If you're experiencing issues editing content for your Squarespace 5 site, follow the suggestions in this guide to troubleshoot.
Note: Squarespace 5 is our legacy platform from 2012. Although we still support Squarespace 5, fixing bugs or issues is a lower priority for us while we focus on our current platform, Squarespace 7.
Step 1 - Check status.squarespace.com
If you can't edit your site, it could be related to a systemwide issue we're fixing. Follow our Status page and @SquarespaceHelp to stay updated about any downtime. While we strive for 100% uptime and availability, we sometimes experience outages. When this happens, we're quick to respond and do everything we can to restore service.
If all Squarespace 5 services are operational, check your site for the issues below.
Step 2 - Check if you're logged in
Site editing only works when you're logged in, and our system doesn't always keep you logged in for multiple sessions. If you're logged in, you'll see a black bar at the top with icons for Website Management, your profile, and the editing modes.
Visit Logging in for more help accessing your site.
Step 3 - Check you're in an editing mode
In the top bar, click Content, Structure, or Style to enter each editing mode. To learn more, visit Adding and editing content and Styling your site.
Step 4 - Check if your browser is up to date
When working in Squarespace 5, it's important to use the most recent version of a browser available to your operating system.
- Review our supported browsers.
- Check if your browser is up to date using our Browse Freely tool.
- Check if cookies are enabled. Blocking cookies may limit your ability to edit your site.
- Check if JavaScript is enabled. Blocking JavaScript interferes with our editing tools.
Step 5 - Switch browsers
Although you can edit your site in any of our supported browsers, Squarespace 5 editing sometimes isn’t available on Google Chrome or Safari.
If you're having issues with editing, we recommend trying a different browser, such as Mozilla Firefox. This may help with issues such as:
- Editor not loading
- Posts not saving
- Configuration window not opening
Step 6 - Disable browser extensions
Browser extensions can interfere with our editing tools. If you're using extensions or add-ons, try temporarily disabling them, then try editing your site again. If you can edit your site now, that means the extensions are the culprit.
To avoid this issue in the future, don't use browser extensions if you can avoid it. You can also log in using a private or incognito window or use a different supported browser to edit your site.
Step 7 - Check if you have editing permissions
If you're a site member and can log in but can’t edit or add site pages, you might not have editing permissions. In some cases, you can create and edit blog posts, but can't publish new posts.
To request more permissions, contact the site owner.
Step 8 - Remove any custom code
Custom code modifications can interfere with site editing. If you followed all steps above and still can't edit your site, your site might have custom code that's blocking our site editors.
If you've added custom code to your site, temporarily remove it:
- Find the code. It could be in a Code Block on an HTML page or widget or Code Injection, or the CSS Editor.
- Copy and paste the code into a safe place outside of Squarespace, like a plain text editor.
- Remove the code and save.
- Refresh the page.
- Try to edit the page again. If you can successfully edit, there’s a good chance that the code is the issue.
Contact us for help
If you’ve reviewed all the options in this guide and you still can’t edit your site, contact us. Let us know which steps you already tried so we can help you most effectively.
Note: Squarespace 7 has an improved editing experience. Learn more about moving to our current platform.