A page is published but nobody can see it

The four reasons a published page does not appear for a visitor, in the order worth checking.

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<a href="https://forumulate.com/guides/published-but-invisible"><img src="https://forumulate.com/guides/_api/public/orgs/046a9bc0-d530-43ae-9bae-af7945008cda/spaces/36aa4df0-1e95-4cef-8ae9-795169441345/pages/c638797e-38db-4693-8860-7a7a82c980d1/social-card.svg?v=3e7ae33eec8b" alt="A page is published but nobody can see it" width="600" height="315"></a>

You published a page. Signed in, it is there. In a private window, it 404s, asks for a password, or does not appear in the navigation.

Why it happens

Publishing a page and publishing a space are different things, and a reader has to pass both.

How to fix it

  1. Is the space public? A PRIVATE space serves nothing to readers, however published its pages are. Space settings → Visibility.

  2. Is the space behind reader sign-in? The space's Reader access setting — a shared password, or your own identity provider — turns the whole reader into a locked door, and removes the space from your sitemap by design. See Reader sign-in for what each method asks a reader for.

  3. Was the page published after its last edit? A draft saved after a publish is not live. The editor says which.

  4. Is it hidden from navigation, or gated to an audience? Both keep the page reachable by URL while keeping it out of the tree.

  5. Is the address restricted to a network? A custom domain can carry an IP allow-list, and a reader outside it gets a plain 403 rather than a page. GET /orgs/{orgId}/spaces/{spaceId}/domains shows ipAllowList on each address; see Publish on your own domain.

How to avoid it next time

Open the public address in a private window once, right after publishing. That is the same view a search engine gets, and it takes five seconds. The address to open is the one the API hands back — url on each row of GET /orgs/{orgId}/spaces/{spaceId}/items — not one you assemble out of ids, which is a different address for every customer publishing on a domain of their own.

The Forumulate teamUpdated
#troubleshooting