Why does my new website say 'currently unavailable' despite being live?

[RC-SHOP]

Im unable to make my website live even though passwords have been disabled. It shows my status as 'live' but if I goto my website it says its 'currently unavailable'. 

Do you have to wait for some time for your shop to be activated or am I missing something?

TIA 

[magecomp]

Hi @RC-SHOP 

It should start right away if you have paid for the shopify plan and connected your live (actual) domain. 

[RC-SHOP]

Thanks Magecomp - Upon further investigation I realised my domain wasnt linked to my store anymore. When I went to link my domain it said my domain name cant include any special characters? Any way around this?

I dont need to buy a domain just connect an existing one which does have a hyphen in it, not sure why this is an issue. 

TIA 

[magecomp]

I see, usually, the hyphen is not supported in the domain, I would suggest taking Shopify support once. 

[RC-SHOP]

That definatley needed some help from support. Thanks for your advice. 

[Rick]

Hi @RC-SHOP 

Welcome to the Shopify Community!

I can see that you were experiencing some issues with your store showing as currently unavailable. Did you manage to get this issue resolved?

You mentioned that you were connecting a third-party domain. In most cases, it takes time for DNS changes to propagate across the internet. After you've made changes to your domain settings, you may have to wait up to 48 hours for the changes to take effect and for your store to be live. Feel free to share your store domain here, and I would be happy to take a closer look at the setup!

If you believe you have connected the domain according to our instructions here, and it has been over 48 hours and it's still not working, then please feel free to reach out to our support team using this link here. We'd be happy to check this out for you, and provide some advice on how to resolve the situation!

Besides this domain issue, how is the rest of your store build coming along? Going live with a brand new store is an exciting time! I would recommend taking a look through our checklist here, as it lists many important aspects of the store that you should know before launching. Also, if you have some spare time this YouTube tutorial video is a great walkthrough from start to finish - you might pick up some helpful tips!