Undoing changes & recovering pages

What Squarespace can and can't recover when something goes wrong, from undoing edits and restoring deleted pages to copying a page before a big change.

Everyone makes accidental changes. Squarespace's safety net is smaller than most people expect: there's no page history and no auto-save. This guide explains what you can recover, what you can't, and how to protect a page before a big edit.

Quick summary

Squarespace doesn't keep a page history or auto-save your work. You can undo changes while you're editing (to be safe, before you save), and restore deleted pages and blog posts for 30 days. Before a big edit, duplicate the page so you have a copy to fall back on. If something has already gone wrong, ask Chykalophia.

What Squarespace does and doesn't keep

Squarespace's Help Center is clear on this: "Squarespace doesn't have auto-save or revision history features when editing." That means work lost in these situations can't be brought back:

You exited the editor after making the change
Your browser closed, crashed, or reloaded while you were editing
The same content was being edited in two places at once, such as two browser tabs
A page or blog post was deleted more than 30 days ago

Undoing changes while you're still editing

While you're editing a page, click the undo arrow in the top-left corner of the editor, or press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Cmd+Z (Mac). Repeat to step further back. The redo arrow (or Ctrl+Y / Cmd+Y) brings a change back.

Undo covers most things in the editor, including blocks, sections, and site styles. A few things aren't covered, such as a form block's content and storage settings, and changes made in the image editor, which has its own undo.

Treat Save as final

Undo only works while you're editing. Squarespace's own guides disagree on whether undo still works after you click Save, so treat Save as final: saved style changes, and saved deletions of blocks and sections, definitely can't be undone. Once you click Exit, nothing can be undone. On an older version 7.0 site, click Cancel instead to go back to the last saved version of the page.

Restoring a deleted page or blog post

Squarespace keeps deleted pages and blog posts for 30 days. To restore a page:

Open the Pages panel and scroll to the bottom.

Click Deleted Pages. If you don't see it, either there's nothing to restore or your contributor role doesn't include restoring pages.

Hover over the page, click Restore, and confirm.

Find the page in the Not linked section and drag it back into your navigation.

To restore a blog post, click the blog page in the Pages panel, then click Deleted Posts at the bottom. Hover over the post, click ..., then Restore. It comes back as a draft, so you'll need to publish it again.

Some things can't be restored at all:

Sections, blocks, and text you deleted, once you've exited the editor
Most collection items, such as products, events, and gallery images (blog posts are the only exception)
Code deleted from a code block, Code Injection, or Custom CSS

Duplicating a page before a big edit

With no page history, the simplest safety net is a copy. Duplicate a page before you make big changes, and you'll still have the old version if the edit goes wrong. Duplicating is also a quick way to start a new page with the same layout.

Open the Pages panel.

Hover over the page and click the gear icon to open its settings.

Scroll down and click Duplicate Page, then click Confirm.

The copy opens for editing. Its title ends in "(Copy)", its web address gets a number on the end (on version 7.1, a copy of /about becomes /about-1), and it appears in the Not linked section.

Rename it in its page settings, and update the URL slug if you're turning it into a new page.

Hide a backup copy

A page in Not linked isn't in your menu, but anyone with its address can still visit it unless it's disabled. If the copy is only a backup, switch off Enable Page in its settings so visitors and search engines can't see it.

Regular (layout) pages and course pages can be duplicated. Blog, store, and other collection pages can't, although you can duplicate individual blog posts, products, and events.

Restoring, duplicating, and disabling pages all need owner or Administrator access. If you're a Website editor, you won't see these options; ask whoever manages your Squarespace account.

Page drafts: Premium and Enterprise only

Squarespace Premium and Enterprise customers on version 7.1 have one more option: page drafts. A draft lets you work on changes to a live page without affecting it, then publish when it's ready. Publishing replaces the live page, and you can't go back to the original afterwards. Page drafts aren't available for collection pages, such as blogs and stores.

Exporting content for your own records

Squarespace's export tool is limited, and it isn't a backup you can restore from. It only creates a WordPress-format (.xml) file, and you can't import that file into another Squarespace site.

Included: regular pages, one blog with its posts, and text and image blocks.
Left out: store, portfolio, calendar, and other special page types, any second blog, dropdowns, video, audio, and product blocks, drafts, your site's styles, and custom CSS.

Products and contacts can be exported separately as .csv files. Images can't be exported in bulk; they can only be downloaded one at a time from the Assets panel.

To export, open the Import & export content panel in Settings, click Export, then click the WordPress icon. The site must be public, and trial sites can't be exported.

Common questions

I accidentally deleted a page. Can I recover it?

Yes, if it was deleted in the last 30 days. Follow the steps above: it comes back in the Not linked section, so drag it back into your navigation. After 30 days a deleted page is gone for good. For pages you're unsure about, moving them to Not linked is the safer habit. More on risky settings: Squarespace settings to leave alone.

Can I go back to an older version of a page?

No. Squarespace doesn't keep a page history, so there are no older versions to go back to. That's why it's worth duplicating a page before a big edit. If the old page was live, a copy may exist in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which Squarespace suggests using as a reference to rebuild the page by hand.

Does Squarespace keep a backup I can restore?

Not one you can restore from. Squarespace has no revision history, and its export tool only covers part of your content. Squarespace's own advice is to keep your own copies: save your text in a document, keep your original image files, and save any custom code somewhere safe.

Can Chykalophia restore a previous version for me?

Not from Squarespace, because it doesn't keep previous versions. We can often rebuild a page from a duplicate you made or from an archived copy of the live page. For major issues, contact us promptly.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.