Tools

Maintenance Mode (Blocks)

Maintenance Mode shows visitors a holding or coming-soon page while you work, without taking the site down. One switch puts the whole front end behind a screen, while you (and anyone you allow) keep browsing normally. Where: WP Admin → Tiger Blocks → Tools → Maintenance. Two modes Maintenance — for temporary downtime. Returns HTTP 503 […]

2 min read Updated July 14, 2026

Maintenance Mode shows visitors a holding or coming-soon page while you work, without taking the site down. One switch puts the whole front end behind a screen, while you (and anyone you allow) keep browsing normally.

Where: WP Admin → Tiger BlocksToolsMaintenance.

Two modes

  • Maintenance — for temporary downtime. Returns HTTP 503 with a Retry-After header (a configurable number of days) so search engines know to come back.
  • Coming soon — for a pre-launch teaser. Returns HTTP 200 so the page can be indexed as a normal placeholder.

Choose the screen

Point visitors at either:

  • The built-in template — a fully-styled screen with your logo, a headline, a message, a gradient background (two colours you pick) and, in coming-soon mode, an optional launch countdown.
  • A real WordPress Page — any page you built with Tiger and core blocks, rendered through the normal content pipeline so your own design becomes the holding page.

Who gets through

Administrators always bypass the lock, so you can never lock yourself out. You can additionally allow specific roles or IP addresses to browse the live site during the lock. Admins can preview the locked screen itself by adding ?tigerbl_maintenance_preview=1 to a URL.

Handy details

An admin notice reminds you whenever the lock is on. The gate never fires for wp-admin, the login page, REST, cron or feeds, and it can be toggled from the command line via the tigerbl_maintenance_enabled option for automation. Design the holding page with a Tiger Hero block and a Newsletter block to capture interest while you build.

Troubleshooting

I turned it on but still see the normal site

As an administrator you always bypass the lock — that is expected. To see what visitors see, open a private/incognito window (logged out) or append ?tigerbl_maintenance_preview=1 to a front-end URL while logged in as an admin.

My selected Page is not rendering as the holding screen

The page source only works with a published page. Confirm the chosen page is published (not a draft), and that the Source option is set to Page rather than the built-in template.

Still stuck?

We’re here to help

Can’t find what you’re looking for, or hit something that looks like a bug? Reach the support team or ask the community.