Published changes not showing on your Wix site

The most common reason a change doesn't appear on a live Wix site is that it was saved but not published. Wix is explicit about it: "Clicking Save won't make your changes live. After saving, make sure to click Publish." Open the editor, click Publish, and check the live site again.

If you did publish, the next most likely cause is your own browser showing you a stored copy of the old page. Open the site in a private or incognito window. If the change is there, the site is fine and your browser cache was the problem.

When neither of those is the answer, the cause is one of a short list: the mobile version, CMS content that hasn't been synced to live, a cached page on Wix's side, a domain that points somewhere else, or a part of Wix that isn't controlled by the Publish button at all. This guide covers each one.

Quick diagnosis

Step 1: publish, and read any publish error

In Wix Editor, Save stores your work in the editor and Publish sends it to the live site. In Studio Editor there is no need to save, because it autosaves after every change, but nothing goes live until you click Publish. Wix lists "changes saved but not published" as the most common cause of differences between the editor and the live site.

If you click Publish and it fails, the message tells you why:

If the "can't be published right now" message keeps coming back, check Wix's status page for an incident. Our guide to what to check when a Wix site is down explains how.

Step 2: rule out your browser

Browsers keep copies of pages, images and style files so sites load faster on a second visit. That stored copy is the cache, and it can show you yesterday's version of your own site.

Wix's advice when changes show in preview but not on the live site is to clear the browser cache, try an incognito window or another browser, and republish. In practice:

1. Open the live address in a private or incognito window.
2. If the change appears, clear the cache in your normal browser or do a hard reload of the page.
3. If it doesn't appear, try a different browser or your phone on mobile data.
4. If it still doesn't appear anywhere, go back to the editor and publish again.

A customer or colleague who "can't see the update" is usually in this situation. Ask them to reload or open a private window before you change anything.

Step 3: understand Wix's own cache

Wix also caches pages, on its content delivery network (CDN, a group of servers around the world that hold copies of your pages close to visitors). According to Wix's article on caching pages to optimize loading speed, caching is enabled automatically for almost all pages, cached versions are typically kept for up to a week, and they are cleared every time you publish.

That last point means a normal design change should appear right after publishing. Cache can matter when content changes without a publish, for example data pulled in from a collection.

Three controls are available:

• Clear the whole site's cache. Go to Settings in your dashboard, search for "Website Performance Settings" and use Clear Site Cache.
• SWR. Short for "stale while revalidate", it is on by default. Visitors may be shown the cached version while Wix fetches fresh content in the background. Upgraded sites can turn it off in the same settings area.
• Per-page caching. In a page's Settings → Advanced Settings, Manually control caching for this page lets you choose how often the cache resets, or "Never".

Caching is there to speed up loading, so switch it off only where content must always be current. For the performance side, see Wix site speed and Core Web Vitals. Pages viewed by logged-in members, site search results and password-protected pages are never cached.

Step 4: check the mobile version

If the desktop site is right and the phone version is wrong, the answer depends on your editor.

• Wix Editor builds a mobile version from your desktop site and gives you a separate mobile editor to adjust it. Design changes made in the mobile editor don't affect desktop, and they need to be published too. A known example: after upgrading from a free plan, the Wix banner can stay on mobile until you open the mobile editor and click Publish.
• Studio Editor uses breakpoints, which are screen widths at which the layout adapts. Changes flow from larger breakpoints down to smaller ones, not up. If the live site differs from the editor, Wix says to confirm everything is published and to check the layout at the screen size where the problem appears.

Also check whether a new element is hidden on mobile. Wix Editor automatically hides some elements that don't suit small screens, and lists them under Hidden on Mobile in the mobile editor. Our guide to fixing mobile layout problems on Wix goes further, and Wix Studio vs Wix Editor explains how the two editors differ.

Step 5: sync CMS content from sandbox to live

The Wix CMS stores content in collections, which work like spreadsheets that feed your pages. A collection can have two versions: a sandbox, which is test data visible only in the editor, and a live version, which visitors see. Wix says sandbox content does not affect the live site until it is synced. For new sites the sandbox is disabled by default, so this applies to sites where the sandbox has been enabled.

If you edited items in the editor and the live site shows old content:

1. Open the collection in the editor.
2. Click Sync content.
3. Choose "Sync all items from Sandbox to Live", or sync selected items.
4. Check the live site.

Be careful with direction. Wix explains in its guide to syncing sandbox and live collections that updated sandbox items overwrite the same live items, and syncing also works from live to sandbox. If visitors add data to the live collection, for example through a form, don't overwrite it with stale sandbox rows.

CMS content also has its own cache. Data caching is on by default and clears when the collection changes, when you publish, and after one week. If collection updates lag on the live site, the toggle is at CMS → More Actions → Advanced Settings → Data caching, and it applies site-wide. Our article on SEO for Wix CMS dynamic pages explains how collections turn into pages.

Step 6: things the Publish button doesn't control

Some parts of a Wix site update on their own schedule.

• Automations. Wix states: "Publishing your site does not publish automation changes." Edits to an email or workflow are saved inside Automations, and they apply only to runs triggered after the edit.
• Old Wix Forms submission tables. For the older version of Wix Forms, the table loads data from the last time you published. Publish and refresh to see new entries.
• Google's search results. A new page title or description appears in Google only after Google recrawls the page, and Google may choose to show its own version. That is not a publishing fault.
• Custom code. Wix notes that custom code can cause unexpected differences between the editor and the live site. Its debugging tip is to disable each snippet's toggle one at a time and retest.

Step 7: check where the domain is pointing

If the domain was connected or changed recently, or your account holds more than one site, look at the domain next.

• Recent DNS change. For up to 48 hours after a domain is connected or its records are edited, Wix says "Published changes to your site may not appear on your live site" and "Your previously connected live site may appear on your domain".
• Wrong site. If your account holds more than one site, for example an original and a duplicate you redesigned, the domain may be assigned to the other one. You may have been editing the copy while visitors see the original. In your Wix account, open Domains and check which site the domain is assigned to.

The second case can happen after a redesign built on a duplicated site. Our guide to a Wix domain that isn't connecting covers assignment and DNS records.

Step 8: check whether someone changed it back

On a site with several collaborators, one person can save over another's work. Wix records every save and publish in Site History, and shows who saved each version. Open it from the editor under Site → Site History.

You can restore an earlier version by selecting it and clicking Restore. Two warnings, both from Wix's page on restoring a saved version of your site:

• Restoring erases changes made after that version.
• A restore does not revert everything. Content in Wix Stores, Blog, Events, Bookings and several other apps stays as it is. So do contacts, media galleries, site-level SEO Settings and CMS collection content and structure, for which Wix points to CMS backups.

Conclusion

Work from the simple causes outward: publish, check in a private window, then look at mobile, CMS sync, cache and the domain. Most cases end at the first or second step. The ones that don't usually involve a duplicated site, a sandbox collection or a collaborator's save, and Site History and the Domains page will show you which. If your site has grown complicated enough that changes regularly go missing, our Wix website services team can review the setup. More guides are in our Wix hub.

Frequently asked questions