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Publish and get found

Publish with confidence, recover when needed

Understand drafts, live versions, publish failures, and the two ways to recover an earlier version.

Who this helps
Owners, Admins, and Editors who publish a Launch site.
Before starting
Save the latest draft and check the affected pages in Preview.
Done when
The live address serves the intended version, and the customer journey works there.

01

Know which version customers see

The saved draft is the version in the editor. The live version is the last successful publish selected for visitors.

Save and Publish do different jobs. Saving a draft, SEO setting, or post does not by itself prove that the public website changed.

A failed publish does not replace the previous successful live version. On a first publish, there is no previous live version to serve.

02

Put the saved version live

Publish is available in the editor and Hosting. Hosting publishes the latest saved version when the request reaches the server.

  1. Wait for the draft to finish saving.
  2. Check pages, links, forms, and the mobile layout.
  3. Select Publish.
  4. Wait for Published, then open the live site.
  5. Check the changed page at its public address.

Queued, Building, and Uploading mean work is still in progress. Published identifies a successful build; the Live marker identifies the one visitors receive.

03

Restore an earlier draft

History → versions lists saved revisions. Restore makes an earlier revision the newest draft; it does not put that revision live.

  1. Wait for current changes to save.
  2. Open History in the editor and choose versions.
  3. Find the revision to recover and select Restore.
  4. Inspect the restored draft.
  5. Publish if that version should replace the public website.

Keep post history separate from site history. Use the post editor's history to recover an earlier article.

04

Serve an earlier successful publish

History → publishes can put an earlier successful build back online. This changes the live website without replacing the current editing draft.

  1. Open History, then publishes.
  2. Find the earlier successful version.
  3. Select Serve this.
  4. Confirm the Live marker moved to that version.
  5. Open the public URL and test the recovered page.

Before the next Publish, inspect the draft. Publishing it again can bring back changes that the rollback removed from the live site.

05

Recover from a failed or delayed publish

Read the failure message before retrying. A site error needs a draft correction; an interrupted service may need a later retry.

  1. Open the editor to inspect any site errors.
  2. Correct the named issue and wait for the save.
  3. Retry Publish after resolving the issue.
  4. Check Hosting → Deployments for status and timing.
  5. Use Help if a publish remains stuck or repeats the same failure.

Include the site name, affected URL, visible error, and time in a support request. Do not include secret keys.

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