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4. Turning your chatbot on, off or into maintenance mode

 Turning your chatbot on, off or into maintenance mode
=====================================================

Updated 1 month ago · 2 min read

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Chat availability controls whether your chatbot is open for business. It is a setting that your team can change directly, and it takes effect on your live website immediately.

The three options
-----------------

- **Enabled** is normal running. Users can open the chat and have conversations.
- **Disabled** removes the chat from your website. The launcher does not appear at all.
- **Maintenance** shows users a maintenance message in place of the usual chat, so they know the service is temporarily unavailable rather than broken.

When to use each
----------------

Leave it on **Enabled** almost always.

Use **Maintenance** for planned, temporary interruptions: a website migration, a major service outage where the chatbot's answers would be wrong, or a period when the information on your site is mid-update. It is the friendlier of the two off states because it tells users what is happening.

Use **Disabled** when you want the chat gone entirely, such as while you review the service or after a campaign the bot was set up for has ended.

How to change it
----------------

1. Go to **Chat availability** in the dashboard.
2. Choose **Enabled**, **Disabled** or **Maintenance**.
3. Select **Save**.

![The Chat availability page in the dashboard, with the setting dropdown set to Enabled and the Save button above it](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/15zgzOaO7wSDPiXoIbwG0yQPsZPfc2Tw4HR35Aaw.png)

![The chat widget on a website displaying the maintenance message instead of the usual chat window](https://assist.knowledge.civ.io/storage/YbjUL2RiamBtNTU0LHt4AkDTccJ5W6j8VPP4NKS6.png)

This change is live as soon as you save it. There is no scheduling and no preview step, so anyone on your website will see the effect straight away. Switch back to **Enabled** as soon as the work is finished.

If the chatbot has disappeared from your website unexpectedly, check this setting first. A bot left on **Disabled** or **Maintenance** after earlier work is a common cause. See [The chatbot is not appearing on my site](/articles/chatbot-not-appearing-troubleshooting).

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