{"id":12967,"date":"2019-07-23T11:48:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T11:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=12967"},"modified":"2019-07-23T12:28:45","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T12:28:45","slug":"how-to-fix-503-error-on-the-site","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/article\/how-to-fix-503-error-on-the-site\/","title":{"rendered":"How to fix &#8220;503 error on the site&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The 503 services unavailable error occurs when your web server is unable to get a proper response from a PHP script. This PHP script could be a WordPress plugin, a theme, or a misbehaving\u00a0custom code snippet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4>Fixing  503 error on the site Error in WordPress<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The error is caused when your web server is unable to get a proper response from a PHP script running in the background.<\/li><li>To fix it, we will disable all unnecessary PHP scripts one by one until the error is resolved.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4>Deactivate All WordPress Plugins<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>All your WordPress plugins are PHP scripts, so first you need to\u00a0deactivate all your WordPress plugins.<\/li><li>Since you cannot log in to your WordPress dashboard due to the 503 error, you will need to connect to your website using an FTP client or File Manager in cPanel. Once connected, go to \/wp-content\/ folder and rename the plugins folder to plugins-old.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn4.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/rename-plugins-folder.jpg\" alt=\"Rename plugins folder\" class=\"wp-image-46647\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Next, you need to create a new folder and name it plugins.<\/li><li>Now you need to visit your WordPress site to see if this resolved the error.<\/li><li>If it did, then this means a plugin installed on your website was causing the error. The above steps have deactivated all WordPress plugins.<\/li><li>To figure out which plugin was causing the issue, you need to switch back to your FTP client or file manager in cPanel. Next, you need to go to \/wp-content\/ folder and delete the empty plugins folder.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn4.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/deletepluginsfolder.jpg\" alt=\"Delete empty plugins folder\" class=\"wp-image-46648\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>After that, you need to rename the plugins-old folder to plugins. This will make all your previously installed plugins available to WordPress. However, these plugins will remain deactivated.<\/li><li>You need to visit the WordPress admin area and then go to the plugins page. You can activate your plugins one by one and visit different pages on your website after activating each plugin. Keep doing that until you find the plugin causing the 503 error.<\/li><li>If this step resolved your issue, then you don\u2019t need to follow rest of the instructions on this page. Otherwise, you can move on to the next step.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4>Switch to a Default WordPress Theme<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>If deactivating plugins didn\u2019t resolve the issue, then the next step would be to switch to a default WordPress theme. This will deactivate your current WordPress theme.<\/li><li>First, you need to connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client or File Manager in cPanel. Once connected, go to \/wp-content\/themes\/ folder.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn4.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/downloadtheme.jpg\" alt=\"Download your current WordPress theme\" class=\"wp-image-46649\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Locate your currently active WordPress theme and download it to your computer as a backup.<\/li><li>After downloading your theme, you can go ahead and delete it from your website<\/li><li>Now, if you already have a default theme like Twenty Seventeen or Twenty Sixteen installed, then it will be automatically activated. If you don\u2019t, then you can go ahead and\u00a0install a default theme\u00a0on your website.<\/li><li>Thoroughly check your website to make sure that 503 services unavailable error is resolved.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4>Troubleshooting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>If both methods fail to resolve the error, then you can take the following steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Contact your WordPress hosting company because they may be able to pinpoint what\u2019s causing the issue.<\/li><li>As a last resort, you can\u00a0reinstall WordPress\u00a0with a fresh copy.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>That\u2019s it for this tutorial!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope it helped you. If you have any feedback or questions, then please share them in the comments section below.<\/p>\n<div id=\"div-1\" class=\"hkb-feedback\">\n\t\t\t<strong class=\"ht-mobile-exit__title\">Ask your Questions Directly!<\/strong><br>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"hkb_widget_exit__content\" style=\"font-size: 14px;\">If you can't find the solutions in this article, then just ask us in the comments and we will answer it for you!<\/div>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/support\/#contact\" id=\"button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><button>Yes, I have a Question<\/button><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 503 services unavailable error occurs when your web server is unable to get a proper response from a PHP script. This PHP script could be a WordPress plugin, a theme, or a misbehaving\u00a0custom code snippet. Fixing 503 error on the site Error in WordPress The error is caused when&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"ht-kb-category":[5],"ht-kb-tag":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/12967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12967"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/12967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12988,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/12967\/revisions\/12988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-category?post=12967"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/tutorials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-tag?post=12967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}