Is your WordPress website showing a temporary request of HTTP error 503 the service is unavailable problem?
Syscality.com is here to help you how to fix the HTTP error 503 code. the service is unavailable.
This comprehensive guide provides detailed information about this problem and how to fix 503 service unavailable error in WordPress website.
Before that, we will study about what is server 503, its causes and variations.
What is 503 Service Unavailable?
Whenever you visit a site, your browser sends a service request to the website’s server to permit you to read its content.
When the remote server sends this demand, sometimes the PHP script fails to respond to the appeal and sends the user a blank page with an HTTP error code temporarily.
This request condition is known as the 503 service unavailable and implies that there was problem with this server code.
It may arise for various reasons, such as plugins, themes, custom code snippets, or other factors.
Causes:
There are various causes by which you can encounter this issue on your Website, like;
-
Several requests on server -
It is facing technical issues -
Website’s maintenance is low -
Server is under the attack of DDoS (Denial of Service)
Variations:
There are multiple variations of this error that you may find on your Website, including
-
503 service unavailable -
HTTP error 503 -
503 service temporarily unavailable -
error 503 service unavailable
If you leave this issue unresolved, it may negatively impact your WordPress. Therefore, in the next section, we will study how to fix HTTP error 503. the service is unavailable.
Steps to Fix this Error Code in WordPress
In WordPress, this error code occurs when the web server fails to receive an appropriate response from the PHP script running in the background.
This error code can harm your website status if it remains unresolved.
In this section, we will study different methods on how to fix 503 service unavailable in WordPress.
Deactivate Plugins
Since WordPress plugins run on PHP scripts, this is one possible reason your Website is displaying the temporarily HTTP error request.
To learn how to fix HTTP error 503. the service is unavailable using this method, connect to your WordPress Website through the cPanel.
Now, open either an FTP client or a File Manager to connect with your website.
After connecting your Website, redirect towards the /wp-content/ folder under the /public-html/ folder. Then, right-click the ‘plugins‘ folder and rename it as the ‘plugins-old‘ folder.
You must create a new folder and name it ‘plugins‘; this will temporarily deactivate all the plugins on your Website.
Now, check the website to ensure that you have resolved the problem.
If yes, the HTTP error 503 occurred due to a plugin. To check which plugin caused this issue, we will check each plugin one by one.
Delete the newly created empty folder, move towards the /wp-content/ folder, and select the ‘plugins‘ folder.
Right-click the empty folder and select the “Delete” option to discard this folder.
Now, temporarily rename the ‘plugins-old‘ folder to ‘plugins‘ to install every plugin on WordPress. But your plugins are still deactivated; you have to activate them manually.
Visit the WordPress dashboard. The plugins option is in the left-hand menu. Click on the installed plugins option to see the installed plugins.
Enable plugins one by one and check the Website in the private window to see if it shows an temporarily request.
Repeat the same process with every plugin until you find this code again.
If this method resolves the HTTP error service unavailable issue, you don’t have to proceed to the next step.
If not, move ahead towards the other step towards the 503 service unavailable fix.
Swap to Default WordPress Theme
When you visit the website and you detect that there was problem with server 503 still showing, then you can use this method.
If the previous method of deactivating WordPress plugins won’t work for you, we will learn how to fix 503 service unavailable error using another method.
We will fix this problem temporarily by changing your Website’s theme to default.
To do this, open the cPanel and navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder under /public-html/.
You will find the currently active and default WordPress themes in this folder.
To resolve the HTTP 503 error code, delete the active theme and create a backup in your system.
Right-click on the theme folder and click the “Download” option to create a backup.
After restoring the theme, right-click the folder and hit the “Delete” button to delete it from your server.
If you have a pre-existing default theme, your website will automatically activate the default theme temporarily.
Go through the entire website to ensure you are done with the task of 503 service unavailable fix.
Summary
In this comprehensive guide, we have provided detailed steps on how to fix 503 service unavailable in WordPress. We have also provided relevant images to help you understand each step.