Today while upgrading a plugin on my personal blog, I ran into an issue: both the front end and back end were stuck on a blank page displaying “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.” I was completely baffled.
It turns out that when WordPress upgrades its core, themes, or plugins, it switches to maintenance mode. During this time, visiting the front end displays “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.” If the upgrade goes smoothly, it returns to normal within seconds. However, poor network conditions or other issues can cause the upgrade to stall, leaving WordPress permanently stuck in maintenance mode — both front end and back end showing “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.”
How to Fix This
Delete the .maintenance file in your website’s root directory.
.maintenance is a hidden file that typically won’t show up when browsing via FTP. I recommend using SSH instead. Follow these steps:
cd /home/xxx/xxx— navigate to the root directory of the affected WordPress site.ls -a— list all files in the current directory, including hidden ones. Check if.maintenanceexists; if so, proceed to delete it.rm -rf .maintenance— press Enter to delete. Problem solved.