How to manually publish your modifications in Looker Studio?

How to manually publish your modifications in Looker Studio?

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) dashboards are fantastic! You can share it with your clients, collaborators, and bosses. And everyone can consult it at the same time while you are working on it!

But by default, the report changes in real-time every time an editor modifies it. As a result, it is frustrating if you need to work on the report and your clients need to consult it.

But, you can activate the manual publication of your change, allowing you to work on your report and decide when to publish your modifications. You can even pre-visualize your work in view mode before publishing it.

How to activate the manual publication?

You can activate the manual publication in a report by following these steps: 

  • First, click on the File menu.
  • Then, Click on Publishing Settings.
  • Finally, check the button and save.
Activate manual publication in Looker Studio report.
Activate manual publication in Looker Studio report.

The manual publication is now active! So you can start editing your report without disturbing the viewer.

How to pre-visualize the modification?

At the top of your screen, a new selector appears. It indicates in which mode you are:

  • Published: you will see the latest published version.
  • Draft Version: you will see the latest unpublished modification.

You can use the View mode and then change your version from Published to Draft to see your unpublished change.

Check on your draft in view mode.
Check on your draft in view mode.

How to publish your modification?

Once the manual publication is active, you will have to publish every time you make a change. Even the slightest modifications must be posted to be applied in the report.

You can publish with the Publish button at the top right of your report. However, if your report did not change from the last time it was published, this button is not clickable:

No change have been made, the Publish button is not clickable.

If you have some modifications to publish, the button is colored: 

Change have been made, the Publish button is clickable.

Click on it, and accept the pop-up. All your modifications have been published to the live version, and your viewers can see them.

Manually publish your modification.
Manually publish your modification.


How to consult the published history versions:

If you are in edition mode, a third option is available in the selector at the top of the page

  • See version history: you will access the list of modifications made in the report from its creation. 

You can choose to restore a version at any time. To do so:

  • Click on the See version history button.
  • Then select a previous version in the list in the right column.
  • Click on the Restore this version button at the top of the page.
  • Aside from the Restore this version button, you can directly publish an old version with the Publish button.
Restore a previous version of a Looker Studio report.
Restore a previous version of a Looker Studio report.

You can rename an old version, creating different report versions. Therefore, you can work on a report with multiple versions and restore the one you need when necessary.

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Johan Chemin
Customer Success Manager & Looker Studio Expert
I design powerful dashboards that enable you to effectively analyze your marketing data. I also provide comprehensive lessons on mastering your BI tools. Feel free to contact me for assistance with these areas.