Because both of them are built around your project's public web address, and a project that has never been published does not have one yet. Nothing is locked, broken or missing: there is genuinely nothing to show until the first publish.
- Version history reads: version history starts when you first publish this project.
- Resources reads: resources become available once you publish this project.
Both steps stay in the sidebar the whole time, which is why they look available when they are not.
What the first publish gives you
Publishing writes the project a web address, and that address is what both pages hang off. From then on:
- Every publish records a version you can look back at and restore. See What version history records and Restoring an earlier version.
- Resources becomes an empty folder you can upload drawings, reports and models into. It is private to your team rather than a public download: see Project Resources is a private folder.
Renaming the project later changes the address but keeps both pages intact, so there is no reason to delay publishing to get the title perfect. Your project web address changes when you rename it covers what does change.
Four things a project needs before it can be published
Publish is refused until all four are present:
- A title.
- A description.
- At least one image or video.
- At least one discipline.
Missing any of them, the Publish button tells you which. How to create and publish a project walks through the whole sequence.
A different message means a different problem
If instead of the publish notice you get You do not have access to this project, or it no longer exists, with a Try again button, that is not about publishing. It means the project could not be loaded at all, and there are two ordinary reasons for it:
- You were sent an editor link for a project you are not on the team of. Ask whoever sent it to invite you: see Inviting someone to a project.
- You were removed from the project, or the project was deleted.
We could not load this project. Check your connection and try again is the network version of the same thing. Press Try again rather than reloading; it re-runs the request on its own.