{"id":932,"date":"2026-03-25T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wordpress-stuck-in-maintenance\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:00:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:00:39","slug":"wordpress-stuck-in-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wordpress-stuck-in-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress stuck in maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Description<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When WordPress performs an update \u2014 whether to the core software, a theme, or a plugin \u2014 it automatically creates a <code>.maintenance<\/code> file in the root of the WordPress installation. This puts the site into maintenance mode and displays a <strong>&#8220;Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.&#8221;<\/strong> message to visitors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the update process is interrupted or fails, this file may not be removed, leaving the site permanently stuck in maintenance mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cause<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>During an update, WordPress creates a temporary <code>.maintenance<\/code> file in the site&#8217;s root directory. This file is normally deleted automatically once the update completes successfully. If the update is interrupted \u2014 for example due to a timeout, a network error, or a PHP fatal error mid-update \u2014 the file is left behind. WordPress then continues to serve the maintenance mode message to all visitors indefinitely, as it has no way to know the update has already ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Delete<\/strong> the <code>.maintenance<\/code> file from the root directory of your WordPress installation. The file is located at the top level of your site&#8217;s files, alongside <code>wp-config.php<\/code> and the <code>wp-content<\/code> folder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can remove it using an FTP client, SSH, or your hosting control panel&#8217;s file manager. Once deleted, WordPress will exit maintenance mode immediately and the site will load normally for all visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"banner-tip\">\ud83d\udc49 Hidden files (those starting with a full stop) are not always visible and you may need to adjust your FTP client or File Manager settings to show hidden files.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Description When WordPress performs an update \u2014 whether to the core software, a theme, or a plugin \u2014 it automatically creates a .maintenance file in the root of the WordPress installation. This puts the site into maintenance mode and displays a &#8220;Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jolt.co.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}