Publishing issues

If you run into an error while publishing your project, find the specific error below for steps to resolve it.

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Check Bolt’s status

Before troubleshooting, check the Bolt status page for any active incidents. If Bolt is experiencing a known issue, check your project again after the issue resolves to see if that also resolves your problem.

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”Project is too large to deploy” error

To publish successfully, Bolt projects must be under 100MB. This is the combined size of your project files. If your project is larger than 100MB, you’ll see the following error when publishing: Project is too large to deploy. The maximum allowed size is 100MB. Most commonly, projects hit this limit because they have large media files, like images or videos, stored directly in Bolt. To troubleshoot:

1. Check how large your project is.
2. Try deleting any images you aren’t using and check your project size again.
3. If the project is still too large, move your media to an external storage service.
4. Then, prompt Bolt to retrieve the images from the URL rather than from a file path in your project.
5. Finally, delete the files from your project.

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Check your project size

1. Download your project.
2. Find the project folder on your computer.
3. Right-click the folder and view its information. This should include the project’s size.

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Delete unused images and videos

1. If you didn’t already, download your project as a backup before deleting any files.
2. Prompt Bolt to find and remove media that isn’t being used in your project, such as multiple versions of an image you uploaded. You can use a prompt like: Find any images or videos that aren't being used in this project and delete them.
3. Download a new copy of your project and check its size again.

If your project is now under 100MB, you can publish it. If it’s still over this limit, continue on to store your files outside of Bolt.

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Move media files to an external storage service

Instead of storing images and videos in your project, you can host them with an external storage service and prompt Bolt to reference the external URL instead of the local file. Here are a few options to consider for external media storage. Except for Cloudflare Images, each provider has a free plan available. After choosing a storage provider, download your media files from Bolt, then upload them to the external service.

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Prompt Bolt to reference your files from the external storage provider

When you move the media files outside your project, Bolt doesn’t automatically know where to find them. After moving each file:

1. Prompt Bolt to update the location where it gets the image or video from. You can use a prompt like: Update references to the [file name] to use this URL instead: [URL]
2. When Bolt finishes replacing the reference, delete the media file from your project. You can prompt Bolt to do this, or do it yourself from Code view.

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”Site can’t provide a secure connection” error

If you see an error like this when you open your published site, your network or internet provider may be blocking .bolt.host addresses: This site can’t provide a secure connection.
<your-site>.bolt.host sent an invalid response.
ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR This error doesn’t mean your site failed to publish or that it’s unsafe to view. Some network security filters block sites on uncommon domains, like .bolt.host, even when the site itself is safe. To find out whether your network is blocking your site:

1. Open your site using your phone’s mobile data instead of WiFi, with any VPN turned off. If it loads, your site is working, and your original network is blocking it.
2. If you don’t have mobile data, try a different WiFi network or your phone’s hotspot.

To open your site on your original network:

1. Check your internet provider’s settings for a security or web-protection feature, and allow your site’s address there. On a work or school network, ask your IT team to allow it.
2. Check your WiFi or router settings for an option to manage trusted or allowed domains, and add .bolt.host to that list.

Other visitors using the same internet provider or network may see the same error. If the error appears on every network you try, contact support and include your site’s URL.

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”Could not find a build output directory” error

When you publish, Bolt does the following:

1. First, it builds your project, which means that it turns your code into the finished files that make up your website.
2. Then, Bolt looks for the folder where those finished files were saved. Often, this folder is called dist or build.

If Bolt can’t find the folder, publishing stops and you see this error: Could not find a build output directory to publish. Usually, this error means that the finished files ended up somewhere Bolt didn’t expect, or they weren’t created at all. It doesn’t mean your project or code is lost, only that Bolt needs to fix where the files are located or how they’re built before it can publish your site. To fix the error:

1. In the chat, paste the error message and ask Bolt to fix it. For example: Publishing fails with "Could not find a build output directory." Check how this project builds and fix it so it can be published.
2. Wait for Bolt to finish making changes.
3. Click Publish again.

If you see the same error after trying again, contact support and include the error message and your project URL.

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Bolt failed to publish to Netlify

If Bolt fails to publish, you have the option of publishing manually to Netlify:

1. Run the project build command (usually npm run build).
2. Click Download to download the project.
3. Follow Netlify’s Manual deploy instructions.

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Bolt loses connection to Netlify when duplicating projects

If you fork or duplicate your project, you’ll need to reconnect to Netlify. To do so, follow the steps in the Netlify integration guide. Doing this will create a new Netlify site, so you’ll need to make sure your custom domains are pointed to the new site:

• If you bought your domain through Netlify and you’re using Netlify DNS, you can remove the domain from the old site and add it to the new one, all in Netlify. This Netlify support answer provides more information.
• If you use another domain provider, look for their guide to updating domains.

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Still stuck?

If your project still won’t publish, contact support.