---
title: Publish an item from a managed folder
type: how-to
section: drive
summary: Publish is an action on an item inside a managed folder. Published items appear under Published by me, and Unpublish reverses it.
sources:
  - evolve-front-end/components/content-platform/content-platform-item-preview-page-client.tsx
  - evolve-front-end/lib/content-platform/publication-permission.ts
  - evolve-front-end/components/content-platform/content-platform-area-initial-filter-state.ts
  - evolve-front-end/app/i18n/locales/en/content-platform.json
verified:
  at: 2026-09-04
  env: code
  by: content-lane-drive
ttl_days: 45
related: [drive/my-tasks, drive/link-access, drive/upload-a-site]
---

Open an item that lives in a managed folder and choose **Publish** from its actions. Its status becomes **Published**, and it appears under **Published by me**. **Unpublish** on the same menu reverses it.

## Publish

1. Open the item. It has to be inside a managed folder; an item in **My Drive** cannot be published.
2. Open the item's actions.
3. Choose **Publish**. It reads **Publishing...** while it works and confirms with **Published.**

The same control becomes **Unpublish** afterwards, reading **Unpublishing...** while it works and confirming with **Unpublished.**

## What Published by me lists

**Published by me** lists items that are published, that live in a managed folder, and that you published yourself. The list follows the publication record, not ownership: uploading a file, reviewing it or authoring a change does not put it here.

Publishing does not make an item public. It records a release inside the folder. To give people outside Evolve access to something, use a public link on a site: see [Share a file or folder by link](/help/drive/link-access).

## Where a published item shows

- On the item itself, as the status **Published** with a line naming who published it.
- In **Published by me**.
- For a site, through its own public link.

## Publishing is not available

The control is greyed out when any of these is true:

- The item is not in a managed folder.
- You hold read access only. The menu explains that publishing requires write access and that you should ask the owner to share the file with write permission.
- The item is an asset inside a site's manifest rather than a file in its own right.
- Another workflow action on the item is still running.

## If it did not work

- **Couldn't unpublish that item.** means the item is still published. Try again.
- A refusal that names write access on the folder is the permission case above. Ask the folder's owner for **Can edit**.
- Rollback and revoke are not offered on a published item today. **Unpublish** is the way back.
- For a site, publishing the site's own content is a separate action in its editor: see [Change a site in plain English](/help/drive/edit-a-site).