Basically, “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” error says that a website is temporarily down due to the maintenance process. This mode is often enabled during planned maintenance tasks, like software updates, performance tuning, or troubleshooting. Whenever the website owner has to make any important changes to his website such as updates, server maintenance and improving performance or security, he puts it into maintenance mode.
When the website is in maintenance mode, it will display the message “The site is undergoing updates”. During this maintenance period, user access will be temporarily restricted. User access actions like login, and register processes will not be accessed. After the scheduled Maintenance, the site will be back normally. If you are a Website Owner, This Error can also appear when there is an incomplete plugin or theme installation or incomplete WordPress updates.
If You’re a Websmater Who faces this issue during plugin/theme installation (or) backup / restore process or any failed updates then this article is for you. Just go through our article and follow the steps correctly.
How to Fix “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance Error” on WordPress?
Method 1: Delete the .maintenance file through File Manager
During Installations or Updates, WordPress creates a .maintenance file in the root directory temporarily, which displays the maintenance message. Sometimes, If the update process is not completed/failed (or) disrupted, this file may not be deleted automatically, Which results in the site getting “stuck” in maintenance mode.
Step 1: Open your Browser and Goto the Hosting Site Where you hosted your website.
Step 2: Now Login to your account with your username and password. Look for the C-Panel Section and Open the C-Panel.
Step 3: On Your C-Panel Section, Navigate to the File Manager option and Open the File Manager.
Step 4: On the File Manager Window, Click on the Settings option and you can see the Preferences Pop-up Window. Select / Tick the Option “Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)” and Press the Save Button to save the changes.
Step 5: On the File Manager Window, Look for .maintenance file in the root directory. If you find the .maintenance file then right-click on it and click on the Delete option.
Step 6: Now go to your site and press the refresh button. If the error has not disappeared, then the problem may arise due to any recently installed plugins or themes.
Method 2: Deactivate All Plugins and Themes through FTP
Step 1: To access the WordPress Root Directory through FTP, First You Need an FTP Client like FileZilla or Cyberduck. Second, You Need FTP Hostname, username, Password, and Port Number in order to access.
Step 2: After Successfully connecting to the Root Directory via FTP, Look for the public_html Folder and double-click on it.
Step 3: On the public_html Folder, You can See the wp-content Folder, Double Click on it.
Step 4: On the wp-content folder, Look for the Plugins Folder and Right click on it and Select the Rename Option.
Step 5: Now Rename the Plugins folder to the Newer name (anything you wish) in order to deactivate all plugins.
Step 6: Same for Themes Also, go to the wp-content folder, Look for the Themes Folder and Right click on it, and Select the Rename Option.
Step 7: Now You can Rename the Current Theme folder to some other name to deactivate the theme.
Method 3: Use Your Backups to Restore the Site
Nowadays, Most of the hosting providers offer one-click backups or automatic backups. You can check with your host about the backup options, usually You can see the Backup Options in C-Panel.
If You don’t have any automatic backups option then you need to restore the older version of your backups manually.
1. To Do it Manually, then go to your WordPress Root Directory which is Usually in the public_html (or) www folder. Upload the Backup file which should be in .zip or .tar format. After Uploading Just Right click on the Backup File and Click on the Extract Option to Extract the Contents on the Worpdress Root Directory.
2. You can also use Backup/Restore Using a Plugin. Popular Plugins include UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, and Duplicator.
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