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How to Fix SharePoint Page Scheduling Publishes Immediately
Question details
The user needs to schedule a SharePoint page or news post for future publication, but it fails and publishes immediately.
- Product
- Microsoft SharePoint
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Scheduling a SharePoint page or news post to go live at a specific future date and time.
- Observed behavior
- The SharePoint page or news post bypasses the scheduled time and gets published to the site immediately upon saving.
Ensure you have Site Owner or Full Control permissions on your SharePoint site, as modifying Site Pages library settings requires administrative access.
Enable Scheduling in the Site Pages Library
Verify that the scheduling feature is turned on at the library level, which is required for delayed publishing to work properly.
By default, the scheduling feature might be disabled on newly created SharePoint sites. If it is turned off, attempting to set a future date will simply publish the draft immediately.
Navigate to your SharePoint site, click on the Settings gear icon in the top right corner, and select 'Site contents'.
Locate and click on the 'Site Pages' library from the list of contents.
Click 'Scheduling' in the command bar at the top of the Site Pages library.
In the scheduling panel on the right, toggle the 'Enable scheduling' option to On and close the pane.
Verify Versioning Settings for Site Pages
Scheduling requires major and minor versioning to be enabled so that drafts can exist without being published to all readers.
Correctly Schedule the Page Version
Ensure you are applying the schedule to an unpublished draft and not accidentally hitting the main Publish button.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the Schedule button missing on my SharePoint page?
The Schedule button will not appear if the scheduling feature is disabled in the Site Pages library settings, or if you do not have sufficient permissions to approve and publish pages on the site.
Can I schedule a SharePoint page to be unpublished automatically?
Yes, SharePoint also supports setting an expiration or unpublish date. This can be configured in the same Page Details pane where you set the scheduled publishing time.
Does scheduling work for standard document libraries in SharePoint?
No, the built-in scheduling feature specifically applies to SharePoint pages and news posts stored in the Site Pages library. Standard files in document libraries do not use this scheduling interface.
What happens if a scheduled page requires approval?
If page approval is enabled on the library, the page must first be submitted and approved by an authorized user before the scheduling countdown can begin.
