Surfaces, roles and current terminology

Permissions, settings and activation

• Requires General Features and/or Personalization settings permissions.
• Admins should retain the access key before enabling maintenance on production.
• Payment and cron jobs may still need separate coordination during long windows.

Core workflows

Enable maintenance for an update

1. Open Settings ? Personalization ? maintenance settings and set title, description, imagery, and optional end date.
2. Open Settings ? General ? Features, set an access key, then enable maintenance status.
3. Verify anonymous visitors reach /maintenance while staff can bypass with the key when required.
4. Perform the Update or migration work.

Exit maintenance

1. Disable maintenance status under Features.
2. Load the public homepage without the access key and confirm normal navigation.
3. Smoke-test login, catalog, and checkout if financial settings changed.

Recover if locked out

1. Use the maintenance access key URL pattern documented in Features hints, or disable the flag via database/settings with hosting access.
2. Confirm CheckMaintenance no longer redirects the homepage.
3. Rotate the access key after recovery.

Result states

• Success: Public visitors see the maintenance page while authorized operators can still complete the change window, then the site returns normally.
• Pending: Maintenance enabled but update tasks still running.
• Denied: Staff lack Features/Personalization permission, or bypass key is wrong.
• Error: Toggle saved but CDN/cache still serves the live site, or bypass fails; purge cache and recheck middleware.

Related guides

• Personalization
• General Settings
• Update
• Settings Hub