a Retry-After header field to suggest an appropriate amount of time for the client to wait before retrying the request.
What Causes 503 Service Unavailable Error in WordPress?
Each WordPress hosting company provides a set number of resources for each hosting account. This restriction cannot handle significant server resource demand for websites on shared hosting.
The 503 service unavailable error happens when your web server is unable to get a correct response from a PHP script. This PHP script might be a WordPress plugin, a theme, or a rogue custom code snippet.
If the problem is caused by excessive traffic, a server fault, or a DDoS assault, it may disappear after a few minutes.
However, if it is caused by faulty code on your website, it will continue to occur until you locate and deactivate the code that is causing it.
That being stated, let’s look at how to simply resolve the 503 service unavailable problem in WordPress.
Here are the most common ways you might see the “service unavailable” error:
- 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. Please try again later.
The 503 Service Unavailable error displays inside the browser window, just as web pages do.
# How to Fix the 503 Service Unavailable Error
As was already explained, this error is brought on when a PHP script that is executing in the background fails to provide your web server with a suitable answer.
We will disable each superfluous PHP script one by one till the issue is fixed in order to address it.
Let’s get going.
Deactivate All WordPress Plugins
Because all WordPress plugins are PHP scripts, you must first disable all WordPress plugins.
Due to the 503 error, you will need to connect to your website using an FTP client or the File Manager in cPanel. Once connected, navigate to the /wp-content/ folder and rename the plugins folder to plugins-old.
Next, make a new folder called plugins.
You should now check your WordPress site to determine if the error has been repaired.
If it did, it suggests that a plugin installed on your website was creating the error. All WordPress plugins were deactivated as a result of the preceding procedures.
To determine which plugin was creating the problem, return to your cPanel. Next, navigate to the /wp-content/ folder and delete the empty plugins folder.
Switch to a Default WordPress Theme
The next step would be to switch to the default WordPress theme if disabling plugins didn’t solve the problem. This will make your existing WordPress theme inactive.
Check your website thoroughly to ensure that the 503 service unavailable error has been fixed.
Troubleshooting
If neither method resolves the issue, you can perform the following steps:
- Contact your WordPress hosting provider since they may be able to identify the source of the problem.
- As a final resort, you can reinstall WordPress from scratch.
We hope this post has shown you how to resolve the 503 service unavailable error in WordPress. You may also be interested in our comprehensive list of the most frequent WordPress issues and how to resolve them.
