Last Reviewed by Netlify Support Staff: July 2025
Drag and drop, or "manual”, deploys are an easy way to get a simple website up and running super quick. One thing to know about manual deploys is (fun fact!) they do not generate deploy logs. This is because manual deploys don’t actually build anything, so there is nothing to log.
The upside to this is that they deploy lightening fast; the downside is that, without deploy logs, we can’t tell what is happening when things go wrong or get “stuck”. When deploys get stuck, the deploy status will remain at “In progress” or “Uploading” usually for more than 10 minutes.
Luckily, we have some tips for reliable manual deploys:
- Deploys under 50MB work best. Individual files over 10MB are likely to cause your deploy to get stuck. For anything larger, try using Netlify’s Command Line Interface.
- You must have an index.html in the root of your project.
- Put all of your project assets in a folder (so, myfolder/index.html and myfolder/subdirectory/otherassets, etc).
- Use a computer with a reliable network connection. Any network hiccups can cause the deploy to get stuck.
- Use the latest version of a Chromium-based browser.
- Use a computer that has sufficient free memory - 4x your uncompressed site size is a good ballpark and more is better.
If your deploy fits those criteria and is stuck after 10 minutes, you can try to deploy again right away by dragging and dropping your folder again. After 10 minutes, that older, stuck deploy will never publish, so you don’t need to worry about it interfering with your next try. If your deploy won’t get unstuck, you should try switching to Git-backed deploys or to the Command Line Interface as mentioned above. If that still doesn’t help, please comment below.