# Unpublish or delete a site

Take a live site offline and keep it as a draft, or delete it with all its pages and versions. See what each action keeps, what it removes and what you can undo.

## Take a site offline

Taking a site offline turns it back into an editable draft. Pages, messages and contacts stay. You can undo it by publishing again.

### From the editor

1. **Open the Publish window** Press **Update** in the top bar. The window is titled **Update your site** and shows **Live at <address>.uova.io**, the time under **Last published**, and the links **Change settings** and **Take offline** beside the **Update** button.
2. **Select Take offline** Your browser asks "Take this site offline? It will no longer be accessible at <address>.uova.io". Confirm it.
3. **Check the result** The window closes and the top-bar button goes back to **Publish**. If the request fails, the window shows "Failed to unpublish" or "Failed to take site offline."

### From the dashboard

Open the site's Site settings > **Danger zone** and choose **Unpublish**. The dialog is titled "Unpublish <name>?" and says the address "goes offline at once and visitors see nothing there until you publish again". After you confirm, a message says "<name> is offline. It's a draft now." and the dashboard marks the site **Draft**. In the Websites list you can also select one or more live sites and use **Unpublish** in the bar that appears.

### What happens to the rest

| Item | After you take the site offline |
| --- | --- |
| Your pages and editor content | Kept. The site is an editable draft. |
| Form messages and contacts | Kept. |
| The uova.io address | Released. Anyone can claim it, and you can publish again with the same or a new address. |
| A connected custom domain | The domain entry is kept. It shows "Site not found" until a site is published again under the same address. |
| Settings saved on the dashboard SEO page | They are stored with the published copy, which Take offline deletes. Enter them again after you publish again. |
| Site settings panes | **Domain** and **Code** under Site settings, and **Access** under Content & Memberships, ask you to publish first while the site is a draft. |

> **Your old address is released:** Take offline frees the address. If you want the same address back, publish again promptly. UOVA cannot reserve it for you.

## Keep it live but limit who sees it

If you only want to restrict access, a site-wide password may fit better. In the dashboard open Content & Memberships > **Access**, choose **People with the password** and use **Add a password** (8 to 256 characters). Locked sites are kept out of search. It applies to the whole site, not to single pages, and **Remove password** opens the site again.

## Delete a site

Deleting removes the site, its pages and all its saved versions. Use **Delete website** in Site settings > **Danger zone**. The dialog is titled "Delete <name>?", and you must type DELETE to confirm. For a live site it says "This takes <address> offline immediately. This cannot be undone." You can also use **Delete** in a site's row menu in the Websites list, which asks for a plain confirmation, or select several sites and use **Delete**, which asks you to type how many you are deleting.

UOVA takes a live site offline first. If it cannot, the delete is refused with "This project is not in your account, or its live site could not be taken offline. Try again in a minute." The dialogs do not mention messages or contacts, so copy anything you need from the Inbox before you delete.

> **No undo:** A deleted website cannot be restored. If you might want the content again, take it offline instead, or export it first from the project menu in the editor (a static site .zip or a content .json).

## Limits

- Take offline and Delete are separate actions: only Delete removes pages and versions.
- Export does not include form messages, orders, bookings or analytics.
- Deleting your whole account is a different action, covered in [Account settings](https://www.uova.com/help/account/settings).

**Does taking a site offline delete my messages?**

No. Messages and contacts stay.

**How do I put the site back online?**

Open it in the editor and press **Publish**. Use the same address if you want the same address, and any connected custom domain, to work again.

**Can I move my site to another UOVA account?**

Not today. The editor has no transfer option.

Source: https://www.uova.com/help/build/publish/unpublish-and-delete