Updated March 12, 2016
WordPress is great, but you’ll probably spend some time setting new things up or tweaking old things. In other words, there are occasions when you might want to put your site in maintenance mode. Here’s what I mean and when it would be a good idea.
What is maintenance mode?
It’s likely you’ve already come across sites in maintenance mode. You know a site is in maintenance mode because you don’t see anything except a “coming soon” screen or “we’re conducting maintenance at the moment and will be back in a little while.”
When would you use maintenance mode?
Maintenance mode comes is handy if:
- You are making a lot of changes to your design, or you’re updating and you don’t want anyone to see the wonkiness while you make the changes (use sparingly so you don’t frustrate your readers with an inaccessible website too often).
- Something goes wrong on your site and you want to quickly shield it from the outside world.
- You have a brand new site and are still getting it up and running. In other words, it’s under construction.
- You have a demo site where you can experiment and tweak and it’s not intended for the public.
I will tell you that I rarely put my site in maintenance mode these days. If I need to make tweaks, I’m familiar enough with WordPress that I just go for it and hope for the best.
How do you put your site in maintenance mode?
This task is best handled via a plugin.
You may be aware of my love/hate relationship with plugins, so I only install the plugin, do the work and then delete the plugin as soon as I’m done.
Recently A long time ago, I set up a demo site and recorded this video walking you through the steps. It’s an old video, but I’m leaving it up so you can see my process. I’ve also left the video notes below for reference. The notes below have been updated.
Can’t see the video? Watch it here.
Video notes
- In this video I’m using the WP Maintenance Mode plugin, but if you go to Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > “maintenance” in the search field, it’s likely you’ll find a better one now.
- Before installing a plugin, always be sure to check when it was last updated and if it’s been tested with your version of WordPress. If it seems outdated, search for a different one to use. I always choose the ones with lots of stars.
- Activate the plugin. This does not activate maintenance mode, just the plugin itself.
- To put your site in maintenance mode (therefore making the maintenance mode screen appear) you must configure Settings by clicking the “Settings” link underneath the plugin title in your Installed Plugins screen.
- Then, configure the fields you like. For my demo site, I changed “Title,” “Heading” and “Text.”
- Save your changes!
Don’t forget to read my plugin tips and the things you should be careful of when using them.
how about for tumblr?
Hmmm…not sure for Tumblr, Jobe. I imagine there’s a setting in there that makes it public or private.
Thanks for your Plain English explanation of how to do the settings to activiate WP Maintenance Mode. I saved the changes but they don’t show when I access my site. Do you need to apply or publish the site again or just save it as you explained. I’m sure I have probably just overlooked some basic step?
Hi Toni,
Make sure you are logged out when you are checking. If you are logged in, you’ll be able to see things as normal. 🙂
Yes, I discovered the solution after sending through my comment to you. It is really great to be able to advice clear, concise advice when needed. Really appreciate your time and quick response.
Thank you…I’ve been wondering how to do this. Now I just need to figure out how to add that silly demo site. 😉 Love your new look!
Oh, was it you I was talking to about this? Are you using Bluehost or HostGator? If so, just call them and tell them you’d like to add a demo site and they could walk you through the process of using an “Add-On domain.” It’s not as tricky as it seems (like yourdomain.com/demo).
Love it! Transferring to my own domain and have plenty of work to do before the site goes public. Thanks for sharing this!
I saw you mention “Demo Site” here and you reminded of a huge mistake I’d made in the past –
Making major new changes and adding new plug-ins to my main money making site instead of feeling it out first with a test site.
This has led to us spending like 20 hours trying to figure out what plug-in was cranking up the wonkiness to level 11. I hope everyone following you here heeds your wisdom and always feels out changes on a test site instead of their bread winner.
Ah yes, a demo site is a wonderful thing!
Amy, Thanks for helping me figure out how to make a blog button and telling me about the existence of Picnik! For those reasons, I am passing a little blogger award on to you. It’s in my Rolo Cookies post today. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Thank you so much!
Amy – how do you decide what plugins to use and which to avoid? I know in one of your previous posts you mentioned that they can be buggy.
There are so many fun ones, but I don’t want to mess up my blog!
Yes, if I can avoid a plugin I do due to the buggy factor and loading speed. I only use plugins that provide a significant benefit to the functionality of my blog—functionality for my readers or for me. You’re right, there are a lot of fun plugins, but unless they have a “oh my goodness this makes blogging so much easier!” I stay away from them. 🙂
I never knew about maintenance mode – thanks so much for explaining it so clearly!)
I don’t think anyone would “panic” if they came across my site when it wasn’t working properly, lol, but I wouldn’t want to lose any first time readers who may think that my link is invalid. Thanks so much for this!
You’re welcome!
Brilliant! I don’t often work on the blog but each time I have someone has gone in & panicked that I was no longer blogging! Many thanks Amy!
🙂