Why does my published site ask for a password?

Your TeleportHQ site asks for a password for one of two reasons. Either the workspace has no paid subscription, for example it's on the trial, and then every publish is password-protected. Or someone clicked Enable under Password Protection on Pro or Premium. Copy the password from the Password Protection option in Publish → Production and share it. To make the site public, subscribe to Pro or Premium, then click Remove there.

The password page is part of the site: it shows the TeleportHQ logo, or the site owner's own logo on a paid plan, and one field. A visitor who types the password stays signed in for 30 days in that browser.

Find the password#

To see your TeleportHQ site's password and which case applies to you, open the Password Protection option:

1. Open your project in the editor.
2. At the top right, click Publish.
3. In the window's left menu, make sure Publish is selected. At the top, keep Production selected.
4. Below the Custom domain section, find the Password Protection option. It reads On or Off on its right. If it's folded, click it to open it.

If it reads On and shows Password: followed by a 6-character code, for example K7Q2MX, the password is on: see cases 1 and 2. To share it, click the copy button next to the password and send it to the people who should see the site.

If the page asks you to log in to Vercel rather than for a password, see case 3.

1. The workspace has no paid subscription#

How to tell: your TeleportHQ workspace is on the trial, or has no paid subscription for another reason. Password Protection shows a password, and its Remove button carries a PRO label. Before the first publish, the option says "Without a subscription, every publish is password-protected. Subscribe to make your site public."

Cause: without a paid subscription, every publish to Production or Staging puts the site behind a password, at every address it's published on: the TeleportHQ address, the staging address, the custom domain and every deployment link. Publishing again keeps the same password. The password goes up only when someone publishes.

Fix during the trial: share the password. Click the copy button next to it and send it to the people who should see the site, for example a client reviewing it. Clicking Remove opens "This feature is not available on your current plan", which says "Sites published on a trial or without a subscription stay behind a password." and "Subscribe to make your site public."

Fix for good: subscribe, then remove the password.

1. Subscribe the workspace to Pro or Premium. See How to subscribe to Pro or Premium.
2. Open the project in the editor again.
3. At the top right, click Publish.
4. In the Password Protection option, click Remove.

Subscribing doesn't remove the password by itself: it stays until you click Remove. If the trial or subscription has ended, see What happens when my trial or subscription ends?.

2. Someone turned on Password Protection on Pro or Premium#

How to tell: your workspace is on Pro or Premium, the Password Protection option shows a password, and Remove has no PRO label.

Cause: someone with the Owner, Admin or Designer role clicked Enable under Password Protection. Or the password was added while the workspace had no paid subscription, and nobody removed it after the workspace subscribed.

Fix: keep the password and share it, or remove it:

1. In the editor, at the top right, click Publish.
2. In the Password Protection option, click Remove.

The message "Password protection is off. Your site is public at every address it is published on." appears. Visitors can now open the site without a password.

3. A .vercel.app link asks you to log in to Vercel#

How to tell: the page asks you to log in to Vercel, not for a password. The link ends in .vercel.app, for example a deployment link copied from Deployments, or the link of a staging build.

Cause: Vercel, the service that hosts TeleportHQ sites, puts its own sign-in in front of .vercel.app links by default. TeleportHQ turns that sign-in off every time you publish. Before, it could stay on after a publish, so these links asked for a Vercel account.

Fix: publish the project again, then open the link again.

1. In the editor, at the top right, click Publish.
2. At the top, click Staging, then click Publish to Staging. Your live site doesn't change. You can also publish to Production.
3. When the publish finishes, open the .vercel.app link again.

If it still asks you to log in to Vercel, write to hello@teleporthq.io with the link. See How to test changes on a staging site before going live.

Troubleshooting#

"Publishing failed. The site could not be password-protected, so this publish was discarded. Try again or contact support." Your TeleportHQ workspace has no paid subscription, and TeleportHQ couldn't put the password on the site. So it discarded the publish rather than put the site online without a password: nothing from this publish went live. Publish again in a moment. If it keeps failing, write to hello@teleporthq.io.

"Password could not be deleted. Error message: …" If the message includes "This workspace has no active plan subscription", TeleportHQ doesn't see a paid subscription on the workspace right now, for example because it ended while the editor was open. Reload the editor and check the workspace's plan. Otherwise, try again in a moment. If it keeps failing, write to hello@teleporthq.io.

Visitors say the password doesn't work Someone clicked the refresh button next to the password (tooltip Refresh password). That creates a new password, and the old one stops working. Copy the current password from Password Protection and share it again.

The password page is still there a minute after Remove, or the old password still works a minute after Refresh The published site re-reads its password setting about once a minute. Wait a minute and reload.

The site shows Vercel's password screen, not the TeleportHQ page The site was published before the password page moved into the site itself. Publish it again: from then on it shows its own page.

Good to know#

• Only a paid subscription makes a TeleportHQ site public. On the trial, every publish is password-protected. On Pro and Premium, a site only asks for a password if someone clicked Enable, or if a password from before the subscription is still on.
• A password blocks some TeleportHQ features: the Site Health audit, the contrast check and competitor reports, and the automatic screenshots of an installable app. Payment messages from Stripe or PayPal, booking calendar links and scheduled workflows keep working behind it. On the trial, the blocked ones work once the workspace subscribes and you click Remove.
• Password Protection covers the whole site. To make only some pages visible to signed-in visitors, see How to make a page visible only to signed-in users.
• Your own Vercel account. If you publish to your own Vercel account, TeleportHQ doesn't add a password there or change that account's protection settings. A password or Vercel sign-in there is set in your Vercel project's settings.