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Save and publish canvas apps

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Whenever you save changes to a canvas app, you automatically publish them only for yourself and anyone else who has permissions to edit the app. When you finish making changes, you must explicitly publish them to make them available to everyone with whom the app is shared.

For information about how to share an app, see Share an app.

With your app open for editing in Power Apps Studio, in the app actions menu, select Save and perform the following actions:

  • Save: Saves recent and unsaved changes you made to the app in Power Apps Studio. Each time you save changes, a new version is created.
  • Save with version notes: Save and add notes about the updates you've made.
  • Save as: Duplicate the app by saving the app with a different name.
  • Save and publish: Allows you to save the app and publish it at the same time.
  • Download a copy: Downland a local copy of the app.

Studio save options.

Power Apps can also periodically save the app every 2 minutes. If you've saved the app once, Power Apps will continue to save a version of the app periodically without requiring the user to press or tap the Save action. Authors can enable or disable the Auto save by going to Setting > General.

Auto save setting.

Note

  • Whenever you publish a canvas app, your app will be upgraded to run on the latest version of Power Apps – which means it will get the benefit of all the latest features and performance upgrades we’ve added since you last published. If you haven’t published an update in several months, you’ll likely see an immediate performance benefit from republishing now.
  • To allow users to retrieve app details faster on app startup, certain data will be locally stored on users' devices in the browser cache. Information that will be stored includes app, environment, and connection details. This data will stay stored in the browser based on each browsers’ storage limits. Users can clear stored data based on instructions for each browser

Identify the live version

To see all versions of an app, go to Power Apps > Apps > select your app > Details > Versions.

The Live version is published for everyone with whom the app is shared. The most recent version of any app is available only to those users who have edit permissions for it.

Publish from portal.

To publish the most recent version, highlight the version and select ellipsis (...). Then select Publish this version from the drop-down menu.

Note

  • Changes from a newly published version of an app may take a few seconds to reflect when launching the app. Publish time depends on the complexity of apps, so expect more complex apps to take a few more minutes to publish.
  • If you already have an app open while a new version is published, you must reload the app to get the latest changes.
  • To reduce the time users wait to access your app, the app preload capability is turned on. You can chose to turn it off. Learn more here.

Next steps