How to Fix WordPress Stuck in Maintenance Mode? [100% WORKING]

Is your WordPress website stuck in maintenance mode? Don’t panic! Although this issue can lock you (and your visitors) out of your website, fortunately it’s often easily fixed.

This guide will discuss why WordPress websites get stuck in maintenance mode and walk you through the steps to quickly regain access using FTP or RunCloud.

By the end of this article, you will be able to get your WordPress website out of maintenance mode and back up and running properly.

Let’s get started!

What Causes WordPress to Get Stuck in Maintenance Mode?

When WordPress performs updates, it creates a temporary .maintenance file and enters maintenance mode to prevent user access during the process. However, seven main factors can interrupt this process and leave your site stuck:

#1 – Interrupted Updates

The most common cause is when the update process is interrupted before completion. This can happen due to poor internet connectivity, browser closure during updates, or server timeouts. When these interruptions occur, WordPress cannot complete the cleanup process that removes the .maintenance file.

#2 – Server Resource Limitations

Insufficient PHP memory limits or execution timeouts can force the update process to stop midway. This is particularly common when updating multiple plugins simultaneously or dealing with large themes. Due to these limitations, the site remains in maintenance mode when the server kills the process.

#3 – Plugin or Theme Conflicts

Incompatible plugins, themes, or WordPress core updates can trigger conflicts during maintenance. These conflicts may cause the update process to fail, leaving the maintenance mode active.

#4 – File Permission Issues

Incorrect file permissions can prevent WordPress from properly creating or deleting the .maintenance file. This often occurs after server migrations or when file permissions are manually modified.

#5 – Multiple Update Attempts

Starting a new update while another is in progress can create conflicting processes. This scenario is common in multi-user environments where multiple administrators attempt updates simultaneously.

#6 – Manual Activation

If you or someone on your team manually turned on maintenance mode (maybe through the wp-config.php file or a maintenance plugin) and forgot to turn it off, your site will stay in maintenance mode.

#7 – Browser Cache Confusion

Sometimes, your browser’s cache might show an old version of your site that was in maintenance mode, even if the actual site is working fine. Try reloading the website in a private browser window or on a different computer to see if the problem persists.

How to Identify if Your WordPress Site is Stuck in Maintenance Mode

When you update your website, it sometimes isn’t immediately obvious whether it’s stuck in maintenance mode or just taking a long time to update. Here are six ways you can identify if your site is stuck in maintenance mode or not:

#1 – Visual Indicators

When your WordPress site is stuck in maintenance mode, visitors will see a message: “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.” This message differs from other common WordPress errors and is the primary indicator of maintenance mode issues.

#2 – Dashboard Access

You typically cannot access your WordPress admin dashboard during a stuck maintenance mode. Attempting to log in often redirects you to the maintenance message, distinguishing this issue from other access problems like database errors or a white screen of death.

#3 – File System Check

A .maintenance file in your WordPress root directory confirms that maintenance mode is active. This file should only exist temporarily during updates, so its continued presence after several minutes indicates a stuck state.

#4 – Time Duration

Normal maintenance mode typically lasts less than a minute. If your site displays the maintenance message for more than 5 minutes, it’s likely stuck. This extended duration indicates that the update process wasn’t completed successfully.

#5 – Server Resource Usage

Analyzing server resource usage can help identify if a WordPress site is stuck in maintenance mode. If the site is truly in maintenance, resource consumption should be minimal; however, if the server consistently uses significant CPU, memory, or I/O resources while the site appears to be in maintenance mode, this is a strong indicator of an issue.

High resource usage often points to an underlying process, perhaps a stuck update or a failed plugin operation, preventing the site from exiting maintenance mode. You can address the root cause and properly resolve the maintenance mode issue by identifying the resource-intensive process.

#6 – Error Log Analysis

Checking your WordPress error logs can reveal failed update attempts or PHP errors that occurred during the update process. These logs often contain specific error messages or stack traces that can help identify the root cause of the stuck maintenance mode.

How to Fix WordPress Stuck in Maintenance Mode

When WordPress gets stuck in maintenance mode, it can be frustrating for both site owners and visitors, but the good news is that it’s often a simple fix.

Step 1. Access Your Website Files

First, you need to obtain access to your website’s files. You can do this in one of two primary ways: using an FTP client like FileZilla, WinSCP, or CyberDuck, or, if you’re using RunCloud, you can access your files directly through the user-friendly dashboard.

If you use a FTP client, you’ll need to connect to your server using your FTP credentials. You will need your server’s hostname (often your domain name), username, password, and port number (usually 21 for standard FTP or 22 for SFTP). Once connected, navigate to your WordPress root directory. This is the main directory where you’ll find folders such as wp-content, wp-admin, and wp-includes.

On this screen, ensure your FTP client is set to display hidden files. The maintenance file starts with a period (.) and is often hidden by default, so this step is essential.

Before making any modifications, always create a backup of your site files. Should something unexpected happen during the fix, you’ll have a recent, working version to restore your site.

Whether you back up using FTP or are using RunCloud and choose to download a backup, this step is crucial for peace of mind. Taking a moment to back up beforehand can save you a lot of headaches later!

Step 2. Delete the .maintenance File

Once you’ve accessed your WordPress root directory, look for a file named “.maintenance”. This file tells WordPress to display the maintenance mode message. WordPress automatically removes this file when updates are completed successfully, but when updates fail or are interrupted, the file remains and keeps your site in maintenance mode.

While it’s usually just a simple text file containing a timestamp, having a backup is always good practice. After securing your backup, you can proceed to delete the .maintenance file. Most FTP clients allow you to delete files by right-clicking and selecting “Delete” or pressing the Delete key.

After removing the file, wait a few moments for your web server to register the change. Then, try accessing your WordPress site again. The maintenance mode message should be gone, and your site should return to normal operation. If you’re still seeing the maintenance message, you might need to clear your browser cache (which we’ll cover next).

Step 3. Clear Your Browser Cache

Browser caching can sometimes cause your website to appear stuck in maintenance mode even after you’ve deleted the .maintenance file. This happens because your browser has stored (or “cached”) the maintenance mode page and continues to display it instead of fetching the fresh content from your server.

Start by clearing your browser’s cache completely. In Chrome, you can do this by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Delete (Windows) or Command+Shift+Delete (Mac) and selecting “Cached images and files”. Make sure to choose a time range of “All time” to ensure a complete cache is clear. The process is similar for other browsers like Firefox or Safari, though the exact menu locations might differ.

Clearing browser data to fix WordPress Stuck in Maintenance

Alternatively, you can test your site in an incognito/private browsing window after clearing the cache. This provides a clean slate without any cached data and lets you see if the maintenance mode issue is resolved. If the site works in incognito mode but still shows maintenance mode in regular browsing, you might need to clear your cache again or wait a bit longer for the cache to expire naturally.

Step 4. Using the WP-CLI to Resolve the Issue (Optional)

After deleting your .maintenance file, you can go one step further and disable all WordPress plugins on your website. However, since logging in to the WordPress dashboard is impossible, you will do this via the command line interface.

RunCloud comes with WP-CLI, a powerful command-line interface for managing WordPress installations. It offers a more technical but often more efficient approach to resolving maintenance mode issues.

Connect to your server via SSH and navigate to your WordPress installation directory. Once there, you can use various WP-CLI commands to diagnose and fix maintenance mode issues. The basic command wp maintenance-mode status will tell you if maintenance mode is active. If it is, you can use wp maintenance-mode deactivate to turn it off programmatically.

In addition, WP-CLI can help identify what caused the issue in the first place. You can use commands like wp core verify-checksums to verify the integrity of your WordPress core files or wp plugin list—-status=active to check for potentially problematic plugins.

If you want to deactivate plugins, then you can use the command wp plugin deactivate –all to deactivate all WordPress plugins. This can be useful to minimize potential conflicts causing a stuck maintenance mode or when trying to troubleshoot issues or protect your website while working on a problem. If you encounter any problem, you can use the wp site health command to get additional diagnostic information about your site’s overall health and identify any configuration issues that might have contributed to the maintenance mode problem.

Wrapping Up: Preventing Future Maintenance Mode Issues

In this guide, we have explained WordPress maintenance mode and how sometimes WordPress websites get stuck in maintenance mode. We have also provided step-by-step instructions for fixing this problem.

Although the RunCloud dashboard makes it easy to fix this problem, detecting such issues before they affect your WordPress website is even better. We recommend creating a staging environment through RunCloud’s one-click staging functionality to test all updates before applying them to your live site.

Additionally, RunCloud allows you to monitor your site’s PHP memory limits and timeout settings in its dashboard to ensure they accommodate larger updates.

Start using RunCloud today!

FAQs on Fixing WordPress Stuck in Maintenance Mode

How long does WordPress stay in maintenance mode?

WordPress typically stays in maintenance mode for only 30-60 seconds during normal updates. When everything works correctly, the maintenance mode is automatically disabled once the update process is complete. However, if something interrupts the update process (like a timeout or connection issue), your site can get stuck in maintenance mode indefinitely.

Can I manually exit maintenance mode?

You can manually exit maintenance mode by deleting the “.maintenance” file from your WordPress root directory via FTP or file manager. With RunCloud’s file manager, you can easily navigate to your site’s root directory and remove this file without needing FTP credentials. You can also use the SSH terminal to execute the command “rm .maintenance” command from your site’s root directory.

What happens if I ignore the maintenance mode?

Your site will continue displaying the “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” message to all visitors indefinitely. Furthermore, you won’t be able to access your WordPress dashboard to make any changes or updates until the maintenance mode is resolved.

Will my site lose data if it’s stuck in maintenance mode?

Your site’s data remains intact when stuck in maintenance mode since this state only affects access to the site, not the underlying database or files. The maintenance mode is a temporary holding state that prevents access while updates are being performed. RunCloud’s staging environment ensures you can test updates safely without risking your production data.

Is there a plugin to prevent maintenance mode issues?

Several WordPress plugins like WP Maintenance Mode Manager and Advanced Maintenance Mode can help prevent maintenance mode issues by providing better control over the process. These plugins often include features such as automatic timeout detection and forced maintenance mode exit after a specified time. Additionally, RunCloud’s staging functionality allows you to test plugins and updates safely before applying them to your production site.

How can I safely update WordPress without getting stuck?

Using RunCloud’s staging environment, you can perform updates on a copy of your site first to ensure everything works correctly. Before updating, always create a backup of your site using RunCloud’s backup functionality. Additionally, ensure you have adequate PHP memory limits and timeout settings configured in your RunCloud server settings.

What should I do if the fix doesn’t work?

If deleting the .maintenance file doesn’t resolve the issue, you should check your site’s error logs through RunCloud’s dashboard for specific error messages. If the problem persists, consider restoring from a recent backup using RunCloud’s backup system. Additionally, you may need to contact RunCloud support for advanced troubleshooting if the issue concerns server configuration.

Can server issues cause maintenance mode problems?

Server-related issues such as insufficient PHP memory, timeout settings, or permission problems can cause maintenance mode issues. RunCloud helps prevent these problems by providing optimized server configurations and easy-to-use tools for adjusting PHP settings.

How do I know if my site is down or just in maintenance mode?

You can differentiate between a site being down and in maintenance mode by checking the specific error message displayed – maintenance mode shows a “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” message. Additionally, you can check your site’s error logs through the RunCloud dashboard for specific information about the current state.

Are there any tools to help diagnose the issue?

RunCloud provides comprehensive tools, including error logs, file manager, and terminal access, to help diagnose maintenance mode issues. Furthermore, RunCloud’s staging environment allows you to replicate and debug issues in a safe environment before attempting fixes on your production site.