Why am I getting a 403 Forbidden error on my Google Domain?

[ChaseSommer]

Hello!

Thank you for taking the time to help me!

I connected my Google Domain to my Shopify, and it was working fine for a few hours, but now I am getting a 403 Forbidden error. 

My website is chasesommer.com

What should I do?

Thank you so much!!

[Moira · Accepted solution]

Hey, @ChaseSommer!

This is Moira from the Social Care team at Shopify. Thanks for posting! I understand you are receiving a 403 Forbidden Error after connecting your third-party domain to your store, I know how frustrating it can be not being able to access your site but not to worry, you have me on this and I'll do my best to help you out today.

Thank you for sharing your website URL with us, I was just able to access your store with no trouble at all which is a good sign! See the image below:

The 403 Forbidden Error happens when the web page (or another resource) that you’re trying to open in your web browser is a resource that you’re not allowed to access. It’s called a 403 error because that’s the HTTP status code that the webserver uses to describe that kind of error. You usually get this error for one of two reasons. The first is that the owners of the webserver have properly set up access permissions and that you’re really not allowed access to the resource. The second reason is that the owners of the webserver have improperly set up permissions and you’re getting denied access when you really shouldn’t be.

I've got a few things for you to try out so we can pinpoint where the issue is stemming from:

1 ) Double check the address - the most common reason for a 403 error is a mistyped URL. Make sure that the address you are trying to access is for a web page or file, not a directory. A regular URL would end in .com, .php, .org, .html, or just have an extension, while a directory URL would usually end with a “/”.

2 ) Incognito/private mode on your browser - login to Shopify once you've done this and see if you're able to access anything. If it works, it means your browser likely needs its cache cleared.

3 ) I suggest clearing your browser cache and make sure you are operating on the latest version of Google Chrome. When you use a browser, like Chrome, it saves some information from websites in its cache and cookies. Clearing them fixes certain problems, like loading or formatting issues on sites:

• Click here for instructions on clearing your cache

• Click here for instructions on launching an incognito browser

4 ) You can try using a different browser or device (like a phone) to see if you can make the changes. If it works in one browser and not the other, it's a browser issue and the cache needs to be cleared.

5 ) If you can confirm that the website in question is working for others but not for you, then it’s possible that the public IP address your Internet service provider (ISP) provided you has been blocked for some reason. You can try contacting them and letting them know about the problem.

If none of the solutions we’ve talked about so far work, you can always wait a while and come back later. Since most of the time, 403 Errors are caused by issues with the website in question, it’s likely someone is already working on the problem.

As a side note, I just want to say how much of a great job you have done building your store, it is very commendable — clean, polished, and easy to navigate, you should be so proud! How have you found running your business so far? Certain products like the Techwear 2021 Hoodie stand out to me because of the great job you've done with the product images and description. Have you thought about who your target customer is for your website? Our blog post on Building a Buyer Persona talks about narrowing down who your ideal customer is. This process is good to go through so that you can get the most out of your marketing.

I do hope this helps! Let me know how you get on with the suggestions above and feel free to let me know if I can clarify anything further.

Cheers,

[ChaseSommer]

Moira,

Thank you for the thoughtful response. I know it will help many others in the future!

..So it randomly started working after reading your post! 

Question: it still says the site is unsecure. Is that a waiting solution? In the domains section of my store it says SSL pending.

Thank you for your time Moira!

-Chase

[Moira]

Hi @ChaseSommer,

Thanks for getting back to us,

It's great to hear your site is up and running again, sometimes the gift of time solves these issues!

Normally if you've not purchased the domain through Shopify there may be a delay in provisioning SSL certificates to the domain due to different reasons. These usually stem from some DNS settings that you can easily access through your domain host (where you purchased the domain).

• The domain points to Shopify

• The domain does not point to Cloudflare

• The CAA list is empty

• DNSSEC not active

• There are no AAAA records

• Waited 48 hours for the DNS settings to provision

If all of those are set up and correct as well as any remaining requirements in our help center guide here, it looks like we’ll need to access your account in order to resolve this issue. While we’re not able to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community at this time, we’d be happy to continue assisting you through live chat, email, or callback. Please visit https://bit.ly/3cJkx8V and log in to your account to create a support request.

In order to save some time, and help the Support Advisor you speak with to pick up from where you and I have left off, I am going to provide you with a summary of the issue as I understand it. You can share this summary at the beginning of your conversation with the agent to bring you both up to speed and help to get your answers as quickly as possible.

Issue Summary: Third-party domain connected, SSL still pending after 48 hours, please manually provision certificates via Shopify internal.

TIP: If you're looking for the next steps to grow your business further, you may be interested in our video courses on Shopify Compass! This is a free resource for you to learn about anything from marketing to store design. I highly recommend taking advantage of this as you'll find many tips and strategies from experts in different fields.

If you have any questions please feel free to thread those below. 

[Myxtini]

Hi Moira,

Can my website please be looked into?? www.Myxtini.com. On my mobile web browser I am receiving the 403 Forbidden  Error Cloudfare and on Chrome it’s stating privacy error. Can you please assist me??

[Moira]

Hey @Myxtini,

The domain points to Shopify. The A record is valid.
The domain has an A record pointing to 23.227.38.74.
The domain has a CNAME record pointing to shops.myshopify.com.

Everything is working as it should be! Let me know if you are still facing trouble on your end,

[ettekidsstudios]

Dear Moira, 

I am running into a similar issue. I believe bluehost has improperly set up permissions and and I'm getting denied access when I shouldn’t. My domain name is ola-ette.com
I have made sure to set up my A name server and CNAME www correctly to point to Shopify.
Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Moira]

Hey @ettekidsstudios,

Were you able to resolve this? I was just able to access your store with no trouble!

[MythosMoonlight]

I am having the same issue as the original poster. Can you please check my site?

Mythosandmoonlight.com 

Thank you

[Moira]

Hey @MythosMoonlight,

I checked your domain configuration and everything is correct, I was also able to access your store with no trouble, are you still facing issues on your end?

[KatMint]

Hi Moira,

You seem to be so good at solving this one!

I tried linking Canva to my Shopify store yesterday evening around 6, and shared a shipping infographic I had created right to my site... then everything went bad. 

First, the error was this:
"The connection for this site is not secure keysercreekfarms.com uses an unsupported protocol. ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH"

I went to Canva and disconnected the account, I deleted the content that I had directly shared; I deleted the Canva connection in Shopify (I believe). Then I went through the steps of fixing the A and CNAME records... 

Now I'm at the 403 Forbidden error, and my site won't launch from any browser or incognito mode....

My website is keysercreekfarms.com , and I'd love to have it back online!
Thanks so much,
Kathryn

[Moira]

Hey @KatMint,

Thank you for providing such in depth context, it helps me out greatly!

It sounds like you're dealing with two main problems: an SSL certificate error and a 403 Forbidden error. 

- The ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH error is usually related to the SSL certificate of your website. 

- The 403 Forbidden error is an HTTP status code which means that accessing the page or resource you were trying to reach is absolutely forbidden for some reason.

I have gone ahead and checked your domain and can see the following:

- The domain points to Shopify. The A record is valid. ✅ 

- There are no AAAA records. We should be able the provision a SSL certificate. ✅ 

It sounds like updating the records may have taken a few hours to propagate as I am able to successfully access your website now! Are you still facing trouble on your end?

[Myxtini]

Hello, 

I am having the EXACT same issue as KatMint. My website is www.myxtini.com.

[DailyReminders]

Even I am having this issue with my website - www.dailyreminders.org

Please see to it

[Moira]

Hey @DailyReminders,

I was just able to access your store with no trouble, are you still facing issues on your end?

[IvanDK]

Even I am having this issue with my website - www.cutecubs.store

Please see to it

[Moira]

Hey @IvanDK,

What issue are you facing? I checked your DNS records, and they are all setup correctly.

[peti1]

Hola Moira, 

Genial los aportes a estas discusiones. Gracias.

Ahora tengo el mismo problema pero no logro aún hacer la creación de la nueva instancia, me aparece el mismo error código 403.

He realizado los intentos desde varios navegadores y desde modo incógnito y me sigue apareciendo el error.

Mi sitio web es: www.soloio.com

[Moira]

Hey @peti1!

I would love to help you out but can only reply using English, do you mind translating?

[HaroonSiddique]

Hey 

I am having this issue with my website - https://americanbatterystore.com/

Can you please see it

[Moira]

Hey @HaroonSiddique,

Your website is password protected, so I am unable to see past that page.

Are you still seeing a 403 error? I checked your domain records and they are all set up correctly.

[peti1]

Hello Moira,

Great contributions to these discussions. Thank you.

Now I have the same problem but I still can't create the new instance, I get the same error code 403.

I have made attempts from several browsers and from incognito mode and the error continues to appear.

My website is: www.soloio.com

[Moira]

Hey @peti1,

I took a look at your domain records, and they are all correct which is a great sign. 

When you say you "can't create the new instance" what are you referring to? I will do my best to replicate the issue on my end.

Look forward to hearing from you!

[peti1]

Ok, thank you very much for your review.
My problem is that when creating the new Shopify instance in my ERP system to connect to the store (website) that I have in Shopify, the error with code 403 is appearing.

It is an error that begins, like this:

Response(code=403, body="b'{"errors":"[API] Invalid Username provided for Basic Auth API access"}'", headers={'Date': 'Tue, 07 Nov 2023 22:10:30 GMT', 'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8', 'Transfer-Encoding': 'chunked', 'Connection': 'close', 'X-Sorting-Hat-PodId': '318', 'X-Sorting-Hat-ShopId': '72613167423', 'Vary': 'Accept-Encoding', 'Referrer-Policy': 'origin-when-cross-origin', 'X-Frame-Options': 'DENY', 'X-ShopId': '72613167423', 'X-ShardId': '318', 'Strict-Transport-Security': 'max-age=7889238', 'Server-Timing': 'processing;dur=39', 'X-Shopify-Stage': 'production', 'Content-Security-Policy': "default-src 'self' data: blob: 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval' https://* shopify-pos://*; block-all-mixed-content; child-src 'self' https://* shopify-pos://*; connect-src 'self' wss://* https://*; frame-ancestors 'none'; img-src 'self' data: blob: https:; script-src https://cdn.shopify.com https://cdn.shopifycdn.net https://checkout.shopifycs.com https://api.stripe.com https://mpsnare.iesnare.com https://appcenter.intuit.com https://www.paypal.com https://js.braintreegateway.com https://c.paypal.com https://maps.googleapis.com https://www.google-analytics.com https://v.shopify.com 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'; upgrade-insecure-requests; report-uri /csp-report?source%5Baction%5D=show&source%5Bapp%5D=Shopify&source%5Bcontroller%5D=admin%2Fshops&source%5Bsection%5D=admin_api&source%5Buuid%5D=97a22fe7-6c81-4b97-a838-02250a2eaddc", 'X-Content-Type-Options': 'nosniff', 'X-Download-Options': 'noopen', 'X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies': 'none', 'X-XSS-Protection': '1; mode=block; report=/xss-report?source%5Baction%5D=show&source%5Bapp%5D=Shopify&source%5Bcontroller%5D=admin%2Fshops&source%5Bsection%5D=admin_api&source%5Buuid%5D=97a22fe7-6c81-4b97-a838-02250a2eaddc', 'X-Dc': 'gcp-us-central1,gcp-us-east1,gcp-us-east1', 'X-Request-ID': '97a22fe7-6c81-4b97-a838-02250a2eaddc', 'CF-Cache-Status': 'DYNAMIC', 'Report-To': '{"endpoints":[{"url":"https:\\/\\/a.nel.cloudflare.com\\/report\\/v3?s=cavX7%2FgxA7JuCeXDH67CYOWbIaBeL1I9jtZQyQh%2BSz%2BF2HQuPyuNXZODoNUeNQG8XFu%2FbqbXVagVUQkqp2y%2F%2FwFdoslbY2KPL%2BjXhsp%2BbWMU08M6bj5nMHYFdEfuyC9WTrNYxar3cyj4s4k%3D"}],"group":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}', 'NEL': '{"success_fraction":0.01,"report_to":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}', 'Server': 'cloudflare', 'CF-RAY': '8228e81b8f4a61c2-ORD', 'alt-svc': 'h3=":443"; ma=86400'}, msg="Forbidden")

[Moira]

Thanks for sharing! 

The error message you're encountering is related to the authentication process with the Shopify API. The error message "[API] Invalid Username provided for Basic Auth API access" suggests that the username you're providing for Basic Authentication is incorrect or not recognized by Shopify.

Make sure that the API key and password you are using are correct. You can verify this by logging into your admin panel, going to Apps -> Manage private apps and then checking the credentials of the private app you're using to connect to the API.

[adornyourwalls]

Hi my previous website on wix was www.adornyourwalls.com. I have transferred domain to shopify and its https://adornyourwalls.com however when www.adornyourwalls.com is typed it says 403 forbidden cloudflare. I have on shopify done a redirect for this uhl to https://adornyourwalls.com but it doesnt seem to have worked yet?