Website Is Down or Not Loading

When your site won’t load, work through these checks in order. Write down the exact error you see, because it points to the fix.

1. Check whether it’s just you

1. Open the Blue Arctic status page. If it shows an incident or maintenance, wait for the update there. Planned maintenance is announced at least 24 hours ahead and usually runs 2AM–6AM ET.
2. Open your site in a private browser window (Chrome calls it Incognito). It doesn’t use the old copy your browser saved.
3. Open your site on your phone using mobile data, not Wi-Fi.
4. If it loads on mobile data but not on Wi-Fi, restart your router and try again.
5. If it still fails on Wi-Fi, our firewall may have blocked your network, for example after several wrong passwords. Open a support ticket with your public IP address (search for “what is my IP” while on Wi-Fi).

2. Check your domain

1. Make sure your domain hasn’t expired. If you registered it with Blue Arctic, check in the Client Portal at my.bluearctic.com or ask us in a ticket. Otherwise, check with the company you registered it with. An expired domain often shows a parking page or nothing at all.
2. If you changed nameservers (the setting that tells the internet where your domain lives) or DNS records (settings that send visitors and email to the right server) in the last 72 hours, the change may still be spreading. See how long DNS changes take.
3. If the browser says the site can’t be reached, your domain may not point to Blue Arctic. Open a support ticket with your domain name, and we’ll tell you which nameservers to use.

3. Match the error you see

• “Your connection is not private” or “Not secure”: the site is up, but its SSL certificate (what makes the padlock appear) is missing or doesn’t match. Don’t click past the warning. Open a support ticket with your domain and a screenshot.
• 500 Internal Server Error: usually a bad line in .htaccess (a hidden settings file), a PHP problem or a resource limit. Follow how to fix 403 and 500 errors.
• A 503 or 508 error, or a “resource limit” page: your account may have hit its share of server resources, for example from a traffic spike or bots. In cPanel, click Performance in the sidebar and check the Resources card: usage at or near a limit means you’re hitting it now. (If you see a CPU and Concurrent Connection Usage icon instead, click it: faults when your site failed confirm it.) For earlier limit hits, open a support ticket and we’ll check. On WordPress, the LiteSpeed Cache plugin can help. Growing traffic may need a bigger plan.
• “There has been a critical error on this website”: a plugin or theme broke WordPress. Check your site’s admin email for a WordPress message whose subject ends “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”. Its link lets you log in and turn off what broke. No email? Open a support ticket.
• “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.”: a WordPress update stopped halfway. Wait 10 minutes; WordPress then ends maintenance mode itself. If it stays, see the .maintenance steps in how to update WordPress safely.
• “Error establishing a database connection”: WordPress can’t reach its database. See how to fix “Error establishing a database connection”.
• An account suspended page: suspensions happen for unpaid invoices, security problems such as malware or spam, or going over the plan’s limits. Check the Client Portal at my.bluearctic.com for an unpaid invoice or a notice. If you’ve paid, open a support ticket. For a security suspension, we tell you what to fix.

4. Undo recent changes

1. List what changed in the last day: plugin or theme updates, the PHP version, new code, DNS edits.
2. Undo the most recent change first. For a plugin, go to Plugins in WordPress and click Deactivate under it.
3. Test your site again.

If you can’t find the cause, open a support ticket and ask us to restore a backup from before the problem started. Tell us when your site last worked. We keep daily backups for 30 days.

How to tell it worked

Your site loads in a private browser window on both Wi-Fi and mobile data, and the pages, forms and admin area that failed before work again.

Troubleshooting

• The site loads for you but not for a customer: ask them to try a private window or mobile data. After a DNS change, their network may still have the old address for up to 72 hours.
• Email works but the website doesn’t: your email may be hosted elsewhere. Still check that your website points to Blue Arctic (section 2), then match the error (section 3).

Still need help?

Open a support ticket from the Client Portal at my.bluearctic.com; technical support is available there 24/7 (our phone line handles sales and account questions only). Include your domain, the time the problem started, the exact error text, a screenshot and what you already tried. Never include your password.