When you update wordpress to a newer version (either manually or automatically), sometimes the update process may timeout which puts the site in maintenance mode and is not accessible to your site visitors. This article explains on how to fix “briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute” error.
Why this happens?
It is not a technical error. When you update wordpress, it downloads latest wordpress update files to your server, extracts the files and installs the new files. During this process, wordpress enables maintenance mode and displays “briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute” notification message to the site visitors or to you (if you try to access any wordpress page).
Once the wordpress is updated successfully, wordpress disables maintenance mode and site comes into normal mode.
But the problem is, if the wordpress update process is time out (because of slow speed) or interrupted, then the site can’t come out of maintenance mode and it shows the message “briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute”. To fix this problem, follow the simple steps explained below.
Steps to fix “briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” error
As explained above, WordPress goes into maintenance mode when it updates a plugin or theme. During this process, it creates a maintenance (.maintenance) file in the WordPress directory. After successful update, WordPress deletes this maintenance file.
in case, wordpress couldn’t delete this file, then “briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” appears when you access the site.
Fix Using FTP
If you want your site become instantly accessible (not to lose page views), then follow below steps.
- Login to wordpress site host via FTP
- Go to the site root directory
- Find .maintenance file
- Feel free to delete it
Done. Now you can access your WP admin and your site visitors can see your site alive without any error.
Note: Check category and tag links on your site are working without any internal server error.
If they are showing 500 – internal server error, then read below article to fix that.
