"Save Site as Template" Option is Missing on Publishing Site in SharePoint 2013

At first glance, something appears to be wrong.  "Why cant you simply save the site as a template", I asked.  Perhaps Microsoft (in all it's infinite wisdom) decided to remove the "save a site as a template" feature by default with publishing sites.  That's okay, you can simply navigate to “_layouts/savetmpl.aspx” application page and save the site template, right?  Wrong!  This workaround does not work as expected in SharePoint 2013.

The url “_layouts/savetmpl.aspx” failed on the publishing site because by default in SharePoint 2013, “SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled” is set as “false”.  Fortunately it's a very quick fix, simply change this switch to true in 3 simple steps!

1. Open the site in SharePoint Designer
2. Click Site Options from the ribbon
3. Modify the "SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled" and change it from "False" to "True"

The option still wont be displayed in Site Settings, but you can now you can navigate to “http://sitename/_layouts/15/savetmpl.aspx” and you will see the Save Site as Template Page as expected.

That's All Folks!