What is 503 Service Unavailable Error and how to fix. A 503 Service Unavailable Error error occurs when a Web server is temporarily unable to handle a request that has been made. Almost always, the error is on the website itself and there is nothing you can do about it, but try again later. However, there are some quick things you can try from yourself.
What is 503 Service Unavailable Error
An unavailable error in the 503 service indicates that a web server is temporarily unable to handle a request. This could be the Web server you are trying to access directly or another server that the Web server is trying to access. It is called error 503 because it is the HTTP status code used by the Web server to define this type of error. The error can occur for a number of reasons, but the two most common reasons are that the server is overwhelmed by requests or is performing maintenance on it.
Error 503 is different from an internal 500 server error. Error 500 occurs when something prevents the server from handling the request, while error 503 indicates that the server is working correctly: it can process the request and return the error 503 by design.
Just like with other errors like this, website designers can customize the appearance of a 503 error. So you may see several 503 pages on different websites. Web sites may also use slightly different names for this error. For example, you could see things like:
- Http/1.1 Service Unavailable
- 503 Error
- 503 Service Temporarily unavailable
- 503 Service Unavailable
- Service Unavailable – DNS Failure
- HTTP Error 503
- HTTP 503
- Error 503 Service Unavailable
An important thing to remember is that the error 503 is a server-side error. This means that the problem exists with the website you are trying to access and not with your computer. This is good and bad news. It’s good news because there’s nothing wrong with your computer, and it’s bad news because there’s usually nothing you can do to fix the problem on your side.
However, here are some quick things you can try.
Reload the page
As we have mentioned, a 503 error indicates a temporary problem. A site may be overwhelmed by traffic, for example. So, reloading the page is always worth it. Most browsers use the F5 key to do this and even provide an Update button somewhere in the address bar. It does not solve the problem many times, but it takes only a second to try it.
Warning: be sure to pay special attention if the error occurs while you are making a payment. Updating the page may charge you twice, so keep an eye on it.
Check to see if the site is not available for other people
Whenever you can not reach a site (for any reason), you can also check if you’re the only one experiencing a connection problem or if other people have the same problem. There are many tools to test it, but our favorites are isitdownrightnow.com and downforeveryoneorjustme.com. Both work practically the same way. Copy the URL you want to check.
If you receive a report that says the site is not unavailable to everyone, there is not much you can do, but only try again later. If the report shows that the site is active, but it is very rare this case it is possible to try some of the things that we describe in the next couple of sections.
Restart your devices
So you used a site verification tool and determined that the site is ok. And you’ve also tested on another browser and you’re having the same problem. This tells you that the problem is probably something on your side, but it is not your browser.
You may experience strange temporary problems with your computer or network equipment (Wi-Fi, router, modem, etc.). A simple restart of the computer and network devices could help solve the problem.
Another possibility is that the error is caused by a DNS problem but on a DNS server rather than on the computer. In this case, you can try to change DNS servers and see if the problem is resolved.
Contact the website
Another option is to contact the owner of the website directly. Search for contact information on the website and contact them on the page in question. If there is not a contact form, you can try to reach the website on their social media.