If you no longer want to sell your course, bundle, membership, or community and want to prevent previous users from accessing it, you can unpublish it!
In this article:
How to Unpublish Your Product
When we refer to 'unpublishing a product', we are talking about removing that product by making it unavailable. Depending on the product you would like to unpublish, this could mean either unpublishing it or marking it as a draft. Expand the dropdowns below to read more about how to unpublish your products by type.
Unpublish a Course
To unpublish a course, you'll need to update the course publish status to draft. Make sure to review Important Considerations before unpublishing a live course.
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Products
- Select Courses
- Click on your desired Course
- Click the Update status button then click Unpublish
- Click Unpublish
Unpublish a Community
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Products
- Select Communities
- Locate your community, click the ellipses (3 dot icon) and select Edit
- Click the Update status button then click Unpublish
- Click Unpublish
Unpublish a Digital Download
Learn more about how to unpublish a digital download and what happens when it is unpublished here: Unpublish a Digital Download.
Unpublish a Coaching & Webinars Product
Learn more about how to unpublish a Coaching & Webinars product and what happens when it is unpublished here: Unpublish Your Coaching or Webinar.
Unpublish a Membership
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Products
- Select Memberships
- Click on your desired membership
- Click the Update status button then click Unpublish
- Click Unpublish
Unpublish a Bundle
- From your Admin Dashboard, select Sales
- Select Bundles
- Select your desired Bundle
- Click the Update status button then click Unpublish
- Click Unpublish
Unpublishing a product will not unenroll existing users. They will not be able to access the product, however they are technically still enrolled. This means if you later re-publish the course, bundle, membership, or community they will have access again.
If you are on a paid Thinkific plan that includes the bulk unenroll feature, we recommend using this feature for all existing users to ensure they do not contribute to your current user numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to course or community access when unpublishing a bundle or membership?
When unpublishing a bundle or membership, users will still have access to the individual courses or communities included in the bundle or membership. This is because when a user buys/enrolls in a bundle or membership product, they are enrolled in each individual course and community included within that product.
If you unpublish the bundle or membership, it does not affect the course or community-level enrollments. However, you can always manually unenroll or bulk unenroll your users if needed.
What if I want previous users to still have access to my product?
If you want previous users to still have access to your course, bundle, membership, or community but do not want to accept enrollments moving forward, we don't recommend unpublishing the product. Instead, you can set your product to Private to prevent any future enrollments.
You can also set the product to Hidden if you do not want it publicly displayed on your site. Your previous users will still have access to the course through their user Dashboard if a course is set to Private and Hidden.
What happens if a user visits the landing page for my unpublished product?
When you unpublish a course, community, membership, or a bundle, the landing page will still be visible, but the enroll buttons will lead to a 404 page. You have a few options depending on what you want visitors to experience:
- To prevent anyone from coming across the landing page, you can change the landing page URL
- You can remove all buttons from your landing page
- You can redirect your landing page to a different page
The behaviour is slightly different when a Digital Download is unpublished. Learn more about it here: Unpublish a Digital Download.