Save, apply and deploy shared library settings
Check how a library settings page publishes changes before saving. Some settings update every available environment, including Production; others retain separate environment controls. Deploying a service version is a separate operation.
Choose the correct publication workflow
| Settings | Control | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Region settings | Save region settings | Saves library-wide defaults in Builder and automatically distributes them to all available environments. |
| Properties and Secrets | Apply | Saves edits across the environment tabs and publishes the combined Properties and Secrets, including the other editor's saved values. |
| Ordnance Survey, GOV.UK Notify, Session settings and Govform emails | Save, then confirm | Publishes that settings group to all available environments, including Production. Review the confirmation before proceeding. |
| Email identities | Apply, then confirm | Publishes the saved identity list to all available environments. Adding or verifying a domain alone does not publish the list. |
| Styling, authentication, storage connections and data feeds | Environment-specific controls | Use the page's QA/Staging/Production apply or deployment workflow. Do not assume another settings page's Save behaviour applies here. |
| Services and User portal | Their own deployment controls | Publish their saved versions/configuration separately. A library settings save does not deploy them. |
Available environments and labels depend on the library. An environment selector in Properties or Secrets chooses the values you edit; it does not limit Apply to that one environment.
Review a change that affects Production
- Identify dependent services and review all environment values. Where different values are supported, keep test and live credentials separate.
- For Save/Apply pages with a confirmation, read the named settings and Production impact. Cancel or Escape leaves the change unapplied.
- Save or apply once, then check the page and Library settings overview for environment acknowledgements.
- Test the affected service behaviour in the intended environment. A delivery acknowledgement does not test a provider connection, email delivery or service journey.
Shared Session and default email settings are one library-wide choice. To test a proposed policy on one service first, use an available service override and its normal QA deployment; the shared Save is not a QA-only trial.
Read status and handle a delayed update
The overview distinguishes current settings, earlier/applied settings, settings not yet applied, updating, retrying and unavailable environments. Use its detail links and timestamps to check the relevant settings group. Older configuration can continue to run while a newer saved change is being delivered.
Govform retries failed automatic delivery. Repeated clicking is not a connection test. If a failure persists, give Support the library, settings group, environment and displayed status without including secret values. If another administrator saved since you opened the page, refresh and review their changes before retrying.
After editing an already-published email identity list, the status can show unpublished changes even if its earlier delivery completed. Apply again when the current list is ready. Removing an identity can stop its use immediately at the email provider; it is not a safe draft-only edit.
For a newly available environment, shared Session, API and email groups require an explicit Save/Apply; enabling an environment does not automatically publish every stored setting.
See Regional settings, Properties and secrets and Service environments and deployments.