How to fix: Error 503. Service Unavailable for WordPress

Problem

Today had came across this problem on a website hosted using the WordPress platform.

Error 503. Service Unavailable

The server is temporarily unavailable. Please check back shortly. If this problem persists, please contact our Technical Support department.

What to do when this happened?

This occurred because the WordPress you are using is incompatible to the PHP on the server

Solution 1 Disable “ioncube_loader” and “ioncube_loader_4”

Disabling “ioncube_loader” and “ioncube_loader_4” will get the website back up and running. You would need to go to your cPanel as mentioned in this Namecheap support page.

Go to your cPanel

select cpanel PHP namecheap

Disable “ioncube_loader” and “ioncube_loader_4”

Error 503 Service Unavailable. The server is temporarily unavailable. Please check back shortly. If this problem persists, please contact our Technical Support department.

Solution 2 Change PHP version

Alternative solution is to use a more recent version of PHP. You can adjust that in your cPanel as mentioned in this Namecheap support page.

Go to your cPanel

select cpanel PHP namecheap

Select a more recent version of PHP

Change PHP version. Error 503 Service Unavailable. The server is temporarily unavailable. Please check back shortly. If this problem persists, please contact our Technical Support department.

Questions

Feel free to contact us for any technical support questions. We provide IT support and computer repair services for Chatswood and surrounding suburbs in Sydney.