Getting WordPress out of maintenance mode

If your WordPress site is showing the message "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute." and it's been more than a minute, your site is stuck in maintenance mode.

When WordPress runs an update (to core, a theme or a plugin), it creates a temporary file called .maintenance in the root of your WordPress installation. This file tells WordPress to display the maintenance message instead of your site while the update is in progress. Under normal circumstances, WordPress deletes this file automatically as soon as the update finishes.

If something interrupts the update process, such as a server timeout, a network interruption, a PHP error, running out of memory or closing the browser tab before the update completes, the .maintenance file gets left behind. WordPress continues to see it and keeps showing the maintenance message even though the update is no longer running.

The fix is straightforward in most cases.

Delete the .maintenance file

Connect to your site via FTP, SFTP or your hosting provider's file manager and navigate to the WordPress root directory. This is usually named public_html, www or htdocs, depending on your host. It's the same directory that contains wp-config.php, wp-content and wp-admin.

Look for a file named .maintenance and delete it. Refresh your site in the browser and it should load normally.

If you can't see the file, it's likely because your FTP client or file manager is hiding files that start with a dot (which are treated as hidden files on Linux servers). In most FTP clients, you can enable hidden file visibility in the settings or preferences menu. In your hosting file manager, look for a "Show hidden files" option or a toggle for dotfiles.

If you have SSH access to your server, you can delete the file from the command line:

rm /path/to/your/wordpress/.maintenance

Replace /path/to/your/wordpress/ with the actual path to your WordPress installation.

Check whether the file is actually the cause

If deleting the .maintenance file doesn't resolve the issue, or if the file doesn't exist, the maintenance message may be coming from somewhere else.

Some maintenance mode plugins display a similar message using their own mechanism rather than the .maintenance file. If you've installed a maintenance mode or coming soon plugin, it may be active and displaying a maintenance page independently. Try deactivating it by renaming its folder in wp-content/plugins/ via FTP.

It's also possible that your caching layer (see the section below) is serving a cached copy of the maintenance page even after the file has been removed.

In some cases, your hosting provider may have put your site into a maintenance or suspended state at the server level, which looks similar but isn't controlled by WordPress at all. Check your hosting control panel for any notices and contact their support team if you suspect this is the case.

Complete any interrupted updates

Once the site is back, check Dashboard → Updates to see whether any plugins, themes or core updates are still pending or incomplete. An update that was interrupted midway can leave files in a partially updated state, which may cause errors or unexpected behaviour even after the maintenance message is gone.

If an update is still listed as available for something you thought had already been updated, run the update again. If it fails repeatedly, download a fresh copy of the plugin or theme from its official source and upload it via FTP to wp-content/plugins/ or wp-content/themes/, overwriting the existing version.

For an interrupted WordPress core update, go to Dashboard → Updates and click Re-install now to replace core files with a clean copy.

Deactivate the problem plugin or theme

If maintenance mode keeps returning every time you attempt an update, a specific plugin or theme may be causing the update process to fail consistently.

Connect via FTP or your hosting file manager and navigate to wp-content/plugins/. Rename the plugin that was being updated when the problem occurred (for example, change plugin-name to plugin-name-disabled) and try the update process again.

If you're not sure which plugin was being updated, or if you were running bulk updates, rename plugins one at a time and test. If a theme update was the cause, rename your active theme's folder inside wp-content/themes/ and WordPress will fall back to a default theme.

Once you've identified the problematic plugin or theme, check whether a newer version is available that might fix the update issue, or contact the developer for support.

Clear all caches

If you have caching configured (through a caching plugin, your hosting provider's built-in caching or a CDN), the maintenance page may have been cached and could continue to be served to visitors even after the .maintenance file has been deleted.

Clear your page cache through your caching plugin's settings or your hosting control panel. If you use a CDN, purge the CDN cache as well. Check your site from an incognito or private browsing window after clearing caches to confirm the maintenance page is no longer being served.

Need help getting out of maintenance mode?

If the site stays in maintenance mode after deleting the .maintenance file, or if the interrupted update has left your site in a broken state, my emergency WordPress support service can help resolve the underlying issue and get your site back online.