# How can I temporarily disable an app? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ask for Help\ **Created:** [September 27, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280 "2022-09-27T16:47:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PLCParamedics](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/plcparamedics/32/56096_2.png) [@PLCParamedics](https://community.glideapps.com/u/PLCParamedics)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/1 "2022-09-27T16:47:31Z")
I am interested in disabling an app for a short amount of time and then turn it back on, it should appear the same and use the same link when it comes back online. Is there a way to easily do this? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 5:04pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/2 "2022-09-27T17:04:11Z")
The easiest way would be to change the published URL to something random, and then change it back later. The App would still be accessible if somebody was able to guess the URL, but that would be pretty unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_Nadeem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/hassan_nadeem/32/72956_2.png) [@Hassan\_Nadeem](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Hassan_Nadeem)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/3 "2022-09-27T17:16:56Z")
I have a question. I know If the app is already added to homescreen and we change the Published URL, users are going to see “APP NOT FOUND” But if we change the URL back to the original one, would users be able to open that app again from homescreen or will they have to reinstall it again? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/4 "2022-09-27T17:22:34Z")
> [@Hassan\_Nadeem](#): > > But if we change the URL back to the original one, would users be able to open that app again from homescreen or will they have to reinstall it again? Yes, I believe that would work. When you add the App to your home screen, essentially what you are doing is creating a bookmark to the App URL. So it would just behave like any other bookmarked URL. If it resolves to something and that something is reachable (and functioning), then it will work 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_Nadeem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/hassan_nadeem/32/72956_2.png) [@Hassan\_Nadeem](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Hassan_Nadeem)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 5:26pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/5 "2022-09-27T17:26:16Z")
Another scenario: I have a very complex app which is live. I wanted to add some more features to it so I created a duplicate and added new features as an experiment in the duplicate app and they were working fine. Now, if I rename the URL of original app to something random, and publish the duplicate app with the ORIGINAL URL, will users be redirected to my duplicate app with new features? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/6 "2022-09-27T17:33:52Z")
Yes. In fact I have a client that insists on doing this every time we add new features to his app. So we make a copy, build the new features in the copy, publish that so he can test, then once he is happy we swap the URL’s over and delete the original. I talked a bit about this in the below post: > [@Best practices for rolling out and maintaining a Glide App](https://community.glideapps.com/t/best-practices-for-rolling-out-and-maintaining-a-glide-app/48264/6): > > I do this for one of my clients. They insist on being able to test new features in a “staging” app before anything goes live. So I developed and documented my own process for managing this. This is what it looks like: It’s fiddly, and the switchover process is fully manual. Usually takes me about 30-60 mins to deploy a new “production” version. ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_Nadeem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/hassan_nadeem/32/72956_2.png) [@Hassan\_Nadeem](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Hassan_Nadeem)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/7 "2022-09-27T17:42:45Z")
Awesome!! That’s a great way of testing and experimenting new features for the app. ---
**Author:** ![Guillaume\_RABALLAND](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/guillaume_raballand/32/35847_2.png) [@Guillaume\_RABALLAND](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Guillaume_RABALLAND)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/8 "2022-09-27T18:25:21Z")
Yes, just to complete this answer: if you “add to home screen” from Chrome on Android (or Safari on IOS), the app is actually installed by Play Store (or App Store) on your phone, and it looks like an app downloaded from the store, which is far better than a simple url bookmark 😉 (Doesn’t work if you use another browser) And I was also able to download the app on my desktop (on windows 10) from Chrome, but it may be available only for PCs and Glide Apps Pro… ---
**Author:** ![Yasin\_Hassanien](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/yasin_hassanien/32/9042_2.png) [@Yasin\_Hassanien](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Yasin_Hassanien)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/9 "2022-09-27T19:41:57Z")
Unpublish ---
**Author:** ![David\_Gabler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/david_gabler/32/44332_2.png) [@David\_Gabler](https://community.glideapps.com/u/David_Gabler)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/10 "2022-09-27T20:21:19Z")
> [@Hassan\_Nadeem](#): > > publish the duplicate app with the ORIGINAL URL, As long as they both point to the same database (and not a copy of the database), you should not have any issues. ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_Nadeem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/hassan_nadeem/32/72956_2.png) [@Hassan\_Nadeem](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Hassan_Nadeem)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 9:03pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/11 "2022-09-27T21:03:39Z")
> [@David\_Gabler](#): > > As long as they both point to the same database (and not a copy of the database), you should not have any issues. if I duplicate the app and the data source but publish it with the original apps URL, that wont work? ---
**Author:** ![David\_Gabler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/david_gabler/32/44332_2.png) [@David\_Gabler](https://community.glideapps.com/u/David_Gabler)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 9:51pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/12 "2022-09-27T21:51:30Z")
> [@Hassan\_Nadeem](#): > > duplicate the app and the data source Yes, but you gave the impression that the app had been significantly modified after the copy, and you need to know if the data source has been updated during that time, the update data will not automatically be part of the update app simply by using the same URL. ---
**Author:** ![Hassan\_Nadeem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/hassan_nadeem/32/72956_2.png) [@Hassan\_Nadeem](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Hassan_Nadeem)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/13 "2022-09-27T22:21:07Z")
Yes, I am aware of that. Was just curious about the URL part. ---
**Author:** ![kabookie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/kabookie/32/10994_2.png) [@kabookie](https://community.glideapps.com/u/kabookie)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 12:35am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/14 "2022-09-28T00:35:01Z")
My practice is to always use a url that I want to publish and then redirect it to the app url. How this would benefit your situation is that you could simply redirect new users to a landing page during the time you don’t want the app accessed. Added to this you could also just make a new tab, put it up front, and have it go nowhere but give a message to the existing users that the app is undergoing maintenance or unavailable or whatever you choose. At the same time, turn of visibility of the other tabs to all users except for admin. Then just remove the tab, revert the visibility blocks, and modify the url redirect when you are ready to turn it back on. ---
**Author:** ![PLCParamedics](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/plcparamedics/32/56096_2.png) [@PLCParamedics](https://community.glideapps.com/u/PLCParamedics)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 11:58am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/15 "2022-09-28T11:58:17Z")
this makes the most sense. How do you unpublish? ---
**Author:** ![Yasin\_Hassanien](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/yasin_hassanien/32/9042_2.png) [@Yasin\_Hassanien](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Yasin_Hassanien)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 12:34pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/16 "2022-09-28T12:34:57Z")
It’s in the share Button or the settings ---
**Author:** ![Stanley\_Holtsclaw](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/stanley_holtsclaw/32/48842_2.png) [@Stanley\_Holtsclaw](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Stanley_Holtsclaw)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 12:23am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-temporarily-disable-an-app/50280/17 "2022-10-09T00:23:16Z")
I was looking for exactly how to have a ‘production’ and working versions of an app. Thanks for this. Stanley