Squarespace 7.0 to 7.1: Keep a Copy of the Old Site First

Squarespace has an update tool that moves a version 7.0 site to version 7.1 in place. Once you click Publish update, the 7.0 version is gone and cannot be brought back, so take a complete copy of the old site before you start.

This post covers what the tool does, what it leaves behind, and the copy to make first. The details come from Squarespace's Moving from Squarespace version 7.0 to version 7.1 help page, which is the page to re-read on the day you do it.

What the update tool does

The tool is in the Design panel of a 7.0 site. It rebuilds your pages with 7.1 sections, shows you a preview, and waits. Nothing changes on the live site until you click Publish update. You can stop at any point before that.

According to Squarespace, the move keeps the things that live outside the page layouts: SEO settings, orders, customers, members, domains, URL mappings, and subscriptions. Your billing plan does not change either.

After you publish, the site is a 7.1 site. There is no undo and no way to revert to 7.0.

What the tool cannot carry over

Not every 7.0 page type has a match in 7.1, and Squarespace lists the gaps on the help page. The ones that catch people:

• Album pages are not supported in 7.1 and disappear after the update. Squarespace's advice is to save the text and audio files to your computer before you start.
• More than 150 pages. The tool has a limit of 150 pages. If your site has more, you delete pages to get under the limit, and you cannot restore those pages after the switch.
• More than 200 products on one store page. The tool shows an error. Moving some products to a second store page gets you past it.
• Discontinued 7.0 templates. If your site uses one, switch to a supported template before you update.
• Developer mode. It must be off.

Layouts change too. The tool maps 7.0 content into the nearest 7.1 section, and "nearest" is not "identical". Spacing, column widths, image crops, and the order of elements can shift. The preview shows most of it, but you will still be comparing the new site against your memory of the old one unless you have a copy.

Why a duplicate is not enough

Squarespace recommends duplicating your 7.0 site before you update, so you have a reference. That is good advice, with two limits.

The duplicate is a new trial site. It has no orders, no analytics, and not your domain, and trial sites expire after 14 days. Sites with more than 150 pages cannot be duplicated at all, per Duplicating a site. So the reference copy you make inside Squarespace is temporary, and it lives in the same account as the site you are changing.

For the comparison work after the update, you want something that does not expire: every page of the 7.0 site as it looked to visitors, with the exact text and images, stored outside Squarespace.

The copy to make before you click Publish

Do this the day before, so the copy is current.

1. Every public page as HTML and as a full-page screenshot. The screenshot shows you the old layout top to bottom. The HTML has the exact text and links. Together they let you rebuild any section the tool mangled.
2. The images at full size. 7.1 crops and scales images differently. The originals let you re-upload rather than accept a crop you did not choose.
3. The old address of every page. Squarespace keeps URL mappings, but pages you delete to get under the 150 limit need redirects you set up yourself. A list of the old addresses is how you know what to redirect.
4. Album page files. Text and audio, saved locally, as Squarespace says. There is no other way to keep them.
5. A note of fonts and colors. 7.1 uses a different style system. Having the hex codes and font names written down turns "make it look the same" into a checklist.

We do items 1, 2, 3, and 5 in one run. Paste the site's address into Dead Simple Backups and every public page is saved as HTML plus a full-page screenshot, with the images, fonts, and stylesheets copied into the zip and a theme report listing the fonts and colors. It reads the public site only, so nothing behind a password or member login is included, and it cannot load anything back into Squarespace. It is the reference to rebuild from, not an undo button.

After the update

Open the screenshot of each old page beside the new one and work through them. Most pages need nothing. A few need a section re-ordered or an image swapped. Check the pages that used 7.0 features with no 7.1 equivalent first, then the homepage, then the rest in order of traffic.

Keep the copy afterward. If a problem turns up a month later on a page nobody visits often, the screenshot from before the update settles what it used to say.

If you would rather see one page first

Paste your homepage into the free preview on our homepage. In about a minute you get that page as HTML with a full-page screenshot, no account needed. If it looks right, the full site copy takes one run.

Q: Can I go back to Squarespace 7.0 after updating to 7.1?

No. Squarespace says that after you click Publish update you cannot undo the change or revert to version 7.0. The only way to see the old site again is a copy you made before publishing.

Q: Does the 7.0 to 7.1 update keep my domain and SEO?

Squarespace says domains, URL mappings, SEO settings, orders, customers, members, and subscriptions stay with the site. Pages you delete to meet the 150-page limit are the exception, and they need redirects you set up yourself.

Q: What is lost when moving from Squarespace 7.0 to 7.1?

Album pages, which 7.1 does not support, and any pages you delete to get under the 150-page limit. Layouts are re-mapped into 7.1 sections rather than copied exactly, so spacing and image crops can change.

Q: Is duplicating my 7.0 site a backup?

It is a temporary reference. The duplicate is a trial site without your domain, orders, or analytics, and trial sites expire after 14 days. A copy of the public pages stored outside Squarespace does not expire.