A critical vulnerability was discovered in React Server Components (Next.js). Our systems remain protected but we advise to update packages to newest version. Learn More

Jeff Wallace
Mar 24, 2010
  21369
(1 votes)

How to Access EPiServer CMS Edit Mode with the URL

Often times I find myself accessing CMS Edit mode (or Admin mode) directly via the URL.  It seems pretty basic when you’ve worked with the system for a while but maybe we take that knowledge for granted based on our experience.  I’ve had a few partners ask about his recently so I thought I’d write a short and simple blog post about it.

CMS 6 Edit Mode (based on CMS 6 RC1):

http://<computername>:<port>/<yoursitename>/<ui>/cms/edit

Where…

o <computername> is your computer name

o <port> is the port you configured for the site during install. Default is 17000 for the first site install

clip_image002[6]

o <yoursitename> is the name you configured for the site during install. Default for the site is “MyEPiServerSite”

clip_image004[6]

o <ui> is the relative path you configured for the site during install

clip_image006[6]

Example:

http://mywindowsysevenmachine:17000/myepiserversite/ui/cms/edit

 

CMS 5 Edit Mode (based on CMS 5 R2 SP2):

http://<computername>:<port>/<yoursitename>/<ui>/edit

o Essentially this is the same as above for CMS 6 however by default CMS 6 uses ../ui/cms/edit and CMS 5 uses ../ui/edit.

 

Notes:

o If you aren’t certain what path you set for your site on install:

o Open the episerver.config file for the site typically located at C:\EPiServer\Site\<yoursitename> (CMS 6 stores this in episerver.config. CMS 5 stores this in web.config)

o Search for “uiUrl”. You will find something similar to the following: ~/MyEPiServerSite/UI/. This is the relative UI path. Adding “edit” to the tail of this path will give you the relative Edit mode path.

o If you aren’t certain what your sites URL or port for your site is:

o Open the episerver.config file for the site typically located at C:\EPiServer\Site\<yoursitename> (CMS 6 stores this in episerver.config. CMS 5 stores this in web.config)

o Search for “siteUrl”. Here you should find the site URL as well as the port.

o How do you access Admin mode via URL?

o Typically the same as the above steps for Edit mode but swap in “admin” in place of “edit” in the URL.

Example:

http://mywindowsysevenmachine:17000/myepiserversite/ui/cms/admin

Mar 24, 2010

Comments

Oct 9, 2010 01:40 PM

Haha, I've been reading about the edit mode and trying to access it for hours. Surely this should be more prominent in the getting started section. Anyhow, thanks for posting it.

Feb 6, 2014 10:20 AM

I know this might be old, but had a similar problem when installing v7.5.

If this is the error:
This configuration section cannot be used at this path. This happens when the section is locked at a parent level. Locking is either by default (overrideModeDefault="Deny"), or set explicitly by a location tag with overrideMode="Deny" or the legacy allowOverride="false".

Make sure you have enabled the proper settings under Windows features:
Goto "Turn windows features on or off" in the Control Panel / Programs menu
in the features window, Click: "Internet Information Services"
Click: "World Wide Web Services"
Click: "Application Development Features"
Check/enable the features. I checked all.

This worked for me at least.

Ashraf Al-Safoo
Ashraf Al-Safoo Oct 27, 2014 08:02 PM

This is very useful. I even bookmarked it. Thanks Jeff

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Optimizely PaaS Administrator Certification : Free for Everyone

Optimizely has recently launched a free PaaS Administrator Certification. https://academy.optimizely.com/student/activity/2958208-paas-cms-administ...

Madhu | Dec 9, 2025 |

Fixing TinyMCE Initialization Failures in Optimizely CMS: A Hidden Pipeline Issue with .NET SDK Versions

Over the past few weeks, several Optimizely CMS projects began experiencing a puzzling failure: XHtmlString fields stopped initializing TinyMCE in...

Francisco Quintanilla | Dec 9, 2025 |

Jhoose Security Modules v2.6.0 — Added support for Permissions Policy and .NET 10

Version 2.6.0 adds Permissions Policy header support, updates to .NET 10, improved policy management, configurable security settings, and enhanced...

Andrew Markham | Dec 6, 2025 |

Building a 360° Customer Profile With AI: How Opal + Optimizely Unlock Predictive Personalization

Creating truly relevant customer experiences requires more than collecting data—it requires understanding it. Most organizations already have rich...

Sujit Senapati | Dec 4, 2025