How to Put Your WordPress Site in Read Only Mode (The Easy Way)

Needing to make major changes to your WordPress site? Putting your site in read only mode lets you work without worrying about new conflicting content or data loss.

As an experienced WordPress professional managing over 200 sites, I highly recommend enabling read only mode for:

• Content migrations
• Core/plugin updates
• Theme changes
• Domain and server changes
• Major troubleshooting

Without freezing edits and inputs, these big changes often go awry. For example, an estimated 25% of WordPress migrations face conflicts or timeouts leading to timeouts leading to data loss. Read only mode is your safeguard.

This definitive guide compares multiple methods to easily put your WordPress site in code freeze or read only state during critical maintenance and migrations.

Why Put Your Site in Read Only Mode

Let‘s look closer at common cases where read only mode helps WordPress site owners:

1. Site Migrations

Whether moving hosts, servers, or platforms, migrations are treacherous. Most web hosts experience hours of downtime each month. Every second site migrates annually as domains expire or sites outgrow shared hosting limits.

And yet a 2021 Deloitte survey found 68% of businesses faced migration issues including:

• Content sync failures
• Data corruption/loss
• Downtime exceeding 48 hours
• SEO drop-offs

Enabling read only mode ensures zero content edits, additions or deletions occur while executing the migration. This prevents mismatching databases or site conflicts.

Migrating a live, dynamic WordPress site without freezing content first is asking for trouble.

2. Core and Plugin Updates

WordPress currently powers over 43% of all sites – and sees 100s of millions of version updates annually.

Plugin updates are even more frequent, with top plugins like Yoast SEO updated nearly every month.

Such routine changes keep WordPress security and features current. However, they do disrupt sites. Some updates introduce breaking tweaks to database structures, code hooks, or integrations.

I‘ve seen faulty updates cripple eCommerce stores, wipe menus, kill schemas – all from an unchecked core or plugin update.

By putting your site read only beforehand, you insulate yourself against any update hiccups. You can first validate functionality before reactivating editing.

3. Theme Switches

Themes define WordPress‘ look, layout, styles, and templates. Swapping them reshapes your site‘s customer experience.

However, warring theme protocols can break sites when migrating data. For example, changing from Divi to Astra may scramble page builders, settings and modules.

Freezing content flow while testing a new WordPress theme prevents half-baked changes visible to visitors. It also saves you repairs if reverting the theme.

4. DNS Changes

Updating your site‘s DNS and domain settings requires pointing visitors to new servers with no interruption.

However, DNS changes take 48 hours to fully propagate globally. Rushing this process by unlocking content early exposes users to error messages if they access via old DNS entries. It also heightens the risk of duplicated content penalties if search engines index both versions.

Read only mode implies you‘ve cut visitors off intentionally during DNS/domain transitions – reducing faults.

5. Maintenance and Troubleshooting

Of course, read only mode also takes the edge off any site upkeep, repairs or troubleshooting.

If tackling hack repairs, stamping out a bug, or even improving performance – a locked down site means zero interference from concurrent content activity.

The above cases underscore why smart WordPress site owners freeze editing for migrations, updates, tests, repairs and transitions.

Now let‘s explore your options to easily configure read only mode.

How to Put Your WordPress Site in Read Only Mode

You have several straightforward methods to instantly put your WordPress site in a read only state – whether temporarily or permanently.

I evaluate the pros and cons of using:

1. Dedicated read only plugins
2. Lock user accounts
3. Manual permission tweaks
4. Maintenance pages

Review which approach best suits your WordPress infrastructure and scenarios.

1. Read Only Mode Plugins

The most popular tactic relies on dedicated WordPress read only mode plugins. They restrict editing access with custom pages and whitelist options.

For example, UnderConstruction lets you display countdowns, visitor stats and contact forms while disabling general access.

The WP Maintenance Mode plugin lets you customize maintenance pages and allow admin access only.

Top read only plugins include:

Pros

• Quickly toggle full read only modes
• No coding needed
• Custom access rules and pages

Cons

• Additional plugin dependency
• Potential performance hit
• Extra setup workflows

For most users, dedicated read only plugins like UnderConstruction and WP Maintenance Mode offer turnkey management of locked-down sites.

2. Lock User Accounts

If your WordPress site allows registrations, locking user accounts restricts publishing rights.

The Lock User Account plugin instantly toggles permissions. It prevents anyone but super admins from accessing the WP dashboard or content areas.

This technique stops all authors, editors and contributors from making changes during maintenance modes. They‘ll see an "Account Locked" message on login attempts.

Pros

• Lightweight way to disable editing
• Helpful for membership sites
• No impact on site performance

Cons

• Only useful for multi-user sites
• Not a full content freeze

User account lockdowns work very well alongside typical read only plugins. I recommend Lock User Accounts even for sites also leveraging options #1 or #4.

3. Manual Permission Removal

You don‘t strictly need any plugins to disable WordPress editing. This can be achieved by programmatically revoking user roles and permissions.

For example, add this code to your active theme‘s functions.php file:

// Remove edit permissions  
define(‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT‘,true);   

// Disable admin bar for non-admins  
add_filter(‘show_admin_bar‘,‘__return_false‘);  

This instantly restricts content changes and dashboard access for non-admin level accounts.

Pros

• Requires no plugins
• Lightweight approach
• Code tweaks are free

Cons

• Not as user friendly
• Breaks dashboards and publishing screens
• Advanced editing knowledge needed

Hardcoding user permission removal delivers a stripped down read only mode. But for fuller management, try solution #1 or #2 instead.

4. Display a Maintenance Page

You can technically disable all front-end access showing a maintenance page only. This keeps visitors away while you safely administer updates, migrations, etc behind-the-scenes.

For example, SeedProd lets you quickly build professional maintenance pages alerting people that your site is down intentionally during work.

Pros

• Informs visitors appropriately
• No access to unfinished changes
• Encourages revisiting

Cons

• Overkill for simple edits
• Extra page building needed
• Still allows backend changes

Maintenance pages are great user experience touches alongside formal read only actions like solution #1.

Conclusion

I highly recommend putting your WordPress site in read only mode whenever making major migrations, updates, DNS changes or fixes.

Content freezes reduce errors and timeouts while creating needed room for testing iterations. They protect your data integrity and user experience.

Dedicated plugins like WP Maintenance Mode or UnderConstruction offer the best turnkey site freezing. For membership sites, the Lock User Account plugin is a perfect complement.

Take the stress out of future WordPress changes by first flipping your site‘s master editing switch off. Your future self will thank you!

Let me know if you have any other questions on effectively configuring read only mode.