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WordPress is widely known by all possible types of “web builders” users. Who wants to have great results, is the best choice for .
If this content manager is characterized by something, it is in its ease of use, its good performance and its simple interface.
If WordPress is also characterized by something, it is by frustrating or intimidating it can be to spot a mistake (server or any other type) and not knowing where to start looking for it, to fix it (and the vast majority of times not even knowing how to fix it).
I think it is normal for this to happen (that any error in WordPress becomes so difficult for us) because the average user of this platform has average knowledge throwing low.
However, the good news is that there is a large WordPress support communityand as soon as you do a little search on Google, you will immediately find answers to the questions you have.
This article is a clear example of this, if you have come this far looking for “how to fix 503 WordPress error“, for instance.
Keep reading because at the end of the article you will be able to understand what it is, how to solve it and how to avoid the frustrating 503 error in the future.
Let’s start!
What is the 503 error
The 503 error is itself a temporary server error. It is not directly related to WordPress (but some file in WordPress may be causing it).
That is to say, the 503 error can occur for many reasons, and for this reason it is quite complicated to reproduce, but, being methodical and organized, pretty easy to fix.
It is one of the most common. The 503 error occurs when trying to access a website and the server temporarily unavailable (we will see the possible causes below).
As I say, the 503 error is a “temporary” error, which acts as security measures for the server itself (to protect it at a technical level).
Hence, one of the solutions that I can already tell you about is to have a powerful, reliable and quality server.
How to find a 503 error
Right off the bat, there isn’t much information out there that allows us to detect and fix the 503 error.
When it occurs, it warns with an error message, which may vary depending on the configuration that exists on your server.
These messages can be:
- 503 Service Unavailable
- Http/1.1 Service Unavailable
- HTTPServer Error 503
- 503 error
- HTTP503
- HTTP Error 503
Below we go more into the matter, and we see the possible causes of the 503 error and how to solve them.
Causes of a 503 error
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the 503 error can appear for many possible reasons.
Hence, as we will see in the steps to solve it, the most sensible thing is to go “reviewing” the most common places where this error could be found, and if that does not work, contact the technical support of our hosting.
something punctual
If the 503 error screen has appeared once or twice over a period of time quite longI wouldn’t give it more importance.
In this case, it is a “peak” of work on your server, and just at that moment it has not been able to “answer” your call and show you the web.
In this situation, it would not be worth trying to see what caused the error, because everything would indicate that it was the server itself that was “busy” in a very specific way.
Some clumsy plugin
If the 503 error is caused by some specific place in WordPress, almost 99% I’d say the best place to look is in the plugins folder.
There is always some plugin of dubious origin, or simply “old” that, when activated, disrupts the entire web and temporarily breaks it.
As we will see below, to see if the culprit of all our problems is a plugin, it is relatively simple using a FTP manager.
a monster template
The cause of the 503 error may also be that we are using a template (or theme in English) that has a badly written line of code and causes the problem.
This is usually less commonbut it would be worth seeing if we can find a solution when changing templates (we also see it in the solutions section below).
I call monster templates to all those templates that are sold in markets of Themes type “Themeforest” and the like, which seek to sell all possible copies, based on “injecting” in the template itself many bonus items (sliders, page builders, etc) in such a way that you have to marry with the template, since you will never be able to separate yourself from it, having become the unstable spine of your website.
Relying 100% on a theme is a very bad practice when it comes to WordPress web creation, and don’t be surprised that the monster template is the cause of the 503 error, if you are using one.
Some custom code or script
There are times that for whatever reason you have to enter a custom script somewhere on our website.
If what is being done is not well understood, it is possible that said code is interfering with the correct loading of our WordPress, and therefore causing the 503 error.
This may be the most complex way to find the cause of the 305 error in WordPress, but in the next section, we will see an easy solution to find it.
direct server issue
There are several factors that can cause a 503 error directly on the server, without WordPress having anything to do with it.
It may happen, for example, that you suffer a DDoS attack to your website; this is something that causes thousands of “bots” to visit your website at the same time, and cause the unwanted 503 error to appear.
It can also influence the server quality you have and the level of uptime (time “online”) that exists. Nowadays the vast majority of servers have an uptime of more than 98%, so it should not be the main cause for concern.
If you have chosen a poor server, or even a free one (which there are!), you already know which may be the first place to look.
How to fix a 503 error
Let’s now move on to the most desired part of this article: the solutions.
Below I describe the steps you must follow (in this order that I propose) to, by probability, find the error faster and more effectively.
In addition, the good thing is that you do not need to have any kind of previous technical knowledge, you only need to know use an FTP program such as FileZilla.
If you get confused by the following solutions, I recommend that you also take a look at other articles I have written related to WordPress error resolution:
In any case, at the end of the section you will see a video-summary of how each step is done, so that you can follow in real time what you are going to see next.
Step 1: Disable plugins and find the culprit
Access by FTP to the folder where you have your WordPress installed.
Go to the folder of wp-content and inside you will see another called plugin.
Rename the folder of plugins (for example add an underscore at the beginning).
Try accessing the web to see if you see anything.
If your website is seen, congratulations! the problem lies in a plugin. Since they are all deactivated now, activate one by oneand as you activate check the web in another tab.
When you activate a specific plugin, which causes the 503 error, you already have the culprit and can deal with it.
It’s up to you if you can do without said plugin, or directly if you have to send a support ticket to the person who created it, so that they can give you some explanation or a possible alternative solution.
In all my years with WordPress, I estimate that no more than 10 times have I encountered a 503 error, and most of the time the culprit was a plugin.
In fact, I think there is more need for business in WordPress when it comes to solving problems in already made websites, than creating new websites from scratch (I’m talking to you, dear implementer).
Step 2: Disable used template and switch to a default one
This method is very similar to the previous one, but instead of going to the folder plugin in the FTP, go to the binder themes.
Once inside, if you have not deleted them, you will see the folders of the themes that come by default in WordPress, as well as the folder of the template you are using.
For example, if you use the well-known, but the very bad template called “Avada”, you will find a folder with its name.
Delete it or disable it by changing its name, and WordPress will “automatically” activate a default template.
Visit your website, and if you see it, you will already have your culprit.
This solution is “less common”, but the chances are exponential if you use one of the aforementioned monster templates.
In order not to make this mistake, know the templates with which you will surely not generate these problems.
Step 3: Enable a specific function in wp-config.php
This third option to find the cause of the 503 error is the most technical.
It is the one that you have to follow if you are sure that you have entered some type of “own code” somewhere on the web, be it in a plugin file, a theme or a custom post type or WordPress.
Here you will have to “touch a little code” (but very little), and where it is done is in wp-config.php.
Once you open said file with a text editor or code editor, simply copy where you see in the following screenshot, this line of code:
@ini_set( ‘display_errors’, 1 );
Once pasted, go to your website, and in theory, you should see information similar to the one I show you in this example.
Notice the part that is in bold font. It will give you the necessary information to know the path where exactly the file that is preventing WordPress from loading on your server is located.
It will be enough for you to go to said file in your FTP and rectify it correctly.
Video summary of the three steps
I show you now the three previous steps to follow, so that it is very clear to you which folder to open and which folder to rename or configure.
In any case, each 503 error is different, but the “where to look” folders in WordPress they are always the same.
conclusion
As you have seen throughout this article, the 503 error can seem intimidating at first (no one likes to see their website without loading), but now you sit down with much more confidence (You may even feel like the most technical of hackers).
Follow the steps that I have described and there are many possibilities to find the “culprit” file and be able to solve the problem.
In any case, remember that a good always has a great team of professionals behind, that will help you solve any error that appears on your website (at least to me, the technical support team of webcompany It has gotten me out of a big jam more than once).
Other very common errors are the and .
I hope you found this article useful, and see you…
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