Support » Plugin: Wordfence Security - Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security » Admin dashboard ‘Serviced Unavailable’ message when Wordfence is active

Admin dashboard ‘Serviced Unavailable’ message when Wordfence is active

  • Resolved gychem

    (@gychem)


    7 months ago

    When trying to login to the admin dashboard I get the following error:

    Service Unavailable
    The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later

    When I disable WordFence everything works fine but after activating it again, the same issue returns.

    I’ve already tried to solve this by following the instructions on this page to remove/reset and reinstall Wordfence with no success.
    https://www.wordfence.com/help/advanced/remove-or-reset/#remove-or-reset


    Before it has always worked fine.
    Does someone has an idea what could be causing this?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • wfjoshc

    (@wfjoshc)

    7 months ago

    Hi @gychem

    I recommend checking for a plugin or theme conflict. To do this, you can disable your other plugins on the site one at a time and test, or alternatively, use the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/health-check/). That is a plugin you will need to install from the Plugins > Add New area.

    If you use the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin, you can troubleshoot the site with just Wordfence enabled and the changes are only seen in the back end and not to visitors.

    After downloading that, in the plugins section under Health Check & Troubleshooting you’ll see “Troubleshoot”. Click that and you’ll be in Troubleshooting Mode, which you will see a Troubleshooting Mode button in the top admin bar, which lets you know you are actively troubleshooting. (Note about that: Clicking Disable Troubleshooting mode in that area will turn off troubleshooting when you’re done testing for the conflict at the end.)

    With Troubleshooting mode active, in the plugins section, you will see Enable while troubleshooting under all your plugins. Click Enable while troubleshooting under Wordfence, and your site on the backend will act as only Wordfence is enabled. Keep in mind, this doesn’t always rule out plugin conflicts, however, it can a good portion of the time.

    Once you enable the troubleshooting with Wordfence, go over to the Wordfence plugin and check to see if the issues continue.

    If they do continue, then we need to look elsewhere.

    If things are working now, then you can go back to the plugins section and start from the top and click Enable while Troubleshooting under the plugins, one at a time. In between enabling multiple plugins, be sure to go back and test Wordfence is still functioning. That will narrow it down.

    Also, from the top on the admin bar where we see Troubleshooting Mode. Hover over that with your mouse and check to see if a default theme is selected (if you have one installed). It is also good to rule out the theme. Keep in mind, these changes will not change the way the site looks to visitors.

    We always recommend making a site backup prior to installing new plugins, in case there would be an issue.

    Please let me know if you have any questions.

    Thanks,

    Joshua

    Thread Starter gychem

    (@gychem)

    7 months ago

    Thanks for the reply.

    I have tried to use the health check plugin as you advised but the issue only occurs after logging in to the admin dashboard. To test the issue I have to relog and this also ends the debugging procedure.

    I can only reach the dashboard when I deactivate Wordfence via FTP.
    Then login to the dashboard and activate Wordfence again.
    Everything will work fine but after logging out the same issue returns.

    I tried to manually disable the other plugins and themes via the FTP but that also didn’t solve the issue.

    Any other ideas on how to solve this?

    • This reply was modified 7 months ago by gychem.
    wfjoshc

    (@wfjoshc)

    7 months ago

    Hi @gychem

    Would it be possible to reach out to your host to see if they can see anything?

    Please let me know!

    Thanks,

    Joshua

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • The topic ‘Admin dashboard ‘Serviced Unavailable’ message when Wordfence is active’ is closed to new replies.

Views