Problem with Some Shopify stores in Nigeria

[ademide]

On Sunday the 3rd, customers in Nigeria (my major market) using the 2 major mobile carriers MTN and Airtel have been unable to access my website and a few other Shopify websites too. No one has been able to give an explanation or fix. I decided to day to try a new store, and it is working well. I am being told that I can't transfer my subscription to the new store.. What do I do? I can't abandon my annual payment over something that is not my fault. Can someone please help me? Either with a fix to the first store, or to transfer my subscription to the new store. TIA!

[ademide]

I am so glad someone else is saying this. I know of 2 other stores with the same issue. Support does not know what is going on, they keep giving me the run around, one person did say it has something to do with Cloudflare and asked me to call them.... I don't understand why I should call Cloudflare for a service I am paying Shopify for... The only way I found is to open another store, I did, and it is working, but now they are dillydallying on transferring my subscription to that one, so I am still stuck. Would you mind sharing your website details? I am trying to make a case with support who keep saying the issue is not from them. Apart from yours, I just found another site that is affected, making 5 now that I know of. Shopify need to move the stores to another server.

[212daniella]

We are having the same issue: bankekuku.com

[ademide]

It is super frustrating how Shopify is dancing around this problem... I am so disappointed. I found a work around, which is to open a new store, but I pay annually, and they are refusing to move my subscription to the new store, so I am still stuck as I can't afford to let go if it, it should expire in December... Maybe you can try opening a new store and transferring your info to it. Do check first to be sure it works, as it depends on the server it is on which is the main issue.

[AUST]

Hi @ademide check this thread https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/my-shopify-store-s-domain-not-opening-in-my-coun...

you can reach out to the owner from their website.

[ademide]

Thank you so much. It is disappointing that @Shopify is just ignoring the problem, why collect our money and not help when there is an issue that is crippling businesses?

[shola_b]

i am have the same issue too

[uberMichael]

Hello Ademide

This is a quick temp fix . Unfortunately, it requires a little bit of technical knowledge. 

If your domain is routed through Cloudflare, what you can do is set up a Redirect rule pointing from your shopify domain name to your shopify subdomain . 

eg mystore.com -> mystore.shopify.com 

So when anyone goes to mystore.com ,they will be redirected and your store will still work . 

Also, you have to log into your shopify admin and make mystore.shopify.om primary to stop it from redirecting to mystore.com

At least this will stop you from bleeding customers and revenue until we figure out why MTN and Co are crazy 

Cheers

[ademide]

Thank you so much, I will get to work on this right now. I am grateful.

[lauyen]

Hi Ademide, have you redirected the URL? Is it working? 

[ademide]

Yes, and it is working.

[miminongo]

I figured this out after weeks of not knowing what to do. I can say for a fact that it has been frustrating. I have had to update my website to mystore.myshopify.com which is really long

[Jeraz101]

I’m having the same issues in Nigeria as well. Apart from opening a new store, any fix for this? 

[Shay]

Hey folks! Thank you for sharing your feedback here about this issue you are having with customer's visiting on certain internet providers from Nigeria. I don't have any specific insight into this issue but I do want to make sure it is being properly investigated and all due diligence from our end is being done. 

If you have an open ticket about this issue, please share your ticket number with me here. If you do not have a support ticket about this yet, please reach out to our authenticated chat support to report this issue. Feel free to also share a link to this community thread. Once done, please feel free to also share your new ticket number here as well. 

It is important to note, that if the issue is stemming from specific internet service providers (ISP), sometimes what we are able to resolve is limited based on how much the ISP is willing to assist.

I do recommend contacting the affected internet service providers directly as well to find out why they are not allowing customers to visit your website on their internet connection. 

[Jeraz101]

Can you help us fix this issue ASAP or at least give us a temporary workaround.

My site has been offline since 6 days now and we have lost a lot of revenues 

[Jeraz101]

Ticket number: 46309231

[Elias]

Hey, @Jeraz101.

Thank you for following up with the ticket number. 

It looks like your ticket is in the right place, and we'd recommend keeping an eye on your inbox for the next steps. It's important to note that we're unable to access merchant accounts via the Shopify Community, so we'd encourage getting in touch with our live support team if you're still experiencing any issues with accessing your site. 

If you'd like to get an update on your ticket, then please visit the Shopify Help Center and login to your account to connect with a Support advisor. 

[ademide]

Hello Shay,

I have found a temporary workaround, but it may not work in the long run. My ticket number is 46344783. I tried to open a new store, which would have worked, but got stuck when I could not move my subscription to it. (I am still waiting on the promised response from the finance guys) It still has 10 months left on it, I can't abandon it, in all the support I have received on this has been very disappointing compared to the other  times when I have had issues. For something this major, the response has been underwhelming, please help us fix this, businesses are bleeding.

[love5]

It's really upsetting because the temp fix isn't good in the long run and displaying the whole shopify URL has security risks. Not to talk of if you're using a platform like Google ads which directs customers to your original URL which will cause issues as it doesn't accept redirects for ads.

How are we still on this for over two weeks?

I don't think opening a new store will solve the issue as it's shopify domains customers cannot access.

[lauyen]

Any news on this @Shay ? All my tickets were closed by Shopify, had a couple of tickets. 

[love5]

Had the same issue with them closing it and after I complained and asked why it was closed without any solution, they said the issue is from my hosting company (who in turn said is from Shopify). If a lot of customers in the same region are having issues with Shopify, the issue will most likely be from Shopify. 

[lauyen]

Hi @love5 @ademide @Jeraz101, you can create a free account on Cloudflare and manage the DNS settings through there. That will fix it. 

[ademide]

Thank you.

I will try this.

[love5]

Is this problem still ongoing? I had to use a temp fix and Shopify is yet to respond.

[Jeraz101]

Let's be frank. If this problem had occurred in Europe or North America, Shopify would likely have resolved it promptly. However, since it's happening in Africa, often labeled as a third-world continent, why should we expect Shopify to prioritize fixing an issue that's been persisting for over two weeks now, causing revenue loss? They gladly take our money but seem unwilling to address our concerns. It's truly disappointing.

[love5]

Exactly! I told them this same thing - that they are prioritizing other customers over African customers yet we pay the same thing. Ridiculous. However, they responded saying the issue is from my hosting company which is WhoGoHost and I contacted them and they too, said it wasn't from their end. This whole issue is stressful. I tried to migrate to Shopify but my website is a .ng/.africa domain which is unsupported so I am still using my .myshopify.com link.

Very disappointed with this whole ordeal.

[ademide]

The only reason I haven't left is because I just paid for the annual plan. This is very disappointing.

[kvngosas]

I have been having this exact same issue, after the constant back and forth with shopify and namecheap, 3 days ago i created a new store and bought a new domain but it is still not working. At first I thought it was an MTN issue but I created a free website on github and pointed the dns to that website and it opened just fine on MTN. But when I point it back to my shopify store it says can't connect to server

[idrisetti]

Hey everyone!

This should help, although it requires a bit of technical knowledge.

1. Create a Free Cloudflare Account: We're using Cloudflare because most hosting services (like those using cPanel) don't allow the required changes to be made directly. 
   • Create your Cloudflare account.
   • Add your site to Cloudflare. See here for more details.
   • Visit your domain registrar and replace your domain's nameservers with the nameservers assigned by Cloudflare. See here for more details.
2. Configure Your Site on Cloudflare: Once the nameserver changes have propagated and your site is active on Cloudflare:
   • Go to your website’s DNS records on your Cloudflare dashboard.
   • Under ‘DNS management for your domain’, locate your website’s A record. It should look like this: 'Type: A', 'Name: your domain', 'Content: Shopify's IP address - 23.227.38.**' (if your website was previously connected and functional).
   • Edit this record: Change the ‘Type’ to 'CNAME', and change the ‘Content’ to your Shopify-generated domain name (e.g., 'your-store.myshopify.com'). This should resolve the issue.
3. Set Your Domain as the Primary Domain on Shopify: Ensure that you keep your domain name as the primary domain in your Shopify settings, rather than the Shopify-generated domain.

By pointing your domain name to your Shopify store as an alias rather than directly to Shopify’s IP address, you can avoid the issues these ISPs seem to have with the direct IP connection.

Give it a go and good luck!

Cheers!

[kvngosas]

Wow @idrisetti , thank you so much. Changing from A to CNAME and pointing to my store address rather than Shopify’s IP worked like magic. I didn’t bother signing up for cloudfare, it worked fine on namecheap after the dns update

[Jeraz101]

@kvngosas  I am using namecheap as well. can you please write down the steps you took in namecheap to achieve this? 

[kvngosas · Accepted solution]

Alright @Jeraz101 , 

From your namecheap dashboard, select domains and click on the domain you have issue with.

Go to Advanced DNS

under records where you have 

type: A

host: @

and the Shopify IP address.

change it from A to CNAME

leave @ as it is

then change the IP to your-store.myshopify.com

then save, after some minutes it’ll update.

NB: “your-store.myshopify.com” is your Shopify alias address you can get that from Domains in Shopify settings. 

[Jeraz101]

@kvngosas Thanks very much, I appreciate. Just responding now because of the time difference. Do have a wonderful day. 

[Sfj026]

Am trying to do this because I have the same issue but I can’t change the test from “a” to CNAME, please help

[GrandmasterT]

Hello, Please were you able to resolve this?

I have the same inability to switch from A to CNAME

My domain registrar is whogohost

[idrisetti]

You're welcome! Happy to help 😀

[Halliman900]

How did you fix the issue, currently facing the same issue , I ran Facebook and instagram ads and I had good CTR and CPC with no sales then I was like what could be the problem bcos I got so many clicks then I decided to visit mai site gbam the site is not opening, I just wasted cash on adverts not knowing mai site is not opening,are you able to fix your site ?

[Imogen]

Hi there, Halliman. Thanks for taking the time to follow up on this thread! I recommend that you reach out to our Support Team via our Help Center so we can authenticate you and access the information we need to properly troubleshoot this issue for you. This could be related to the ISP that some of your visitors are using (as mentioned in previous posts by users here) but we can help confirm that if you use the link attached here to connect with us. Thanks!

[lauyen]

The only solution is to manage the DNS of your domain through Cloudflare. You can use a free cloudflare account to do this. 

[Ibikari]

Please how do I do this? I have just created a free cloud flare account, I’m also having the same issue of MTN & Airtel ISP users being unable to access my website - tegamilton.com

[lauyen]

Add the Cloud flare nameservers at your domain registrar. And then in Cloudlfare you add the Shopify records. 

[Ibikari]

I have done this but the issue still persists, is there something I’m not doing right?

current status as seen on Cloudflare

A(DNS only | auto TTL)

tegamilton.com points to 23.227.38.65.

CNAME(DNS only | auto TTL)

www.tegamilton.com is an alias of tegamilton.myshopify.com.

also the domain status on cloudflare shows as ACTIVE

[lauyen]

Change 65 to 72. So the ip will be 23.227.38.72.

[Ibikari]

Thank youuuuuuuu, it works now. 

[Sucre01]

Thank you for this, the correction makes it work perfectly

[ademide]

See what @kvngosas shared please. Hope it works for you. A domain name change might help too.