# Unpublishing vs. Deleting Content

> Understand the difference between unpublishing and deleting content in Cascade CMS, including when to use each and how to prevent publishing.

URL: https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/cascade-basics/unpublishing-vs-deleting.html
category: Cascade Basics
article-type: concept
content-kind: article
release-availability: all
tags: publishing, basics
updated: 2026-10-06

Understand when to unpublish content versus when to delete it, and how to prevent assets from being published while still keeping them in the CMS.

## Overview

Cascade CMS pushes web content (files, pages, and folders) to your public-facing webserver. Beyond this, it boils down to what you want to do with your content:

- **Unpublish** — If you want to temporarily pull your content off your server (for maintenance or time-sensitive reasons) with the possibility of adding it back later, unpublish your content.
- **Delete** — If you want to remove content from Cascade CMS altogether, use the delete function. Deleting content will unpublish it (with an option to confirm if previously published) and move it to the Trash bin, where it will remain for an administrator-designated amount of time before being purged from the CMS.

Deleted content can be recalled from the Trash as long as the user has access to see it and as long as it has not been purged.

## Preventing Publishing

You can also prevent content from being published using a publishing preference. For example, if you have a page in development but not quite ready for "prime time", it can be hidden from Cascade CMS publishing hooks.

To keep content from being published:

1. Locate the **Configure** tab while editing an asset.
1. The Configure tab will show checkboxes for indexing ("Include when indexing") and publishing ("Include when publishing").
1. Disable the "Include when publishing" option and click **Submit**.

> **Important**
>
> Disabling "Include when publishing" will essentially "freeze" any content you already have on your webserver. You may want to unpublish your content before disabling publishing for the asset.
>
> Disabling "Include when indexing" will prevent Cascade CMS from indexing the asset internally but will not affect publishing.