DirectAdmin Website Not Loading: Troubleshooting

When a site hosted on DirectAdmin stops working, the browser error usually tells you which layer is broken: the name does not resolve, the connection or certificate fails, or the server returns an error page. Work through this checklist in order.

Before you start

Note the exact message or HTTP code.
Test from another network (for example your phone's mobile data) to rule out a local issue.

DNS and domain

Check where the domain points: dig +short example.com or the IP checker.
Compare with the account's IP shown in DirectAdmin's dashboard.
Check the domain has not expired with the WHOIS checker.
If DNS is wrong, fix records where the nameservers point; see DNS management.

SSL errors

Certificate expired or wrong name: reissue Let's Encrypt including all names; see SSL in DirectAdmin.
Too many redirects: HTTPS forced twice (DirectAdmin plus .htaccess or CDN). Keep one.

Suspended account

A suspended account shows a suspension page. Causes include unpaid invoices, abuse reports or resource overuse. Contact your host or reseller to resolve the reason.

Default page or wrong content

Files must be in domains/example.com/public_html; see File Manager.
Delete a placeholder index.html if your site uses index.php.
If HTTPS shows different content, private_html may be a separate folder instead of a link to public_html; change it in Domain Setup.

HTTP error codes

Code	Check
403 Forbidden	Permissions (644 files, 755 folders), missing index file, deny rules in `.htaccess`, ModSecurity
404 Not Found	Wrong folder, missing rewrite rules for pretty URLs
500 Internal Server Error	PHP fatal error or `.htaccess` syntax; read the error log
502 / 503 / 504	PHP-FPM overloaded or stopped, long-running scripts

Read the domain's error log under Site Summary / Statistics / Logs; see logs and statistics. Remember that php_value lines in .htaccess cause 500 errors under PHP-FPM.

Application problems

Database connection errors: wrong credentials in the config file, or MySQL stopped.
After a PHP version change, old code may fail; switch back to confirm. See PHP versions.
For WordPress, rename the plugins folder to rule out a broken plugin.

Quotas

A full disk or inode quota breaks uploads, sessions and caches. See disk quota and inodes.

Server services (admins)

Check Server Manager → Service Monitor for stopped services (httpd, nginx, litespeed, php-fpm, mysqld) and restart them. Run ./build rewrite_confs in CustomBuild if configs were changed manually.

Next steps

PHP settings.
Redirects.
Still stuck? Open a ticket with the URL, time and error.

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