When a WordPress site is in maintenance mode, users will by default see the following message:
temporarily unavailable due to planned maintenance.
Return in a moment.
This is the most typical situation: whenever WordPress updates, the site needs maintenance.
There are some different situations also, like during development and testing, you need to manually enable maintenance mode. To do this, perform the following steps :
- Access your account by using SSH or cPanel.
2. Enter the location where WordPress is installed using the command line or the cPanel File Manager.
3. Now, create a file with the extension. maintenance using your chosen text editor.
Note: Ensure that the file name starts with a period (.) otherwise this procedure won’t work.
<?php
4. The following code should be copied and pasted into the.maintenance file:
$upgrading = time();
?>
5. Upload the.maintenance file with all of the modifications.
6. Your site’s maintenance mode is now active.
Delete the.maintenance file to return the website to its usual state.
Change the maintenance mode message in WordPress.
As we previously said, WordPress alerts you when your site is in maintenance mode with the phrase “Briefly down for planned maintenance.”
However, you are still able to change the WordPress maintenance mode page that is visible.
To achieve this, take the following actions:
1. Locate the wp-content subfolder in the location where you installed WordPress using SSH or the cPanel File Manager.
2. Create a file called maintenance.php in a text editor.
3. Add the HTML or PHP code you want to use when WordPress is in maintenance mode to this maintenance.php file.
Following that, WordPress will display the maintenance.php file as opposed to the default message.