Is my online store live and visible to the public?

[Markssxx]

I’m still developing my store and it’s not ready for business. But I noticed there has been visits to the site. How can we tell when a store is actually live for the public? 

[Mac · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Markssxx!
Thanks for reaching out in our Community Forums and for sharing your concern, I’d be happy to help.

You can prevent visitor access to your online store by activating the password protection landing page. Then, when you're ready to launch, you can simply remove it. To activate it, follow these steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.
2. Scroll to the Password protection area and check "Restrict access to visitors with the password."
3. In the Password field, enter the password that you'll give to the customers who you want to be able to access your online store. Avoid using the same password that you use to log into your admin.
4. In the Message for your visitors field, enter the message that you want to show on the password page. If you don't want to show a message, leave this field blank.
5. Click Save.

Since you're in the process of setting up your store, feel free to check out the "To get started" section. The General Checklist is a great tool that will ensure you have your Shopify store all set up and ready for customers to make purchases. This includes having your media, shipping, and checkout all in working order.

Let me know how it goes!

[Markssxx]

Thanks all done.

[Mac]

Hi again, @Markssxx!

Thanks for following up! I'm happy to have been able to assist you.

I'd love to chat with you more about your business! If you're interested, I'd be happy to share some great resources that can help you get started. Feel free to let me know the topic, and we can go from there. Additionally, I'm always looking to help out merchants with ideas or feedback related to their stores as well.

All the best!

[Markssxx]

Yes why not. Have you WhatsApp or another way to chat

[Mac]

Hi again, @Markssxx!

That's great to hear! Although we cannot reach out through those specific methods, you can contact us through our Twitter Support account or our Facebook Support account. Just let our team know that you would like some store feedback, and they will be more than happy to assist you. Additionally, you are always welcome to reach out using the available contact methods in our Help Center. If you come across the chat assistant, you can ask to contact support, and it will guide you through the necessary steps to connect with a team member. Once you get in touch with support, we will be able to access your account and provide a more detailed analysis.

All the best!

[seagle76]

hi there, this didn't work for me, I've tried everything, clearing caches, other devices, but the preview URL is still accessible.  There is no doubt that I have settings correctly using the Ride theme.  How can this be possible?

[seagle76]

Okay, I was freaking out a bit - we want to manage our launch date carefully but was able to finally get password protection to work by publishing a new theme, and then switching back to the old theme.  I guess it was a cache thing and that process refreshed it for us.

[seagle76]

Actually - apologies for the flip flopping but the store is still completely accessible with this URL - https://06vh821g3me2zqhb-63696470175.shopifypreview.com/ but not this URL My Store (819331-4.myshopify.com) so the password protection isn't thorough at all.  Very annoying.

[Mac]

Hi there, @seagle76!

Thank you for joining this thread.

I understand that you are facing some issues with setting up password protection on your store. Allow me to provide some context to assist you. Firstly, there are two views through which you can access your store front. The first is the regular online store view, which is accessed through your myshopify.com or custom domain. This is the view that your customers are meant to see. To access it, you can hover over the "Online Store" tab in the Shopify admin and click on the "Eye" icon.

The second option is viewing your store through your admin via the theme editor. This view is not public-facing, and your customers will not have access to this link. It seems that you may have generated this link by following the steps outlined in this guide. A preview link allows others to explore your online store but prevents them from accessing the checkout. Please note that a preview link remains active for 2 days.

To summarize, please refer to the instructions I shared earlier to ensure that your online store is password protected. To confirm, you can access your myshopify.com URL via an incognito tab.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. I'm here to help!

[Tristan5]

Hi im having trouble trying to open my store it seems when i allow access to the store and go look for it on another device or my device i cannot seem to find it and can never go on my site to shop nothing i do works and i have changed the domain then searched the newly made domain but it still pops up as another store or wont pop up at all