October 9, 2019
3 min Read
Domantas G.
Running a WordPress site, and have it stuck on the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” page? Don’t worry. In this article, we will show you how to fix the issue and uncover what causes the error.
What your site experiencing is a leftover message caused by the updating process of your WordPress core files or themes experiencing some issues during the process.
During the update, WordPress will create a temporary .maintenance file on your site, which will put it into maintenance mode and display the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” page.Usually, the file is automatically deleted when the update is finished, removing the notification page with it. However, there are cases where the file is not removed, getting your site stuck in maintenance mode:
The solution to fixing the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” error is simple – delete the .maintenance file created during the update. You can do this by accessing the WordPress directory through the file manager of your hosting’s control panel or an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client:
If you’re using Hostinger you can use the hPanel’s file manager:
After you log in to your Hostinger account, go to the hPanel and find the File Manager in the Files section.On the next page, choose the domain of your WordPress site and click Go to File Manager.
Search for the .maintenance file in the root folder, as highlighted in the screenshot.To delete the file, select it and click the trashcan symbol on the toolbar. Confirm that you want to delete the file, and once that is done, your site should be accessible once again.
If you know your way around an FTP client, you may prefer this method for deleting the .maintenance file and getting rid of the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” error.
First, you need to install your preferred FTP client. For this tutorial, we’ll be using FileZilla.
Now, to access the file directory of your site through FileZilla, you need the following credentials from your hosting account: host, username, password, and port.
Go to your control panel, look for the FTP Accounts menu under Files. You will find the information you need on the right side of the page.
Copy that information and paste it to FileZilla and click Quick Connect.
Once you’re in, you will see the file directories of your site similar to how they’re displayed on the file manager. Search for the .maintenance file and delete it.If you can’t find the file, there’s a chance it’s marked as hidden. If that’s the case, click Server on the menu bar and choose Force showing hidden files. Try finding and deleting the file again. Once done, the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” error should be gone.
Fixing the “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” error is quite easy. However, it’s best to avoid it altogether by addressing the previously mentioned causes before an issue comes up.
First of all, since low memory is one of the potential problems, you may want to upgrade to a better hosting plan that offers more resources.
It’s also recommended to check if the plugins or themes you’re about to update are compatible with the current WordPress version you’re using. This will help prevent the compatibility issue.
Lastly, be patient with the updating process. Let it complete without issuing any additional commands, keep the browser tab open while it runs, and don’t make changes to your hosting account.
In this article, you learned how to fix and prevent the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” error. It wasn’t that hard, was it?
It’s always best to focus on prevention. When your visitors can’t access your website, even for a minute, your brand’s reputation could be hanging in the balance.
February 07, 2019
this was so helpful, thank you!
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