Maintenance Mode is a valuable feature in Power Pages (formerly Power Apps Portals) that allows administrators to temporarily take a portal offline for updates, deployments, or critical troubleshooting. Instead of users experiencing broken pages or unpredictable behavior during backend changes, Maintenance Mode provides a controlled, informative experience.
Table of Contents
- What is Maintenance Mode?
- Why Use Maintenance Mode?
- How Maintenance Mode Works
- Steps to Enable Maintenance Mode
- Customizing the Maintenance Page
- Disabling Maintenance Mode
- Troubleshooting Tips
- Best Practices
- Summary
- Tags
1. What is Maintenance Mode?
Maintenance Mode is a built-in configuration setting that, when enabled, redirects all unauthenticated users to a special maintenance page. Authenticated admins or developers can still access the portal for testing, which is especially helpful during live updates.
2. Why Use Maintenance Mode?
- Avoid downtime confusion: Shows a clean, branded maintenance message instead of error pages.
- Safe updates: Prevents users from accessing incomplete or misconfigured content during changes.
- Smooth deployments: Ensures the portal reflects new content correctly after publishing.
- User communication: Allows you to inform users of expected downtime and return times.
3. How Maintenance Mode Works
When enabled:
- A portal-wide “maintenance” flag is set via Site Settings.
- Unauthenticated users are automatically redirected to the maintenance web page.
- Authenticated users with admin privileges can still access content normally for verification.
This ensures public users don’t see unfinished updates or broken features during backend work.
4. Steps to Enable Maintenance Mode
Step 1: Access the Portal Management App
- Open Power Apps
- Go to Apps > Search for “Portal Management”
- Open the Portal Management Model-driven App
Step 2: Add or Edit the Site Setting
Navigate to: Portals > Site Settings
Then:
- Click “+ New”
- Create a new setting with the following details:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Authentication/Registration/EnableMaintenanceMode |
| Website | Select your portal |
| Value | true |
✅ If the setting already exists, just change the Value from
falsetotrue.
Step 3: Save and Publish
- Save the site setting
- Perform a portal cache refresh by:
- Going to Power Platform Admin Center
- Selecting your portal > Click “Clear Cache”, or
- Append
?cache=clearto your portal URL
5. Customizing the Maintenance Page
By default, Power Pages displays a generic maintenance message. You can customize this page:
Option A: Use a Web Page
- In Portal Management App:
- Go to Web Pages
- Search for “Maintenance” (Page Name:
maintenance)
- Edit the content and HTML in the Web Template or Copy a new one
Option B: Add Branding
- Add your company logo, custom message, and contact support info
- Use Liquid, CSS, or HTML to enhance visuals
Tip: Keep it simple, clean, and informative
6. Disabling Maintenance Mode
To bring the portal back online:
- Go to Portal Management App
- Find the Site Setting:
Authentication/Registration/EnableMaintenanceMode - Change Value from
truetofalse - Save
- Clear the cache using
?cache=clearor from the Admin Center
7. Troubleshooting Tips
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| Portal still shows maintenance page after disabling | Clear the portal cache |
| Admins can’t access the portal | Use incognito mode or ensure you’re logged in |
| Maintenance page not found | Ensure the Web Page named maintenance exists |
| Custom content not appearing | Check Web Template association and cache status |
8. Best Practices
- Announce in advance: Notify users before enabling Maintenance Mode
- Set timeframes: Mention estimated downtime on the maintenance page
- Test updates as admin: Use admin credentials to preview changes during maintenance
- Keep design consistent: Use your site branding on the maintenance page
- Don’t forget cache: Always clear portal cache after changing this setting