How to Get Back Missing “Save Site as Template” for Publishing Sites in SharePoint 2013?

In a Typical SharePoint 2013 Publishing Site, if you try to navigate to “_layouts/savetmpl.aspx” you would get the below error –

The url “_layouts/savetmpl.aspx” failed on the Publishing site because by default, in at Typical Publishing Site in SharePoint 2013, “SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled” is set as “false”. Setting this switch as true would re-enable us to use “_layouts/savetmpl.aspx” to save a Typical Publishing Site in SharePoint 2013.

The easiest way to set SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled as true is by using Site options in SharePoint Designer 2013.
Lets look the Steps –

1. Open you Team Site in SharePoint Designer 2013.

2. In SharePoint Designer, under Sites tab select “Site Options” (see screen below)

3. Find “SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled” in Site Properties (see below).

4. Next change this setting to “true”.

Apply the Setting once done.

5. Now in your Publishing site navigate to “http://sitename/_layouts/15/savetmpl.aspx” and you would see the old Save Site as Template Page as expected.