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Stuck in maintenance

the .maintenance file
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Browse the docs Stuck in maintenance

While WordPress installs an update, it shows "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance". That's normal for a minute. WP Moo looks again after a few minutes before it counts the page as Offline. When the screen stays, the update stopped halfway and left a file behind.

How to fix it

  1. Give a running update a few minutes first.
  2. Open your hosting panel's file manager and go to the WordPress folder, the one with wp-config.php in it.
  3. Delete the .maintenance file. Files starting with a dot can be hidden, so turn on showing hidden files if you don't see it.
  4. Log in to WordPress and go to Dashboard › Updates to check that the update finished. Run it again if it didn't.

Is the site broken after that? The update may have left a plugin half installed, see Critical error.

WP Moo sees the page again on its next check, and the problem goes away by itself.

For your developer

WordPress shows this screen for as long as .maintenance exists and holds a recent timestamp. With WP-CLI:

wp maintenance-mode status
wp maintenance-mode deactivate

The second run of a failed check waits longer for this screen than for other failures, see Page checks.

Something unclear on this page? Email [email protected]

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