My website is down
Work down this page in order. Most outages are one of five things, and the first two take a minute each to rule out.
Check it isn't just you
Turn Wi-Fi off on your phone and open the website over mobile data. That is a different network, a different provider and a different device, so if the site loads there, the website itself is fine.
If it works on your phone and not on your computer, the problem is at your end: restart the router, try another browser, and ask whether anybody has changed the office network. If the website's address was changed recently, some networks can go on using the old one for a while. That settles on its own.
Check the domain hasn't expired
An expired domain takes the website and the email down together, and it is the most common cause of a sudden, complete outage for a small business.
Look the domain up. For .com, .org, .net and most other endings use ICANN Lookup. For .uk and .co.uk use Nominet's domain lookup. The result shows the expiry date and which company the domain is registered with.
If it has expired, renew it with that company straight away. There is usually a period after expiry when you still can, but how long it lasts and what it costs depends on the company and the ending, and the price tends to go up the longer you leave it. Then read who actually controls your domain, because the renewal reminders went somewhere, and it wasn't you.
Read the error
The words on the screen usually tell you which part has failed. Find the closest match.
| You see | It usually means |
|---|---|
| This site can't be reached, or the server's address could not be found | The domain isn't pointing anywhere. It has expired, or its DNS records have been changed or deleted. |
| The connection timed out, or took too long to respond | The server is switched off, overloaded, or a firewall is blocking the connection. |
| 500 Internal Server Error | The website's own software failed. Often a plugin or theme update, or an edit to a configuration file. The host's error log names the culprit. |
| 502 Bad Gateway or 504 Gateway Timeout | The web server is up, but the program behind it that builds the pages didn't answer in time. |
| 503 Service Unavailable | The server is overloaded or deliberately in maintenance. |
| Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance | A WordPress update was interrupted. Delete the file called .maintenance in the site's main folder. |
| Error establishing a database connection | WordPress can't reach its database. The database server is down, full, or its password was changed. |
| A Cloudflare page showing error 521, 522, 523 or 524 | Cloudflare is fine and your server behind it isn't answering. 521 is refused, 522 and 524 are too slow, 523 is unreachable. All four are for your web host. |
| Account suspended | The host has switched the account off. Usually an unpaid invoice or an expired card, sometimes a complaint or the account using more than its share. |
| Your connection is not private | A certificate problem. See the browser says my site is not secure. |
Check the hosting account
Log in to your hosting company's control panel or billing area and look for three things: an unpaid invoice, a notice about the account, and a status page reporting a wider problem. Search your inbox, including the spam folder, for emails from the host in the last month.
Look at the disk space too. A full account can stop the website and any email hosted with it, and the error you see rarely says so.
Think about what changed
Websites rarely break on their own. Ask what happened in the last day or two: an update, a new plugin, a change of email provider, a new member of staff with access to the domain.
One that catches people out: somebody setting up new email, following a provider's instructions, changes the domain's nameservers or deletes records they didn't recognise, and the website's record goes with them. If the email moved recently and the website stopped at the same time, look there first.
Before you restore anything
Don't restore a backup or reinstall on a hunch. A restore puts the site back as it was on the day of the backup, and every order, enquiry and edit since then is lost. Find out what's wrong first, and take a copy of the site as it is now before you change anything.
What to send your host
A support request with these in it gets a faster, better answer than "the website's down":
- the domain name
- the exact words of the error, or a screenshot of it
- roughly when it started
- whether it also fails on a phone using mobile data
- anything that changed shortly before
If you would rather somebody sorted it
Ask me
If you have read this and still are not sure what to do, bring the error message, the supplier's email or the decision you're stuck on to a one hour call. I'll tell you what I'd do, including when the answer is to leave it alone.
An hour with me, and a written summary, or write to info@dalaric.com and say what's wrong.
Short answers
Questions people actually ask
How do I tell whether my website is down for everyone or only for me?
Turn Wi-Fi off on your phone and load the site over mobile data. That is a different network, a different provider and a different device. If it loads there, the website is fine and the problem is somewhere between you and it, usually your own connection. More on ruling that out.
My website is down but my email still works. How is that possible?
Because they are usually two separate services, often with two separate companies. The domain has one set of records saying where the website lives and another saying where mail goes. A fault with the web host, or a mistake in the website's record, leaves the mail untouched.
What does Cloudflare error 522 mean?
Cloudflare is working and your web server is not answering it. The 52x errors on a Cloudflare page are almost always about the server behind Cloudflare: switched off, overloaded, or blocking Cloudflare's addresses with a firewall. That is a question for your web host. What the other errors mean.
More guides
Email is not arriving
Mail that bounces, vanishes or lands in spam, and the four records behind it.
The browser says my site is not secure
What the warning actually means, and the five things that cause it.
My WordPress site has been hacked
The first hour, in order, and the one thing not to do.