How to solve the Error: “WordPress briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. check back in a minute.”

This brief tutorial explains how to solve the error message “Wordpress briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. check back in a minute.”.

The article includes screenshots for each described step, making it easy for all WordPress-level users to follow the instructions.

After reading it, you will know how to get your site back from maintenance mode. You will also learn how to customize the maintenance mode page and prevent this from happening again.

Fast solution for WordPress unavailability for scheduled maintenance error:

The steps below are done using Cpanel. They also can be done through an FTP client. If you prefer FTP over Cpanel to connect to your server, jump to the FTP section.

If using Cpanel, login to your account, and on the main screen, select the File Manager (Under the FILES section).

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Once in the File Manager, first, unhide hidden files. To do it, press the Settings button located on your right upper corner, as shown in the screenshot below.

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In the Preferences window, make sure “Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)” is marked and press the Save button.

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On your website root directory, identify a file named .maintenance. Right-click the .maintenance file and press the Delete option as shown in the following image.

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When requested, confirm the file removal.

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That’s how to get your site back from maintenance mode.

Solving the WordPress unavailability for scheduled maintenance using FTP:

The steps described previously can be done using an FTP client.

To begin, connect to your server through your FTP client of choice. For this tutorial, I’m using Filezilla.

Once connected, move into your website root directory and find the .maintenance file. Right-click the .maintenance file and press Delete.

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When asked for confirmation, press Yes.

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Customizing your WordPress maintenance mode page:

This section shows how to customize your maintenance page. This is useful for the maintenance page and before any problem requiring you to take your site down temporarily, showing the message or image you want.

To begin, on the left menu, move your cursor over Plugins and then press Add New, as shown in the screenshot below.

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On the keyword, search field type “maintenance,” and when plugins show up, press the Install Now button on the Maintenance plugin.

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Once installed, press the Activate button as shown in the following image.

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After installing the plugin, to access the settings screen, find the dashboard left menu Maintenance, as shown in the following screenshot, and press it.

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As you can see below, the first button is turn off and turn on the maintenance mode. Then you can define a page title, a headline and a description, the text inside the maintenance page.

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If you want to turn off the maintenance mode, just press the upper icon as shown below.

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You can see additional options like footer text, logo, logo dimensions, and image compression by scrolling down.

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Below more options allow you to upload a retina logo and background image.

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You also can upload images in portrait mode, a preloader, background and font color, and login block background for the login section.

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Finally, you can choose the font family, link the plugin to your Google Analytics account, allow login, and implement background blur.

After customizing your maintenance page, press the Save button.

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This is what my maintenance page seems like:

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That’s how to edit your maintenance page without programming!

Conclusion:

As you can see, solving the error message “Wordpress briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. check back in a minute.” is pretty easy as long as you have access to your server. All WordPress-level users can achieve it by following a few steps described above. It is worth it to create a custom maintenance page to make your visitors feel your site unavailability is planned and not the result of an error. You also can do it without programming, using the plugin mentioned in this tutorial or any of its alternatives (You can choose them when installing the plugin). There are additional ways to program your own maintenance mode landing page; this tutorial is meant for users who don’t want to code by themselves.

Thank you for reading this WordPress article. I hope it was useful. Keep following us for additional high-quality level WordPress tutorials.