# How do I unpublish an asset that no longer exists in the CMS?

> Recreate the asset as an empty placeholder File at the same path and name, unpublish it, then delete the placeholder.

URL: https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-authoring/publishing/unpublish-asset-no-longer-in-cms.html
category: Content Authoring
article-type: how-to
content-kind: faq
release-availability: all
tags: publishing
updated: 2026-10-06

Sometimes a page or file exists on your live website that you want removed, but it no longer exists in the CMS — so there's nothing to unpublish. The fix is to recreate it as a placeholder, unpublish that, then delete it.

1. Navigate into the original folder path where the asset used to exist. If the folder path is gone too, recreate the folder structure first.
1. Create a new [File](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-authoring/files/index.html) with exactly the same name and file extension as the file on the live site. You don't need to supply any contents — this is just a placeholder.
1. Right-click the File and select **Unpublish**, or click **More → Unpublish** while viewing it.
1. In the dialog, check the Destinations you want the File removed from.
1. Click **Unpublish**.

The system then removes the file from the destination web servers. Once unpublishing completes, delete the placeholder file.

## Example

Say a page exists at `https://test.website.com/events/2026/02/party.html` and the corresponding asset is gone from the CMS. You would:

1. Navigate to the corresponding Site in the CMS.
1. Drill down into, or recreate, the folder path `/events/2026/02`.
1. Create a new File asset named `party.html`.
1. Click **More → Unpublish**.
1. Select the Destinations the file should be removed from.
1. Click **Unpublish**.

> Still seeing the asset on your site afterwards? Check your [publish notifications](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-authoring/publishing/locate-publish-notifications.html) for errors during the removal attempt.