Since sometime early Thursday, anyone trying to leave a comment or use a link to read a previous post got a “Service Unavailable” error message. Many of you emailed to let me know of the issue, and once alerted, I also quickly ran into the error as well. That’s when I noticed that there have been no comments on any post since Thursday. Not normal.
The tech support staff at my hosting company, Hostrocket.com, have been very good in communicating with me as they tried to track down the source of the problem. The error message itself pointed to a server resource issue, and that’s where they started. When that didn’t work, the started tracing possible security settings being out of whack.
I also sought the counsel of Blaine Fergerstrom, a friend from my Star-Bulletin days of a quarter-century ago. He was the genius who got the Star-Bulletin’s website running ahead of the much better resourced folks across the hall at the Honolulu Advertiser, and he has run lots of websites over the years. Earlier today, he sent a link to a document concerning the type of error message (503) and possible ways of fixing it.
Eventually, I hit on the suggestion that a WordPress plugin could have created a conflict that triggered the errors. Following instructions, I deactivated the eight plugins that I’ve been using, then added them back, one by one, check for the frustrating error message after each one was put back into service.
Bingo!
One of the plugins–Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress–turned out to be the offending bit of software. Once it was removed from the lineup, the site seemed to be back to normal. I tried to replicate the previous error, but all appears to be back to normal.
Shhhh. I shouldn’t say that out loud. Don’t want to jinx it!
In any case, hopefully you can now go back and review the past four or five days of posts and let the comments fly!
On the few occasions when something similar has happened, my lack of technical knowledge about the workings of WordPress gets depressing. Luckily, this has only happened a few times in 25 years of blogging.
Anyway, welcome back!
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Got it, Ian. Thanks.
That’s the problem with open source software. With all these third party plugins that can’t
possibly be thoroughly tested for compatibility it’s easy to break things. I do use a plugin called Duplicator Pro that allows me to revert to the most recent working version of the site with a few clicks, while I figure out what is causing a malfunction. You hit on the answer to prevent most problems. It’s better to update and make changes one at a time. I have automatic updates disabled for that reason.
Glad you’re back. You have been a part of my morning reading for many years.
Yes Ian, deactivating plugins is essentials to debug the errors.