Pause Or Unpublish A Widget
Four ways to take a widget off your site without losing its setup: turn off one channel, move the widget to draft, switch the website off, or pause Ask AI.
You do not have to delete anything, or touch your website’s code, to stop a widget showing. Flidu has a separate switch for each level: one channel, one widget, a whole website, or only the Ask AI side. Each of them keeps your setup, so turning things back on takes one click.
Choose The Right Switch
| What You Want | Use | What Stops Showing |
|---|---|---|
| Hide one contact option | The switch on the channel’s row | That channel only |
| Take one widget offline | Move to Draft | Everything that widget shows |
| Take a whole website offline | Site Status | Every widget on that website |
| Stop AI answers but keep Contact | Pause Ask AI | The Ask AI side only |
Turn Off A Single Channel
Open Website Widgets in the dashboard sidebar, open your website, and go to the Channels tab. Each published channel has a switch at the right of its row in the Channel Builder list. Turn it off and the notice reads Turned off: the channel no longer shows on your site, and its settings are kept. The row then reads Off. Turn the same switch on to bring the channel back.
The switch is there only for channels that have been published, and it is greyed out while the channel has draft changes waiting. In that case open Edit and click Disable live in the editor, or click Publish changes first so the switch works again.
Move A Widget To Draft
- Open your website and stay on the Overview tab.
- In the Website Widgets card, pick the widget in the selector.
- Click Move to Draft. A confirmation reads "Widget Moved to Draft" and the widget’s badge changes to Draft.
A draft widget loads nothing on your site: no launcher, no Contact channels and no Ask AI, even on pages that still carry its snippet. The Install card on the Overview tab reads "Draft · not live yet". Its channels keep their own published state, so clicking Publish later brings the widget back exactly as it was.
- Moving to draft uses a draft slot and frees a published one. If no draft slot is free, a Widget limit reached dialog appears instead.
- Publishing again needs a free published slot.
- The website’s default widget cannot be moved to draft. Its button is greyed out with the hint "Default widget must stay published." To take a default widget offline, use Site Status or turn off its channels.
Switch A Whole Website Off
- Open your website and go to the Settings tab.
- Turn off the Site Status switch.
- Confirm with Disable in the Disable Site dialog.
No widget on that website appears while it is off, the default widget included. The page header shows Inactive, the Install card reads "Website paused · not live", and the Settings tab keeps a warning in view. Turn the switch back on and the widgets return straight away, with no confirmation step. The same switch is on each website’s row in the Website Widgets list.
Switching a website off does not free anything on your plan. The website and its widgets still count toward your limits until you delete them.
Pause Only Ask AI
When a widget carries both Contact and Ask AI, you can stop the AI side alone. Open AI Chatbots in the sidebar, open the assistant, and go to its Preview tab. In the Connection section, click Pause Ask AI. The status changes to Paused: Ask AI stops responding to visitors while the Contact options in the same widget keep working. Resume Ask AI in the same place turns it back on. See How The Shared Widget Shell Works.
What Visitors See, And When
- With a draft widget or a switched-off website, nothing from that widget renders. There is no placeholder and no message.
- Changes apply the next time a page loads. A page that a visitor already has open keeps what it loaded.
- Visitors are not counted toward your monthly allowance while a widget is a draft or its website is off.
- The snippet can stay on your site. It loads nothing until you publish or switch back on. Remove it if you will not use the widget again.
Delete Instead
Deleting is permanent, so use it only when you are finished with something. Delete in the Website Widgets card removes the selected widget after you confirm with Delete Widget, and frees its slot. The default widget cannot be deleted. To remove a website with everything in it, use Delete Site under Danger Zone on the Settings tab. That cannot be undone.
If It Does Not Behave As Expected
- The widget still shows after Move to Draft. Reload the page. If it is still there, the page carries a different widget’s snippet: compare it with the one on that widget’s Install tab.
- Move to Draft is greyed out. The selected widget is the default one. Use Site Status instead.
- Publish is refused. Every published slot in the workspace is in use. See Widget Limits And Visitor Counting.
- A channel row has no switch. The channel was never published, or it is marked Preview only on your plan. Channels listed under Original channels are read-only and have no switch either.
- You cannot change Site Status. Switching a website on or off needs the Owner or Admin role.
- You want the widget to come and go on a schedule. Date Scheduling and Days & Hours Targeting, from Website Widgets Business, show and hide the Contact side on a schedule without manual switching. Ask AI in the same widget is not affected by them. See Date And Business-Hours Rules.