How to Enable Maintenance Mode in WordPress
Overview
When you're updating a theme, swapping plugins, or making major content changes, you don't want visitors landing on a half-broken page. Maintenance Mode solves this by temporarily restricting access to your website while you work — visitors see a maintenance notice instead of your unfinished changes. In WordPress this normally requires a dedicated plugin or manual file edits.
The CloudStick WordPress Manager turns it into a single toggle in the General settings section — no plugin to install and no WordPress admin login required. This guide shows you exactly where to find it and how to switch it on and off.
This guide applies to WordPress websites hosted on a CloudStick-managed server. If you haven't set up your site yet, see How to install WordPress in CloudStick first. Remember to turn maintenance mode off once your work is finished — while it is enabled, visitors cannot browse your site.
Step 1: Log In to CloudStick
Everything starts from the CloudStick dashboard, which lists all the servers connected to your account.
Sign in to CloudStick: Log in to your CloudStick account with your credentials to open the main dashboard.
Step 2: Open Your Server
Each server card on the dashboard shows live stats such as CPU, RAM, and disk usage. Open the server that hosts the WordPress website you want to put into maintenance.
Go to Servers: From the dashboard, locate the server card for the machine hosting your WordPress site.
Select your server: Click the server name (or its Manage link) to open the server panel.
Fig. 01 — The CloudStick dashboard showing connected servers; select the server that hosts your WordPress website.
Step 3: Select Your WordPress Website
Inside the server panel, the WebApp List shows every website hosted on the server. WordPress sites are easy to spot by the WordPress logo on their card.
Open the Websites section: From the left-hand navigation, go to Websites to view the WebApp List.
Click your WordPress website: Select the site you want to place into maintenance mode.
Fig. 02 — The WebApp List showing hosted websites; click the WordPress website you want to update.
Step 4: Open the WordPress Manager
The website view opens on the Website Summary, showing your domain, PHP version, and disk usage. The WordPress-specific controls live in the WordPress Manager.
Click the WordPress Manager tab: Select WordPress Manager from the tab bar at the top of the website view to open the management panel for your WordPress installation.
Fig. 03 — The Website Summary with the WordPress Manager tab selected, showing the WordPress management panel.
Step 5: Go to General Settings
The WordPress Manager is organized into General, Users, and Plugins tabs. Site-wide options, including the maintenance control, live under General.
Open the General section: Click the General tab and scroll down to the Visibility & Tools area, which controls how your site is seen and managed.
Step 6: Enable Maintenance Mode
Under Visibility & Tools you'll find the Maintenance Mode option, described as "Turn on maintenance mode to restrict site access." It sits alongside the Debugging and Search Engine Visibility toggles.
Turn on the Maintenance Mode toggle: This immediately restricts website access for visitors while you carry out your updates.
Do your work: Update themes, plugins, or content safely — visitors won't see the site mid-change.
When you're done: Return to this toggle and turn maintenance mode off to make your site publicly accessible again.
Fig. 04 — The Visibility & Tools area in General settings with the Maintenance Mode toggle highlighted.
Maintenance mode restricts what visitors can access, but search engines may still try to crawl your site. For longer maintenance windows, consider also disabling indexing — see How to disable search engine visibility in WordPress — and re-enable both once your site is ready for visitors.