AEM as a Cloud Service: Published Content Fragments missing from Publish after deployment
This article explains why Content Fragments or pages may appear as published in AEM Author but are missing from the Publish instance after a deployment. It also provides steps to validate and resolve the issue.
Description description
Environment
Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service
Issue/Symptoms
- Content Fragments or pages show as Published on the Author instance but are missing from the Publish instance after a deployment or content copy event.
- 404errors or missing resources occur on Publish, even though workflow logs on Author report successful completion.
- Manual republishing of the affected content typically restores visibility on Publish.
Cause
This issue is often encountered when using bulk publish workflows, such as Publish-Content-with-Children, and can be caused by invalid references, missing dependencies, or deployment events that reset Publish content. Customers may not have direct access to the Publish instance to validate content presence, making it important to use available tools and methods to confirm that published content is actually available on Publish.
Resolution resolution
Follow these steps to resolve the issue:
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Review the workflow configuration:
- Ensure that the workflow is started on the DAM folder containing all relevant Content Fragments, not on individual fragments or pages.
- Confirm that workflow arguments include
includeChildren=trueto publish all nested items.
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Validate content presence on Publish:
- On Author, use Query Builder or the AEM interface to list all expected Content Fragment paths under the relevant DAM folder.
- For each path, access the corresponding endpoint on the Publish instance (for example, the Content Fragment JSON or GraphQL endpoint) and check if the content is available (HTTP 200) or missing (HTTP 404).
- Compare the list of expected paths with those available on Publish to identify any replication gaps.
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Analyze workflow logs:
- Review workflow logs for messages indicating that a fragment is invalid or has been removed from the publish tree.
- If such messages are found, resolve any broken references or missing dependencies in the affected fragments and republish them.
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Monitor for deployment or content copy events:
- Be aware that deployments or content copy operations can reset Publish content, causing mismatches between Author’s Published status and actual Publish content.
- Coordinate with your deployment team to verify whether such events occurred during the issue window.
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If you do not have direct access to the Publish instance:
- Work with your administrator to obtain access to tools that allow you to browse the Publish repository.
- Alternatively, request assistance from your support team to validate backend logs for replication and removal events during the affected timeframe.
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After taking corrective actions, republish any missing or invalid Content Fragments and verify their availability on Publish by accessing their endpoints.