WordPress offers a maintenance mode which, when you perform updates, notifies visitors to your website that it is temporarily unavailable. Although this feature is very practical, sometimes, following an incorrect action, your WordPress remains stuck in maintenance mode. In this article, find our tips for correctly enabling WordPress maintenance mode and successfully unlocking it in the event of a malfunction.
Why put your WordPress site in maintenance mode?
Maintenance mode offers several advantages when you perform updates on WordPress.
- It informs visitors that the site is temporarily undergoing maintenance
- It reassures visitors by letting them know that the site is not damaged and that it will be accessible again soon
- It provides precise information about how long the maintenance will last
- It improves the website’s communication
- It allows you to stay in touch with visitors
Maintenance mode: how does it work?
With WordPress, you can update your website without having to enable maintenance mode yourself: in version 3.0, the platform introduced a feature that automatically sends visitors a message informing them that an operation is in progress on the page.
The message automatically sent by the platform is as follows : “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute”. Visitors therefore see this message when you perform an update, or when you carry out a new installation from the dashboard.
As you can see, this automatic maintenance mode displays a generic sentence that is not very engaging for your visitors. The reader may even not bother to translate it and assume that your site is no longer operational.
To make the message more effective and relevant, it is recommended that you modify WordPress maintenance mode yourself. This approach will allow you to :
- Add personalized phrases to inform the web user
- Send more user-friendly notifications
- Suggest alternative links to visit while waiting for the site to reopen
- Give a precise timeframe for the maintenance operations
Why customize WordPress maintenance mode ?
Generally speaking, creating a custom maintenance page offers several advantages for developing your website :
- Offer your users a better user experience
- Provide your readers with new information
- Improve your website’s image
- Strengthen the connection with visitors
How to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode ?
Two solutions are available to you to activate maintenance mode yourself and customize your page.
Manual activation without a plugin
It is possible to switch to maintenance mode manually. However, this requires some coding knowledge. The operation must also be carried out before any new update on WordPress.
- Find the
.maintenancefile located in the WordPress root directory - Once you have found it, insert the following code into the file:
- Delete the file when you have finished the maintenance
You can also manually activate maintenance mode by following these few steps:
- Use the
functions.phpfile intended for adding features - Add PHP code similar to this to the file:
<?php function maintenance_mode() { if ( !current_user_can( 'administrator' ) ) { wp_die('Maintenance.'); } } add_action('get_header', 'maintenance_mode'); ?> - Add a custom sentence to describe the maintenance operation (you can also include images)
Activation with a plugin
The easiest way to activate a custom maintenance mode is to install a specific plugin. Two WordPress extensions are particularly easy to use and offer a wide range of customization options:
The Maintenance plugin
This is probably the most downloaded maintenance plugin by WordPress users. Completely free, it allows you to customize the text and the page as you wish (color, design, background). Several other features are available with the extension, such as adding a countdown or links, or enabling subscription to the site’s newsletter.
The Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd plugin
This plugin, launched in 2011, is also very practical for customizing a maintenance mode on WordPress. Free or paid (depending on the plan chosen), it has the advantage of working with all WP themes, being responsive—compatible on all devices (computer, smartphone, tablet)—and supporting Multisite.
Several other maintenance plugins are available to you on WordPress. Choose the one that best meets your requirements!
How do you fix a WordPress site stuck in maintenance mode?
WordPress often gets stuck in maintenance mode. You can no longer log in to your site, and visitors systematically see the message informing them that operations are in progress. Several reasons may be behind this malfunction:
- WordPress was accidentally closed during the maintenance process
- The plugin update was interrupted while it was loading
- A faulty plugin update was performed
Whatever the issue, if WordPress is stuck in maintenance mode, it means that the temporary maintenance file “.maintenance” (created in the main folder by the platform at the start of the operation) was not deleted. Don’t panic! This is a relatively common problem that you can easily resolve: simply delete the .maintenance file manually by following these steps:
- Access the web server with an FTP program
- Go to the WordPress root directory
- Delete the .maintenance file
- Run a new update if necessary
Also remember to clear the cache from your dashboard toolbar. Your site should then work normally again. Find all our tips on our blog or contact our experts to get support with setting up or unblocking maintenance mode on your WordPress site!
