This tutorial covers how to enable the WordPress website Maintenance mode. This is usually necessary when you undertake a major maintenance of your WordPress website such updating WordPress to a later version.

How to Put Your WordPress Site in Maintenance Mode

In case you wish to make a more significant update on your WordPress site, you might have to put it into maintenance mode. This mode is essentially a state where a website is not available for a specific period.

You might be asking, “What is this maintenance mode, and how do I use it?” We are stepping up with some help. In this post, we will cover everything in regards to the maintenance mode in WordPress. Additionally, we will show you how to edit the default message about the maintenance mode and make it appealing to visitors.

What you will find in this guide:

What Exactly is WordPress Maintenance Mode?
When Should I Set the Maintenance Mode?
What are the Side Effects of WordPress Maintenance Mode to the Site Visitors?
Methods to Put WordPress into Maintenance Mode
General
Design
Modules
Manage Bot
GDPR
Method 1: WordPress Maintenance Function
Method 2: Usе a Code Snippet
Method 3: Using the .htaccess File
Method 4: Using a WordPress Plugin
How to get a WordPress Site out of Maintenance Mode
The .maintenance File Solution
Maintenance Mode Plugin Solution
How to Prevent your Site from Getting stuck in WordPress Maintenance Mode
Final Thoughts

What Exactly is WordPress Maintenance Mode?

The maintenance mode in WordPress is an applied status that is to inform our site visitors about the current maintenance state of our website. Basically, it’s a page or a message that works as a substitute for the actual WordPress site. On that particular page, we may also add an estimation of when the site will be available again.

During the maintenance process, WordPress is going to use the wp_maintenance function, meanwhile creating a .maintenance file with the maintenance message inside. After the procedure is done, WordPress automatically deletes the .maintenance file. Then, the site should be working as usual.
When Should I Set the Maintenance Mode?

First and foremost - we do not have to enable the maintenance mode each time we have to perform changes to our WordPress site. Such small changes include updating pieces of content, fixing minor bugs, or playing around with the color schemes.

With that in mind, as the website grows bigger, it is natural that the changes also become larger, and thus the need for more time to make them. You might have to set maintenance mode when:

Changing the theme of a WordPress site;
Major Redesign;
Adding features;
Setting up additional services;
Fixing important security bugs;
Fixing customer data-related site issues.

All those would generally take an extensive period of time, which would prevent your visitors from viewing the site as intended.

The third reason for using WordPress maintenance mode relates to new websites rather than existing ones. It’s a ‘coming soon’ page, and it helps you build up some hype for your yet-to-launch site.