Fix my WordPress site stuck in Maintenance Mode

Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance

If you notice that your site displays the Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance notification for a prolonged period after you run updates on your WordPress site, follow the steps from this article to remove the file which is causing the issue.

Fix my WordPress site stuck in maintenance mode

When you update WordPress, plugins, or themes from your WordPress dashboard, your site is put into maintenance mode during the update. Then, instead of the site’s content, visitors see a generic notification which should be removed automatically as soon as the updates are complete.

However, sometimes the site can get stuck in maintenance mode. You can use any FTP app to fix this, but we recommend FileZilla.

 Note: If you used a plugin to put the site into maintenance mode, the steps below don’t apply. Instead, try deactivating the maintenance mode plugin , and if the issue persists, contact the plugin’s developer. 

1. Connect to your hosting account with FTP
2. In the Remote site section (with the files on your hosting account), open the folder with your WordPress site.
3. Select and hold (or right-click) the .maintenance file and then select Delete.

 Note: The .maintenance file is hidden by default in some file managing apps, so make sure to enable the option to show hidden files  if you don’t see the file.

4. Sign in to your WordPress dashboard and check if the updates are successful. If not, retry the updates one by one.

To prevent your site from getting stuck in the maintenance mode again, try running updates one at a time.

More info

• If you're using the Chrome, Firefox or Edge   browsers, you can enable incognito or private browsing to check if your site is working.
• If you don’t want to deal with fixing this issue yourself, our WordPress Premium Support team can do that for you.