Maintenance mode displays a custom message to all visitors while you work on the site. Administrators who are logged in are not shown the maintenance message and can continue working normally.
When to Use Maintenance Mode
Use maintenance mode when you are making significant changes to your site and you want to prevent residents from encountering a partially updated or broken experience. Common uses include:
- Restructuring navigation or pages.
- Performing a major content overhaul.
- Waiting on a technical fix from support.
Enabling Maintenance Mode
- Navigate to Administer Site > Settings > Site Status.
- Set Show Maintenance Page to Yes. The Maintenance Text editor appears below.
- In the Maintenance Text editor, write the message visitors will see. You can include text, links, and images. A typical message tells visitors that the site is temporarily unavailable and gives an expected return time.
- Click Save.
Maintenance mode takes effect immediately after saving.
Note: Administrators logged in to the site will not see the maintenance message and can access all pages as usual. Visitors who are not logged in — and non-administrator members — will see only the maintenance text.
Disabling Maintenance Mode
When your maintenance work is done, you can return your site to normal operation in seconds.
- Navigate to Administer Site > Settings > Site Status.
- Set Show Maintenance Page to No.
- Click Save.
The site immediately returns to normal for all visitors.
Verifying the Site Is Back Online
After saving, open a private browsing window (or a different browser where you are not logged in) and visit your site's URL. You should see the normal homepage. If you still see the maintenance message, clear your browser cache and reload.
Tip: You do not need to delete your maintenance text when turning the page off. The text is preserved so you can re-enable maintenance mode quickly in the future.