503 Service Unavailable error:
If some PHP scripts do not give the proper response to the server means, then it will lead to 503 Service Unavailable error. That PHP scripts may WordPress plugins, theme, or misbehaving code snippet. However, this error can be thrown by a heavy resource usage, a server glitch or a DDoS attack, then it will be automatically resolved in a few minutes. But if the error is caused due to the misbehaving code, then it will be still there unless the code was disabled. In this article, we will show you how to fix the 503 Service Unavailable error.
Fixing 503 Error:
As we have mentioned above, this error caused due to misbehaving PHP script running in the background. To resolve the problem, we need to disable the unnecessary codes one by one until the error will be resolved. We can also fix this error by deactivating the plugins and using the default WordPress theme.
Deactivating the plugins:
WordPress plugins are PHP scripts. So we need to disable all the WordPress plugins available on the website. If you can’t able to login into the WordPress dashboard, you can deactivate the plugin by using FTP or File Manager in cPanel.You can find the folder called plugins in the wp-content folder. Rename the plugins folder as plugins-old. Then create a new folder and name it as plugins. This will help you to disable the plugins on your website. Now check the error is resolved or not, if the error persists try another solution. Now login to your WordPress dashboard. Activate your plugin one by one and check the error status. If this also not helped you to solve the error, then try the solution given below.
Default WordPress Theme:
Next possible solution is switching to the default WordPress theme. To deactivate your current theme, login to FTP or File Manager in cPanel. You can find the themes folder in the wp-content folder. Before switching to the default theme, download your current themes as a backup in local. Then delete that themes folder. Now the site will automatically be shown in default theme like twenty sixteen or twenty-seventeen. This is the method used for switching to the default theme. Now go and check your error in the website. If it got resolved then install a theme one by one and check the misbehaving theme and delete it or install it as a new theme.
We hope that this article will help you to solve the 503 Service Unavailable error in WordPress. If the error persists, contact your hosting provider, they can able to find the cause of the error easily. Like us on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to our youtube channel for video tutorials.