Putting Your Store into Maintenance Mode Print

What maintenance mode does

Maintenance mode hides your store from the public while you work on it. Instead of your shop, visitors see a short "we'll be back soon" message, which is exactly what you want while you are loading products, changing the look, or setting things up and would rather the world did not watch you do it.

This is different from catalog mode, which leaves the store fully visible and only switches off buying. Maintenance mode hides the whole thing. Our article on catalog mode covers the other option, when you want people to see your products but not purchase yet.

The catch that catches everyone

Here is the thing nobody warns you about, so consider yourself warned: when you switch maintenance mode on, it hides the store from you too. You turn it on, go to check your site, and get the same "we'll be back soon" message your visitors get, and it looks like you have locked yourself out of your own shop.

You have not. This is exactly what maintenance mode is supposed to do, and there is a proper way to keep working on the site while the public stays shut out.

The fix: add your own IP address to the allowed list

Maintenance mode lets you specify IP addresses that are still allowed to see the site while everyone else sees the maintenance message. Add your own IP address to that list, and you get the best of both: you see and work on the full live store, while every visitor sees the holding message.

• Find your IP address first. Visit a site like ipapi.co/ip and it shows your current public IP.
• Add it to the maintenance-mode allowed list in your store's settings, and reload. Your store should now appear for you as normal.

One thing to know about IP addresses: many home and mobile internet connections get a different IP from time to time, so if your store suddenly shows you the maintenance message again after a while, your IP has probably changed. Check it again and update the list. It is not a fault, it is just how a lot of connections work.

On ThirtyBees

Maintenance mode is built into ThirtyBees, found in the store's preferences, with the field for allowed IP addresses right alongside it. It is native, so there is nothing to install, and it toggles on and off cleanly. Enter your IP, switch it on, and work away.

On WooCommerce

WooCommerce does not have a native maintenance mode, so this is handled with a plugin, the same situation as catalog mode. A good maintenance-mode plugin does everything described above, including the allowed-IP option, and often lets you design a nicer holding page into the bargain. As with any plugin, keep it updated, which our WordPress update service handles if we manage your site, and remember to switch it off, or deactivate the plugin, once you go live.

Turning it off

When you are ready to open, switch maintenance mode off, on ThirtyBees in the same preferences screen, on WooCommerce in the plugin, and your store is public again immediately. Do a final check in a browser where you are not on the allowed IP list, a phone on mobile data works well, to confirm the public genuinely sees the live store and not a leftover maintenance page.

Good to know

Maintenance mode is the right tool for a visible chunk of work, a redesign, a big product load, a price overhaul, where you would rather not have customers landing mid-change. For a quick edit it is usually overkill, most small changes are fine to make live. And if you would rather not wrestle with IP lists or plugins at all, open a support ticket, or if we are setting your store up for you, maintenance mode is part of how we manage the build so you are never staring at a locked-out screen wondering what happened.