# How to take a forum offline temporarily
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [20 juli 2019 om 00:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480 "2019-07-20T00:34:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DiscoWebmaster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DiscoWebmaster)
#### Post date: [20 juli 2019 om 00:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/1 "2019-07-20T00:34:28Z")
Hello,
I searched in the settings but I cannot find a way to temporarily disable a forum (such as to disable it for upgrades/changes/etc.). Where would I find such an option?
I want to disable logins that are not administrators and have it show as offline should anyone attempt to sign in.
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [20 juli 2019 om 00:37 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/2 "2019-07-20T00:37:41Z")
In the backup area, press the “enable read only mode” button.
---
### Author:  [@DiscoWebmaster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DiscoWebmaster)
#### Post date: [20 juli 2019 om 00:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/3 "2019-07-20T00:39:45Z")
In that section I only see:
> Enable read only mode while taking a backup
There doesn’t seem to be a more ‘permanent’ version. Also if read only would be the only way, can I disable logins as well?
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [20 juli 2019 om 00:40 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/4 "2019-07-20T00:40:28Z")
---
### Author:  [@DiscoWebmaster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DiscoWebmaster)
#### Post date: [20 juli 2019 om 00:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/5 "2019-07-20T00:57:12Z")
Got it thank you! Was looking in the Backup Settings instead.
Also, in the event I wish to disable log ins or take the forum completely offline is this possible?
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [20 juli 2019 om 01:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/6 "2019-07-20T01:41:02Z")
If you don’t want anyone to access it change your a record and add it to your hosts.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [20 juli 2019 om 01:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/7 "2019-07-20T01:52:38Z")
> [@DiscoWebmaster](#):
>
> disable log ins
You can disable logins via your site settings, or re-rerun the setup wizard which will also allow you to make your site login required.
---
### Author:  [@frold](https://meta.discourse.org/u/frold)
#### Post date: [25 oktober 2019 om 11:07 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/8 "2019-10-25T11:07:22Z")
If you want to disable it totally.
Eg with a msg like “The forum is temporary down due to maintenance”
As I need to move from server 1 (vultr) to server 2 (digitalocean)
and in that case also from url.tld to forum.url.tld
how do I do that?
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [25 oktober 2019 om 11:18 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/9 "2019-10-25T11:18:05Z")
I usually just put the old site in read only mode while making the transition to the new site.
---
### Author:  [@anon23840344](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon23840344)
#### Post date: [13 oktober 2020 om 01:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/11 "2020-10-13T01:44:53Z")
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> change your a record
This isn’t working, perhaps due to caching? I’m using AWS and DigitalOcean. Users who are logged in can still browse the old Discourse instance. Can I force a logout of everyone?
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [13 oktober 2020 om 01:46 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/12 "2020-10-13T01:46:06Z")
Why not stop the container
---
### Author:  [@anon23840344](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon23840344)
#### Post date: [13 oktober 2020 om 01:46 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/13 "2020-10-13T01:46:49Z")
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> stop the container
If I ssh into the droplet, cd into /var/discourse/, and run `./launcher stop app`, it outputs:
```plaintext
+ /usr/bin/docker stop -t 10 app
app
```
But I’m still able to navigate and interact with the old Discourse instance in my other open web browser.
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [13 oktober 2020 om 03:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/14 "2020-10-13T03:02:56Z")
Are you sure you connected to the correct server?
What’s the result of `docker ps`?
---
### Author:  [@anon23840344](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon23840344)
#### Post date: [24 oktober 2020 om 19:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/15 "2020-10-24T19:30:07Z")
> Are you sure you connected to the correct server?
Yes, I see it named in the command-line prompt.
> What’s the result of `docker ps` ?
`CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES`
---
### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [25 oktober 2020 om 07:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/16 "2020-10-25T07:44:36Z")
That says that nothing’s running. Are you sure you’re administrating the correct server?
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [25 oktober 2020 om 12:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/17 "2020-10-25T12:20:25Z")
Discourse caches a bunch of stuff, so sometimes a site will appear to display when it’s down. If the site still shows it you do a hard reload, you’re not logged in to the right server
---
### Author:  [@anon23840344](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon23840344)
#### Post date: [25 oktober 2020 om 16:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-take-a-forum-offline-temporarily/123480/18 "2020-10-25T16:57:06Z")
I eventually just gave up and removed the subdomain from public service entirely, thank you.