Without Drush support or access, how do you turn-off or disable (and vice-versa, to turn on and enable) Drupal 7 maintenance mode in settings.PHP file?

If you have FTP or SFTP access, you may:

  1. Download, edit, then re-upload your settings.PHP file
  2. Search and look for any line with this variable $conf[‘maintenance_mode’]
  3. Edit as follows:
    1. To turn off maintenance mode
      $conf[‘maintenance_mode’] = FALSE;
    2. To turn on maintenance mode
      $conf[‘maintenance_mode’] = TRUE;
  4. If missing, add the line
  5. If commented (with double slash at the beginning of line), remove the double slash and provide value like above as needed

To disable or enable by editing database using phpMyAdmin, please see this article – How to turn-off disable (or turn on and enable) Drupal maintenance mode and status via phpMyAdmin / database

To disable or enable by Drush or terminal command, see this article – How to turn-off disable (or turn on and enable) Drupal maintenance mode and status using Drush command