My site is down
"Down" covers about five different problems with five different fixes, and working out which one you have is most of the job. This page is the sorting step. Each answer sends you somewhere specific.
Work through it in order — the checks are arranged cheapest first, and the first one catches the most common cause of all.
1. Is it down for everyone, or just you?
Open your site in a private or incognito window, on mobile data rather than your own wifi if you can.
If it loads there, your site is fine and something local is wrong — a cached DNS entry, a browser extension, or an IP-level block from a security plugin after too many failed logins. Nothing on this page applies. If you cannot get into wp-admin specifically, go to being locked out of wp-admin.
If it is down there too, carry on.
2. What does the page actually say?
The exact words matter more than anything else on this page, so read them rather than summarising them.
| What you see | What it is | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| "Error establishing a database connection" | The database, not WordPress | Database connection error |
| A 500, or "the site is experiencing technical difficulties" | PHP crashed, usually a plugin | 500 internal server error |
| A completely blank white page | The same as a 500, with the error hidden | White screen |
| "Connection timed out", or it spins and never loads | Nothing is answering | Connection timed out |
| A 404 on every page, but the home page works | Permalinks | 404 errors |
| A certificate or "not secure" warning | HTTPS, not the site | Certificate not issuing |
| Your old host's page, or a parking page | DNS still points elsewhere | Domain not pointing here |
If what you see is on that list, stop here and follow the link. The rest of this page is for when it is not.
3. Check the Pressy itself
Open your dashboard and look at the Pressy's status.
Suspended — the site is deliberately offline. There are two reasons and they read the same from outside:
- A payment failed. We email before every step, so check the address on the account, including its spam folder. Settling the invoice brings the site back.
- We suspended it. That means something was actively harming other customers or somebody on the internet — a compromised site sending phishing email is the usual case. Reply to the email we sent; we would rather help you clean it than leave it off.
Be aware that a suspended site serves a bare error page rather than an explanation, so there is nothing for you or a visitor to read on the site itself.
Building — it is still being set up. Give it a few minutes.
Active, but the site does not load — the Pressy is running and something inside WordPress is not. Carry on.
4. Is it us?
Check our status page. If there is an open incident, it will say so and there is nothing for you to fix — that one is ours, and the page is where the updates go.
Still nothing?
Write to us from the address on your account, and include:
- the address of the site, and
- exactly what you see, word for word, or a screenshot.
Those two things are the difference between an answer and a round of questions. If you have already tried something from one of the pages above, say which — it saves us suggesting it again.
Didn’t solve it?
Write to us with your Pressy’s address and what you were doing when it went wrong. Answered by the people who built it.
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