Store owners may occasionally need to take their sites offline temporarily for maintenance, software upgrading, product updates, etc.  There are 2 ways of doing this:

Down for Maintenance Page

This approach makes the site completely inaccessible - for customers and admins both - and displays the contents of the topic: Template.MaintenancePage . This approach is best for times when the site is undergoing technical changes or maintenance that may result in errors if it is touched in the meantime, like an upgrade.

1. In the site admin, edit the Template.MaintenancePage topic (if desired).
2. Ensure that the web.config (and associated files) are not encrypted:
• Ensure the IIS Application Pool user account (typically IIS_IUSRS) has been given Read/Write/Modify access to the folder in which the web.config file is stored (typically wwwroot). Check with your site hosting if this is not accessible to you.
• Decrypt the web.config (and associated files): Choose Site Setup Wizard from the Configuration menu in the site admin, then toggle the Encrypt the Web.Config option to NO and SAVE.
3. Go to the AppSettings.config file in the site root folder. Copy the file to a local folder, create a backup of it, and edit the file (Notepad or Notepad++ etc.) look for the following:
   • SiteDownForMaintenance and change its value to "true".
   • Save the AppSettings.config file and upload to the site root folder, overwriting the existing one.
4. As an option, you can retain access to the site for an IP address by adding the following to the add key="MaintenanceAllowedIP" line in the AppSettings.config file:
• value="{ip address to have access}"
• Example: add key="MaintenanceAllowedIP" value="10.20.30.40"

Disabling the Front End Only

This method shows customers only the contents of the Template.MaintenancePage topic.  The admin console is still accessible, and admins are able to browse the front-end of the site.  This approach is best for when making big content changes to the site, like getting ready for a big sale.

1. Edit the Template.MaintenancePage topic to display whatever content you want your customers to see during the maintenance.
2. Set the Configuration - Settings - DisplayMaintenancePage.Enable Setting to true.
3. Click the Refresh Store button at the top of the admin console.