How to ‘Scheduled maintenance’ message in WordPress

The article guides you on how to troubleshoot a problem that may occur after a WordPress update.

Problem :

When you try to see your WordPress site, you will receive the following message in the browser :

Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.

During a normal update, WordPress enters the maintenance mode, displays this message and also blocks site access temporarily. When the update gets completed, WordPress removes the message and your site gets accessible again.
However, if a WordPress update gets interrupted or failed, this message remains visible and prevents access to your site. In such a case, you need to manually “unblock” the update maintenance mode.

# Steps to resolve this problem :

1. Log in to the cPanel account.

2. On the cPanel home screen, locate the Files section, and click on File Manager.

3. Click on the Web Root, select the Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) checkbox, and then click on Go.

4. Locate and identify the .maintenance file.

5. Right-click on the .maintenance file, and then click on Delete.

6. Now, click at the “Are you sure you wish to delete?” prompt, and click on Delete File(s).

7. Open your WordPress site in the web browser. Now, you will see the main page, not the scheduled maintenance message.

An automated WordPress update might have failed to complete – now please attempt the update again.

8. Click on the “please attempt the update again now” hyperlink to retry the WordPress update.

And you are done!

Also Read :

1) What to do after installing WordPress CMS? – Part 2

2) Discover the Tips to Troubleshoot White Screen of Death (WSoD)