An HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout error is the most common error encountered by website developers. And in many cases, it can become a real pain.
Generally, it’s difficult to find out the reason for a timeout error because the server response has no helpful information about the error cause.
In this article, we’ll find ways to troubleshoot timeout errors and find solutions for them, while giving you a better understanding of timeout errors and their causes.
What is a 504 Timeout error?
To deeply understand what a 504 Gateway Timeout error is let’s first have a look at server and client relationships.
What happens when the client sends an HTTP request to the server? When the server receives the request, it processes it, and–depending on whether the result is successful or unsuccessful–returns a response with the corresponding HTTP status code in the HTTP response headers.
HTTP status codes are a very important part of the conversation between web servers and clients.
You can find the status code in each server response. All HTTP response status codes are separated into five classes or categories. Each status code is a 3-digit number where the first digit defines the class of response, while the last two digits don’t have any classifying or categorizing role. Here is a list of status codes:
- 1xx informational response – the request was received, and is being processed
- 2xx successful – the request was successfully received, understood, and accepted
- 3xx redirection – further action needs to be taken in order to complete the request
- 4xx client error – the request contains bad syntax or can’t be fulfilled
- 5xx server error – the server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request
If the request is processed successfully by the server it’ll return status code 2xx.
For example, the 200 status code indicates that the server understood the request and successfully processed it. A 201 status code indicates that the request was successful and, as a result, the resource has been created.
The 5xx status codes indicate that there are problems with the server. We have a 504 Gateway Timeout error when the server is running as a gateway or a proxy server. This error happens when the server can’t receive a timely response from the upstream server.
If there’s an issue in the server besides a 504 Gateway Timeout error, it often returns one of these status codes:
500 Internal Server Error
A generic error message for an unexpected condition that has no suitable specific message.
501 Not Implemented
The server either doesn’t recognize the request method, or it lacks the ability to fulfill the request.
502 Bad Gateway
The server is acting as a gateway or a proxy and receives an invalid response from the upstream server.
503 Service Unavailable
This code indicates that the server is temporarily unable to process the client’s request because it is overloaded or down for maintenance.
You can come across other 5xx unofficial codes, like 509, 526, 529, 530, 598, etc. The following codes are not specified by any standard.
504 Errors: Appearance
A 504 Gateway Timeout error can appear in different ways. Depending on the operating system, web browser, and device it may have different looks.
Some websites can customize the template of a 504 Gateway Timeout error to make it look more original and less annoying. Here’s a Google example:
Different platforms can change the timeout error message. So you can come across different timeout messages but they all have the same meaning.
- 504 Error
- Gateway Timeout (504)
- HTTP 504
- 504 Gateway Timeout
- Gateway Timeout Error
- HTTP Error 504 – Gateway Timeout
- Error 504 Gateway Timeout
What causes timeout errors?
A 504 error is a server-side error. In other words, the problem is on the server. This error can occur because of networking errors between servers.
But in very rare cases an error can be caused by client-side issues that are connected to your device or your networking device. For example when you’re trying to access a website from your computer and get a timeout error. In this case, there are some tips to solve this error from your end. We’ll go through these tips in the next section.
Client-side troubleshooting strategies
In very rare cases the cause for 504 errors is on your end. Here are very simple ways to fix it.
Reload the page
The first thing that you should do is reload the page and wait for a minute. If the timeout error disappears it means that it was a temporary problem with the actual server or the networking between servers.
Restart network devices
If reloading the page doesn’t give any result, try to restart your device and your network devices such as modem or router. After restarting the devices reload the page. If it works it means that the temporary problem was on your devices. If not try further steps.
Flush DNS cache
The problem can be from your DNS servers. Linux, Windows, and macOS save name resolution information in the form of a DNS cache. You can clear your DNS cache. For flushing cache on Windows, open Windows command prompt and type:
ipconfig /flushdns
In case of success, you have to get the ‘Successfully flushed the DNS resolver Cache’ message.
On macOS you should open the terminal and type
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
There’s no message after processing this command, you can add your own, by running the command in this way
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; dns cleared successfully
Cleaning a DNS cache on Linux differs from macOS and Windows. Different Linux distributions use different DNS services. Some of them are NSCD (Name Service Caching Daemon), dnsmasq, and BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain). Open the terminal and depending on your own Linux distribution DNS server use one of these commands to flush DNS cache on Linux:
For an NSCD DNS cache:
sudo /etc/init.d/nscd restart
For a dnsmasq DNS cache:
sudo /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart
For a BIND DNS cache:
sudo /etc/init.d/named restart
sudo rndc restart
sudo rndc exec
If the terminal asks, enter your password. If this doesn’t help, try the next steps.
Change DNS servers
If cleaning the DNS cache didn’t help then you can change your DNS servers. When you change the DNS servers that your internet-connected device uses, you change your servers, usually assigned by your ISP. You can read this article for more information about changing DNS servers: Change your DNS servers settings.
In case you’re using Cloudflare
Cloudflare returns a 504 error and shows a screen with a 504 error custom template when your origin web server responds with a standard HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout error:
This is because something is wrong with your server. You can try to fix it with the steps that we’ve already described if it doesn’t help connect to your hosting provider.
If the 504 error is from Cloudflare, the screen may look like this:
If the error doesn’t contain the word “Cloudflare”, it means that the problem comes from the actual server. If the error contains the word “Cloudflare”, contactCloudflare support. The same goes for 502 Bad Gateway errors. More about Cloudflare 5xx errors you can find in this article: Troubleshooting Cloudflare 5XX errors.
Server-side troubleshooting strategies
As mentioned the main reasons for 504 Timeout Errors are server-side issues. This can happen due to a variety of reasons: server-side infrastructure, limited server-side parameters, improper firewall configuration, bots, attacks, heavily working PHP scripts, or WordPress imports.
To find out the reason for 504 Timeout Errors you can check your server logs. By checking access logs you can discover if there are any spams from bots. You can also check error logs for information about issues on your website. With 10Web, you can easily do this by going to Hosting Services > Logs. You can select Access Logs, Error Logs, PHP-FPM Logs from the selection at the top of the page.
If you have access to your server, you can check server logs. Depending on your web server type (Nginx or Apache) the logs can be in /var/log/nginx or in /var/log/apache2 correspondingly.
Server-side infrastructure
Efficient server-side infrastructure has a huge role in avoiding 504 errors. Many shared hostings don’t provide enough resources for high-traffic websites.
That’s why contrary to shared hostings, we, at10web, provide automated WordPress hosting powered by Google Cloud, allowing us to use Linux containers to isolate the resources provided to you. In other words, the MySQL database is in a separate instance which makes lower load in instances possible; hence, there are less 504 errors. If you face a 504 error write to our customer support and the issue will be solved immediately.
Server-side parameters
The other major reason for a 504 Timeout Error is the number of PHP workers. PHP workers are background processes that are responsible for processing PHP code.
If you have only one PHP worker your site can process only one request at once. But this doesn’t mean that the second request won’t be processed. Instead, the PHP processes will be placed in a queue. Only after processing the first request the PHP processes that are next in line will be processed.
In case all PHP workers are busy and the queue is full, 504 or 502 errors may occur. So it’s very important to understand the exact number of workers that will best serve your needs. Depending on your website type (it can be a simple blog or an eCommerce platform that requires processing non-cached pages) you’ll need a different number of PHP workers. Increasing the number of workers allows your website to serve more concurrent requests.
Improper firewall configuration
Another reason for a 504 Gateway Timeout error can be improper firewall configuration.
A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. It typically establishes a barrier between a trusted network and an untrusted network.
In some cases, there can be awkward firewall settings that consider safe and valid content malicious and, consequently, cut off traffic which in turn can lead to 504 Timeout Errors. Check your server error logs to find out if your firewall has improper configs.
Bots & attacks
Many requests from bots or DDoS attacks by hackers may lead to performance issues in your website which can be a reason for timeout errors. To avoid this you can use Cloudflare, a market leader in DDoS protection.
3rd-party plugins & theme
Heavily working PHP scripts that are written in a non-optimal way can be the reason for timeout errors.
If you have a 504 Gateway Timeout error and find that everything is ok with your server configuration, check plugins your and the theme of your WordPress website.
Deactivate all plugins and start activating them one by one to find out the guilty ones. If you can’t open your WordPress admin dashboard because of the error but have file access to WordPress installation, just rename the plugins folder in wp-content. This will deactivate all plugins. For your theme, you can temporarily change the theme to WordPress’ default theme to discover the issue.
504 Gateway Timeout errors can occur due to cron jobs that are running on your server doing heavy tasks. For checking which crons are running, you can use the WP Control plugin which allows you to view and control what’s happening in the WP-Cron system. If you have access to wp-cli you can run this command for checking crons:
wp cron event list
The result will be:
To avoid timeout errors you can configure your wp cron in a way that allows it to run like a real cron. Since wp cron works during the request it has max execution time limitation and, hence, can lead to timeout errors. Read more about this here.
Inefficient database queries can also cause timeout errors. To discover such queries you can use the Query monitor plugin, which is a developer tools panel for WordPress. It enables debugging of database queries, PHP errors, hooks and actions, block editor blocks, enqueued scripts and stylesheets, HTTP API calls, and more.
Another useful tool to find timeout errors is wp profile-command package for wp-cli.This doesn’t come with wp-cli. You have to install it yourself. It gives you profiling information about how long each step of your WordPress website loading process has taken. If you have ssh access to your website, you can easily install it by running this command
wp package install [email protected]:wp-cli/profile-command.git
More info about wp-cli you can find in this article: The Last Guide to WP CLI You’ll Ever Need.
WordPress Imports
The plugins WP All Import or WordPress Importer are widely used by WordPress developers for importing XML, CSV files and images to their websites. If the connection between the server and the client is open for a long time during import it can cause timeout errors.
To solve this problem you can try to import the file by chunk, i.e. by dividing it into smaller files. If you have access to wp-cli you can try this command for importing a file:
wp import example.wordpress.2021-03-23.xml
Server configuration
In this section let’s have a look at specific server-side parameters. Increasing these parameters can help solve 504 timeout issues.
If you want to increase max execution time for your php scripts then change the max_execution_time parameter in your php.ini file
max_execution_time = 300
The default value of max_execution_time is 30 seconds.
If your website is running with an Apache web server you can change the TimeOut directive in the httpd.conf file.
TimeOut seconds
Syntax: TimeOut seconds Default: TimeOut 300 Context: server config, virtual host
If your website is running with a standalone Nginx web server with a FastCGI Process Manager (PHP-FPM) you can open /etc/php7.4/fpm/pool.d/www.conf and set
request_terminate_timeout = 300
If you want to increase the time limit for a given site, open the /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com and increase the fastcgi_read_timeout directive
location ~ \.php$ {
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-wplive.sock;
fastcgi_read_timeout 300;
}
To increase the time limit for all sites, open the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file and
http {
#...
fastcgi_read_timeout 300;
#...
}
After changing params don’t forget to reload PHP FPM and Nginx:
sudo service nginx reload sudo service php7.4-fpm reload
If you’re using Nginx as a reverse proxy server for Apache then you have to change these directives in your nginx.conf file:
proxy_connect_timeout 600; proxy_send_timeout 600; proxy_read_timeout 600; send_timeout 600;
After increasing params reload Nginx
sudo service nginx reload
What is ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT?
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT means the server is taking too much time to reply.
This error appears when your website is trying to do more than your server can manage. It’s particularly common on shared hosting where your memory limit is restricted.
To fix this you can clear the browser cache or open the page in incognito/private mode. Try all steps mentioned under the section “Client-side troubleshooting”.
Increase your memory limit in wp-config.php. If you don’t have access to your server you can ask your hosting provider to increase your memory limit for you.
Increase the maximum execution time in your php.ini file as we described above or ask your hosting provider.
Cache implementation
The final step of avoiding timeout errors is using caching on your website.
Caching websites has many benefits. It improves website performance and user experience. And it reduces the load in your hosting server.
With 10Web, you can use our hosting cache, which you can enable by heading to Hosting Services > Tools > Website Caching.
For caching you can use different WordPress caching plugins. The popular ones are WP Rocket which improves loading time and W3 Total Cache which improves the SEO and user experience of your site. <!–More info about caching you can find here.–>
See How 10Web Can Benefit You
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Conclusion
In this article, we explored different ways of troubleshooting and fixing a 504 Gateway Timeout error.
While there’s a variety of reasons for a timeout error, we learned that they’re generally caused by server-side problems.
But, of course, non-optimal PHP scripts and database queries and an appropriate number of PHP workers can also have a huge impact on website performance and consequently cause timeout errors.
That was all for now. Feel free to drop a comment and let us know if we managed to provide a suitable way for you to troubleshoot your timeout error!
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