Why are you getting “Resource Limit Reached” errors on your WordPress website?
Errors; the bane of any computer user’s life. One of the constant issues of increasingly complex online technology is that though new functionalities and features improve the overall site experience, it opens up more areas for things to go wrong! Thankfully, frustrating though the “Error 508. Resource Limit is Reached” error message is, it’s not a particularly hard error to trace the cause of; what’s generally more frustrating is applying the solution to the error, as depending on the root cause it may require additional investment to adequately resolve.
So what is the “Resource Limit Reached” error? Well, in a way it’s not actually an error at all; it’s just a symptom of the actual error which is that your website is hitting one or more of its hosting account’s resource limits. That is, when you purchase a hosting service you are provided with details as to what that service provides you with in terms of available RAM and CPU usage, storage limits, user traffic limits and transfer limits. Basically, everything you do on your site, from uploading files to having visitors, uses server resources. If your usage exceeds the limit set by the host, then your services will be stopped until the next calendar month when limits reset, or when additional payment is made to increase the resource limits. Think of it the same way you might think of your mobile phone’s internet contract; you might pay a set amount per month for 3 GBs of data transfer; if you hit that limit before the end of the month one of two things will happen. Either you can continue using the internet but with additional charges being added to your monthly, or your service is simply stopped till the end of the month; this is functionally what’s happening when you receive the resource limit error.
Solution – how to fix it?
Knowing the cause of an issue isn’t enough; you also need to know how to solve it. Unfortunately since this issue is usually caused by a lack of available resources the only immediate solution is upgrading your account or otherwise paying to access more resources; your host’s customer service team will be able to assist you with this. However, there are some steps you can take to mitigate the risk of the error happening again further down the line.
Every host should be able to provide you with a detailed breakdown of your resource consumption via cPanel. To check it, navigate to cPanel ->Logs ->Resources ->Details. If your cPanel doesn’t provide the Logs option, try clicking on the “Bandwidth” option on your hosting control panel – if you still have no luck then you’ll need to contact your host’s customer service team so that they can assist you wish obtaining this data. With this information to hand you can examine what exactly is causing the resource limit to be reached, and modify your behavior accordingly. For example, if you’re hitting the limit because you tend to upload a lot of images or media to your site, consider cutting down the amount of images, using slightly lower-quality images and compression software to lower the overall size of the file and so on.
What if keep seeing the error message?
If you find yourself hitting the resource limit for your hosting on a regular basis then you’ll need to take additional action to try to mitigate the risk. Naturally, your first instinct may be that you need to upgrade your plan, but this isn’t always the correct way forward, since there are other issues that can lead to repeated resource limit errors. Here’s a few potential solutions for you to consider:
- Upgrade to an account type with greater resources allocated to it; the most obvious solution, but make sure that you’ve eliminated the possibility of it being caused by other issues before committing to a higher payment.
- Add and enable ReCaptcha or another anti-spam plugin on your website – by default Joomla! and WordPress allows everyone to register on a website without any kind of security checks, so often several spammers will register at the same time via automated systems, causing a huge drain on your available resources. If possible, consider removing the option to login entirely; if you don’t have any member-specific functionality on your site then it’s safer to simply close out registrations indefinitely.
- Contact your host’s support and ask them for assistance in identifying any extensions or processes that are acting as resource hogs. Sometimes, a specific component or plugin consumes lots of resources due to sloppy programming, and you’ll want to delete the or uninstall the plugin. If you need the features the extension provides, consider looking for a trusted replacement on the Joomla Extension Directory or WordPress repository; both of these resources are huge so you’re sure to find multiple alternatives for any plugin that you use; hopefully one that let’s resource-intensive!
- Check if your website was hacked – You might think this is obvious, but many hackers don’t make a habit of leaving a trace. Instead, after hacking your site they’ll add a script that could generate false requests, ultimately wasting your resources on nothing or making the script-maker money.
Make sure to bear these points in mind and ensure your site stay functional; if your website is down your customers are seeing your work, so make it a priority to solve this issue as quickly as possible whenever it arises to save yourself the headache of rebuilding consumer trust; the modern world is in such a rush that your site being down for just one hour can cause significant issues and damage your orders or engagement.
This article was first published
