Do you see a " 503 error service not available On WordPress? 

The problem with the 503 error is that it doesn't give any clue as to what is causing it, which makes it extremely frustrating for newbies. 

In this tutorial, we will show you how to fix the 503 error on WordPress.

How to fix error 503 service not available wordpress

What causes the 503 error on WordPress?

All companies ofWeb hosting offer a fixed number of resources for each account. For websites on shared hosting, this limit cannot handle the heavy use of server resources. 

Consult mistakes you should not make when choosing a web host

The 503 error occurs when your web server is unable to get an appropriate response from a PHP script. This PHP script could be a WordPress Plugin, theme, or misused custom code snippet.

If the error is caused by heavy usage, server error, or DDoS attack, it may automatically go away within a few minutes.

See also How To Fix 502 Bad Gateway Error On WordPress

However, if it's caused by bad code on your website, it will continue to happen unless you find and clear the code that causes it.

That being said, let's take a look at how to easily fix the 503 error on WordPress.

Fix 503 Service Unavailable on WordPress Error

As we mentioned above, this error is caused when your web server is unable to get a proper response from a running PHP script.

To fix it, we will disable all unnecessary PHP scripts one by one until the error is resolved.

Discover How to properly uninstall a WordPress plugin

Disable all WordPress plugins

All your WordPress plugins are PHP scripts, first you need to disable all your WordPress plugins.

Since you can not connect to your WordPress dashboard Due to the 503 error, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client or File Manager in cPanel. 

See our  6 FTP clients for WordPress users

Once logged in, go to the / wp-content / folder and rename the plugins folder to something else may be "plugin-old". And create an empty “plugins” folder.

Rename plugins folder

Now you need to visit your WordPress website to see if that solved the error.

If so, it means that a plugin installed on your website was causing the error.

To find out which plugin is causing the problem, you need to go back to your FTP client or file manager in cPanel. Then you need to go to the / wp-content / folder and delete the empty “plugins” folder.

Remove wordpress plugins

After that, you need to rename the "plugins-old" folder to "plugins". This will make all of your previously installed plugins available for WordPress. However, these plugins will remain disabled.

You need to visit the WordPress admin area and then navigate to the plugins page. You can activate your plugins one by one and visit different pages of your website after activating each plugin. Keep doing this until you find the plugin causing the 503 error.

If this step resolved your issue, you don't need to follow the rest of the instructions. If not, you can go to the next step.

Switch to a default WordPress theme

If disabling plugins did not resolve the issue, the next step would be to switch to a default WordPress theme. This will deactivate your current WordPress theme.

Before you start, you can discover How to search, install and activate a WordPress theme on your blog then come back to why we are here.

First, you need to connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client or File Manager in cPanel. Once logged in, go to / wp-content / themes /. 

Download a theme

Locate your current active WordPress theme and download it to your computer as a backup.

After downloading the latter, go ahead and delete it from your website

If you already have a default theme like Twenty Seventeen or Twenty Sixteen installed, it will automatically be activated. If you don't, you can go ahead and install a default theme.

Double check your website to make sure the 503 error is gone. 

help

If both methods fail to resolve the error, you can take the following steps:

  • Contact your web host because he can determine what is causing the problem.
  • As a last resort, you can reinstall WordPress with a new copy. 

Before you leave, we also ask you to consult How To Fix 403 Forbidden Error On WordPress

That's it for this tutorial.

Discover also some premium WordPress plugins  

You can use other WordPress plugins to give a modern appearance and to optimize the handling or operation of your blog or website.

Here are some premium WordPress plugins that we recommend. 

1. Essential Grid

Essential Grid is a premium WordPress plugin that allows you to display different content formats on a highly customizable grid. The possible applications of this plugin are portfolios, blogs, galleries, WooCommerce online stores, price lists, services, product sliders, and many more.Essential grid gallery wordpress plugin

Its features are: super easy to use for beginners, management of rows / columns / spaces adjustable to your liking, support for images, YouTube and Vimeo videos, iFrame content, various types of animations and preloads, responsive and compatible with mobiles, wide plan, framed plan, or full screen layouts and many others.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

2. Mega Menu Monster

Mega Menu Monster is a WordPress Plugin which will allow you to add mega menu to your pages on WordPress. Even if its use is much more suitable for header menus, the fact remains that this plugin also allows you to use it at the footer.mega menu monster wordpress

Among its features we find among others: the support of all modern browsers, responsive on all devices, the layout hhighly customizable (Background, colors, fonts) and many others.

Download | Demo | Web hosting

3. Ultimate Membership Pro

Ultimate Membership Pro is a great WordPress Plugin subscription and content restriction. It allows users to be managed according to their package (free or premium) by creating exclusive access levels.

Ultimate membership pro wordpress membership plugin

It will therefore be possible to protect all the content of your website, or just part of it. It will be for example a course, a lesson, a page, a product, a category, an image, etc ...

Its main functionalities are among others: content protection, multiple access levels, support for multiple Payment gateways - PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2CheckOut, Bank Transfer-, partial content protection, and much more ...

Download | Demo | Web hosting 

Recommended Resources

Find out about other recommended resources to help you build and manage your website.

Conclusion

Here is ! We hope this article helps you learn how to fix the 503 error on WordPress. Do not hesitate to contact us if you do not understand a point.

However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation.

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