Once you have turned your site off-line using admin » settings » site maintenance (admin/settings), you can log back in by visiting:

http://example.com/?q=user

Make sure to note: Use the literal word user, not your username or user id. Do, however, replace example.com with the proper URL parts pointing to your website.

    Two additional things to try to access admin login:
  • http://example.com/?q=admin
    
  • http://example.com/user
    

You need to enter the username and password of an account with permission to administer site configuration. User 1 has this ability as a safety net, should you not have this turned on in other administrator account(s).

If you attempted to log in with a username that does not have the "administer site configuration" permission you will be stuck in that user account until you clear the browser's cookies. Simply instruct your browser to delete cookies for the site and visit the referenced URL above again. You can also use another browser to access the URL.

To return the site to online mode visit the following page:

Drupal 4: administer » settings (admin/settings)
Drupal 5&6: Administer » Site configuration » Site maintenance (admin/settings/site-maintenance).

On the page, set Site status to Online.

If you are truly desperate you can try the following database queries to restore access:

UPDATE variable SET value = 's:1:"0";' WHERE name= 'site_offline';
DELETE FROM cache WHERE cid = 'variables';

FAQ, Search strings

  • How to login when site is offline?
  • Took site offline, can't login
  • Site off-line, how do I get back in?

Comments

Quasaur’s picture

I just created a new site to sell sheetmusic online. I had done my homework before attempting the install (11 Important things) and last night I successfully installed Ubercart and its dependencies. I took my site offline after doing a backup using the backup_migrate module. the next day when going to my site i get:

403 Permission Denied
You do not have permission for this request /?q=user

I tried several tricks (including SQL), but no luck.

My ISP is bluehost, and I can't help but feel that this may be a file permissions issue, but everything there seems OK as well (755/644).

I'm stumped...any suggestions?

Quasaur
www.clmitchell.net

P.S. Read some documentation...turns out the root index.php may be missing...stay tuned!
..turns out that when i backed up my site i did a MOVE instead of a copy...i have a full backup which i will restore (whew!).

Anonymous’s picture

This information was very useful. I have put the site offline after that faced login problem. Searched in drupal.org for help. But most answers were not useful.
Luckily found this answer. You are right, actually that USER confuse many people, I also was writing user name/admin, at after reading your post realised the mistake of USER. Thanks a lot.
I found this site as very useful. Actually I learned something about drupal and made my site with help of this site. Best wishes.

owen86’s picture

For database queries to restore access, we have to put it in MySQL console??

bonzored’s picture

This page was very helpful, thanks.
Brogeen

madwolfkiller’s picture

saved me some time , thanks

Daniel Garneau’s picture

I tried the above examples, and none worked.
Building on them though,
the following did work for me : http://www.example.com/drupal/?q=admin.
Adding "/drupal/" was the key to my specific situation.
Thanks to author and contributors.

suroy’s picture

I had gone offline on maintainence mode.
www.example.com/?q=user fetched me to the login page.

patrickdemers6’s picture

Nobody else's was working but this one did!

Get my homework done’s picture

I need to how to get the chat ( ifly chat ) on my ruby on rails website designed to offer students with their homework answers. Any help on whether it is possible for the chat to work on Ruby on rails will be highly appreciated!