Error 522 – How to Fix This Error in WordPress

Error 522 - How to Fix This Error in WordPressAre you currently seeing the 522 error message when you try visiting your WordPress site? This type of error is common with websites that use Cloudflare on their server.

Cloudflare is a great Content Delivery Network that can optimize your website’s speed and improve performance. But it is a third-party hosting solution and can thus run into errors. An example is the Cloudflare error 522 page.

In this guide, we will explain some of the common causes of this error and then show you how you can resolve the error on your WordPress site.

Content:

What is Error 522?

Earlier we mentioned that this error is Cloudflare specific. This means, only sites that use the CDN are likely to be affected.

Error 522 is an HTTP status code that occurs when your web server is overloaded and is thus taking a long time to respond to requests from cloudflare.

Cloudflare acts as a middle man between your host server and the browser user. If your origin server fails to respond within a specified time, cloudflare will display the 522 error code on the browser.

This http error is similar to the 504 gateway timeout error because both signifies a timeout occurred on one of your servers. However, their causes are a little bit different. Below we will explain some factors causing the cloudflare error.

Common Causes of 522 Error in WordPress

First off, we would like to point out that this is a server error. If you are not the owner of the site displaying the error, all you can do is inform the site owner.

However, if you are seeing the error on your WordPress site, there are a couple of causes that may have led to the error page.

Firstly, your origin server may be overloaded with too many requests. This is common with shared hosting servers. Because resources are shared across different websites, whenever there is a traffic spike on your website or any of the websites on the network, it will slow down the server.

Secondly, error 522 can also occur if your hosting provider has a firewall feature blocking Cloudflare’s IP addresses. Because cloudflare uses reverse-proxy to communicate with your server, your web host may flag requests coming from their server in a bid to secure your site.

Lastly, if there is any mismatch between the IP address on your origin web server and the one on Cloudflare, you may often experience connection timeouts on your WordPress site. This occurs if you recently updated the DNS settings of your domain name.

How to solve Error 522: Connection timed out in WordPress

Here we will show you different methods of troubleshooting 522 error. Depending on the cause of the error, one of the solutions below will fix it for your WordPress website.

If you don’t want to go through the stress of debugging the error on your site, you can contact our support team so our WordPress experts help you with it. 

Update DNS Records (IP Settings)

When you integrate Cloudflare on your website’s domain, the platform will import all your DNS records. One of the records it imports is the A record (Address Record). This record is responsible for connecting your domain name to the IP address of the server hosting your site.

If there is a difference between the A Record on your hosting server and that on Cloudflare, it may result in a 522 timeout error.

To resolve this, you would need to confirm that both records have the same value on both platforms.

First, login to your hosting server and then locate the DNS servers settings. On cPanel, this setting can be found on the Zone Editor tab under “Domains”.

cpanel - error 522

Here, you can see all the DNS records for your websites’ domain. We are interested in the A record for the domain name. Note the ip address pointing to your domain.

Next, login to your Cloudflare account and select the DNS tab.

error 522 - cloudflare

On this dashboard, you will find all the records for your domain name. Locate the A record and compare the value of the ip address with that of the hosting server.

Differences between the A record on your origin host and Cloudflare could be the reason for the 522 error.

To fix this, simply click on the Add Record button on your Cloudflare dashboard. Then select “A record” under the type dropdown.

Now, paste the IP address from your host server into the IPv4 address box. Finally, click on the Save button.

This should fix the error if an IP address mismatch was the cause. If it doesn’t fix it on your website, you can try optimizing your server performance.

Optimize Server Capacity

An overloaded or offline origin server in most cases will not display your web page. This can occur if you are using a plugin that requires huge server resources, or your website experiences a huge traffic spike.

Additionally, sites on shared hosting often encounter such errors because resources are shared across different websites.

There are optimization techniques you can perform to free up server resources on your website. Below we will show you 3 proven tips that can help you resolve error 522 on your website.

Using a Caching plugin

In WordPress, caching plugins store your static HTML pages and files on the server. The stored pages will now be rendered to users for a specific period, thereby freeing your server from performing queries each time a user wants to visit a page on your site.

There are many caching plugins available on the WordPress plugins’ directory. All of them perform similar functions.

We have a detailed guide on how to install and configure WP Super Cache and WP Fastest Cache in case you decide to use any of them.

Uninstall Faulty Plugin(s)

If you started seeing the 522 error page after installing a plugin, chances are the plugin you recently installed is taking up much of your servers’ resources.

A quick fix for this is to deactivate the plugin on your website, and then notify the plugin’s developer of the issue.

If the error is preventing you from accessing your WordPress dashboard, you may need to disable the plugin through FTP.

Upgrade your Web Host

As your WordPress site begins to grow, it is only natural to upgrade to a higher hosting package such as vps hosting or managed WordPress hosting that can accommodate the increasing traffic on your website.

Most Managed WordPress hosting comes with a robust server that ensures your site runs smoothly without experiencing downtime.

Upgrading your web host can get complicated especially for beginners. You can hire an expert or contact your hosting providers’ support to help you with the upgrade.

Not sure which hosting package to choose? Check out our list of recommended WordPress hosting.

Enable KeepAlive

Enabling Keep-Alive on your server can help increase your sites’ loading speed as well as decrease server congestion. When enabled, your server will be able to retrieve multiple files (HTML, CSS, Images, and JavaScript) from a single connection. If not, it would be performing separate queries for each file.

To enable KeepAlive in WordPress, you need to modify the .htaccess file on your server.
For this, login to cPanel and then click on File Manager.

error 522 - cpanel

Next, navigate to the folder containing your WordPress files (usually public_html).

web server - error 522

Here, locate the .htaccess file and then double click on it to download a backup of the file.
After that, right-click on the .htaccess file and then select Edit.

error 522 - file manager

A popup will appear prompting you to download a backup of the file before editing. Simply click on Edit to proceed.

On the text editor, paste the code snippet below in the file.

# BEGIN ENABLE KEEPALIVE
<ifModule mod_headers.c>
Header set Connection keep-alive
</ifModule>
# END ENABLE KEEP ALIVE

Click on Save Changes.

522 error - wp-config

Side Note: If you cannot find the .htaccess file, simply click on Settings and then tick the box to show hidden files. And then hit the Save button to update your settings.

Confirm your Servers’ Firewall Allows Cloudflare IP Addresses

When you connect your WordPress site to Cloudflare, the platform handles incoming traffic to your website. Regardless of the location users are accessing your site from, they will appear to come from the same datacenter (Cloudflare’s servers).

This can be an issue if your WordPress hosting has an ip filtering feature blocking cloudflare requests. When this occurs your server will fail to process requests, leading to a 522 error page.

To resolve this, you will need to specifically set permissions to allow requests from Cloudflare’s ip addresses. The settings can be updated in the .htaccess file on your host server.

Login to cPanel and then open the .htaccess file (see the steps above). Next, copy and paste in the following code.

<RequireAny>

Require all granted

Require ip 127.0.0.1

</RequireAny>

Replace 127.0.0.1 with Cloudflare’s ip address. Here is a list of ip addresses used by cloudflare.

If you want to allow multiple ip addresses, simply copy and paste the Require ip 127.0.0.1 line of code into a new line. In each case, replace 127.0.0.1 with Cloudflare’s ip address.

Contact your Hosting Providers

If none of the methods above fixes the error on your website, then you can try contacting your hosting providers for further guidance. Most WordPress hosting providers offer 24/7 customer support to their users.

Simply contact your host so they can assist you in resolving the error.

Contact Cloudflare Support

This is the last-ditch option if your web host cannot fix the error on your site (which is very unlikely). Cloudflare recommends that you contact your web hosts before trying to contact their support team.

When contacting their support, you will need to share details from your hosting providers such as error logs, or conversations between you and your hosting providers’ support team.

Conclusion – Error 522

The connection timed out message is bad for your website. This error increases bounce-rate and affects your sites’ ranking on search engines. This is why you should fix such errors as soon as you discover them on your website.

In this guide, we explained the common causes of error 522 and then went further to show you ways to troubleshoot and fix the error on a WordPress site.

As a WP user, you would most likely run into errors as you manage your website. Our WP college contains a vast collection of common WordPress errors and how to resolve them.