Tools
The Tools section provides features that can be used to fix technical issues, insert custom code, and back up and restore your site. Plugins are managed separately in the Plugins section; details can be found in the next part of this documentation, Plugins. The available tools are:
Backups
The Backups section is where you can save and restore copies of your website to help recover from accidental changes or data loss.
Backing up your site
To create a backup of your website, click on Tools in the main menu, then select Backups. Here you will see a list of available backups, which will be empty if you've yet to create your first.
Click Create backup; a pop-up will open allowing you to enter a name for your backup. This defaults to the site's name followed by the date and time, but you can change it using letters A–Z, numbers, hyphens and underscores. Click Create backup to continue. Once the process finishes, your new backup will be added to the list as a .tar archive. Larger websites may take longer to back up.
Click a backup's filename to locate it on your computer. You can change where new backups are stored under App settings → Files location → Backup location. Keep a copy on another device or in cloud storage so you can still recover your website if your computer or drive fails.
Restoring your site
To restore an existing backup, open Tools → Backups, find the backup you wish to use and click its Restore button. A pop-up will appear asking for confirmation and showing the name of the selected backup.
Double-check that you have selected the correct file, as restoring it will replace your local website with the saved version. Local changes made since that backup will be lost. If you want to keep the current version, create a new backup before continuing. Once ready, click Restore backup; a confirmation message will appear once the website is restored.
Restoring a backup does not change the website published on your server. Preview the restored site, then sync it when you're ready to publish it.
Restoring backups on a new Publii installation
If you've switched to a new computer and want to restore your site backup to a new Publii installation, use the Install from backup tab on the website creation screen:
- Install and open Publii. If you have no websites yet, the website creation screen will appear automatically.
- Select Install from backup.
- Drag your .tar backup file into the box, or click Choose file to select it from your computer.
- Once Publii has checked the backup, enter a name for the restored website and click Create website.
- Wait for the restore process to finish. Publii will open the restored website, ready to modify.
If you already have websites in Publii, open the website selector from the top of the left sidebar and click Add new website to access the same screen. You do not need to create an empty website or copy the backup into a specially named folder first.
On a new computer, reinstall any plugins your site uses and check your deployment credentials before syncing.
Deleting backups
To delete a backup, select the checkbox to its left, then click the Delete button that appears above the list. You can select several backups at once. A confirmation will be displayed; click Move to trash to continue.
The selected backup files are moved to your system's trash. Your website is kept. Emptying the trash will remove those backup files permanently, so make sure you no longer need them before doing so.
Custom CSS
This section allows you to insert custom CSS code that can be used to modify or override the existing CSS rules included in your chosen theme.
Selecting this tool will open the CSS editor, where you can enter your custom rules. Once you have made your changes, click Save & preview to save them and open a local preview, or click Save changes to save without a preview.
The preview menu lets you choose between previewing the full website and the homepage only. Your changes will appear on the published website after the next sync.
Custom HTML
Like the CSS tool, this tool allows you to insert custom code into your Publii website. After opening it, you will see a text editor and tabs for choosing where the code should be inserted.
The standard tabs are Head, Body, Comments, Search input, Search content, Social sharing, and Footer. Some areas require support from your active theme, and themes may provide additional insertion points.
Once your changes have been made, click Save & preview to save them and check the result locally, or Save changes to save without a preview. Sync your website when you're ready to publish the changes.
File Manager
The File Manager tool allows you to manage additional files stored locally for your website. It provides two locations: root directory, for files such as .htaccess, and media/files, for downloadable documents and other files you want to link to from your content.
You can use File Manager before your first sync. It does not show every generated HTML page or all the images attached to posts; it manages files in these two locations.
Click a filename to open it using your system's default application. For example, if you use a text editor to open .htaccess files, clicking one in File Manager will open it in that editor. Save your changes there, then sync your website to publish them.
To create an empty file, select the location you want to use and click Add new file. Enter a filename, including its extension, then open the new file to edit its contents. To add existing files, click Upload files or drag them into the file list. These actions add files to your local website; they become available online after synchronization.
Each file's actions menu lets you open it, locate it on your computer, copy its website address or local path, duplicate it, replace it, or delete it. Replace file keeps the filename and website address, which is useful when updating a document that you have already linked to. The replacement must have the same file extension.
You can also select several files using their checkboxes to delete them or copy their addresses or local paths. Copying website addresses requires a valid website address in Server settings. Use the search field to find a file, or click Refresh to reload the list.
Note: Deleting a file from File Manager permanently removes the local file. Links to it may stop working after your next sync. Also take care when adding root files with names that Publii generates, such as robots.txt, as one version may overwrite the other.
Log Viewer
The Log Viewer tool displays logs for the current website and general application logs, which can be helpful when troubleshooting connection, sync or other issues. Depending on the operation and connection type, the logs may include error messages, connection details and information about files processed during synchronization.
Open the Select file to load drop-down and choose a log from Logs of this website or Application logs. Its contents will appear in the editor below.
Click Reload file to read the selected log again and see any new entries. The log contents are read-only.
Regenerate thumbnails
Sometimes, after making a large change to a site such as changing the active theme, you might find that there are issues with responsive images because the new theme has different thumbnail requirements. In this case, you will need to regenerate the thumbnails.
This is an automated process accessible through Tools → Regenerate thumbnails. Once Publii has checked your images, click Regenerate to begin. The screen shows the progress and reports any images that could not be processed.
Your original images stay unchanged. Existing thumbnails are replaced after the new files are ready. You can cancel the process if necessary; images that have not been completed keep their existing thumbnails.
This process may take some time if you have a large number of images on your site. Regenerate thumbnails after changing themes or thumbnail settings, then preview and sync your website to publish the updated images.
WP Importer
The WP Importer tool provides a way to transfer content from your WordPress website to Publii. A full step-by-step guide may be found in the Using the WordPress Importer section of this guide.
Start by clicking Select WXR file and choosing the XML export from WordPress, or drag the file into the importer. A WXR file contains exported content; it is not a complete backup of your WordPress installation. Publii checks the file and shows a summary of the content it contains before displaying the import options.
The following options are available after a valid WXR file has been selected:
- Import selected post types: Choose which types of content to import. WordPress posts become Publii posts, WordPress pages become Publii pages, and selected custom post types are imported as posts.
- Import navigation menus: Import WordPress menus while preserving their order and nesting. Links are connected to imported posts, pages and tags where possible. After importing, assign each menu to a position supported by your Publii theme.
- Post and page slugs: Keep the slugs from WordPress or generate new ones from the content titles. Preserving a slug keeps the final part of the URL; it does not reproduce WordPress date or category paths.
- Which WordPress taxonomies should become Publii tags? Import tags, categories, or both. The selected taxonomies become Publii tags. Category parent-child relationships are flattened, and duplicate names are merged.
- Post authors: Assign imported content to the main Publii author, or import the WordPress authors and associate their content with them.
- SEO metadata: Import compatible metadata from a supported SEO plugin detected in the WXR file, or choose not to import it. The available sources include Yoast SEO, Rank Math and All in One SEO, with partial WXR support for All in One SEO. If several sources are detected, select the one you want to use.
- Add paragraphs and line breaks: Convert blank lines and line breaks into HTML formatting for content from the classic WordPress editor. Gutenberg content is skipped, while code and embeds are preserved.
- Clean HTML: Remove unnecessary classes, decorative styles, editor attributes and empty spacing elements from newly imported content. Complex markup that cannot be safely cleaned may remain unchanged, so review the results before publishing.
Once you have chosen your options, click Import data. When the import finishes, review the import report for images, links, shortcodes or dynamic blocks that need attention. You can reopen the saved report using View last import report.
The report also includes a Redirect map for checking old WordPress URLs against the URLs in Publii. Review your website address and URL settings before using the map, and adapt its rules to your hosting provider. The importer does not configure redirects on your server automatically.
Preview the imported posts and pages, check your menus and any content that depended on WordPress plugins, then sync your website when you're ready to publish it.