Launching on a new theme (Dawn)

Shopify Discussion
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1

My apologies Community if this has been covered before….

My site is currently on the District theme but will be launching next month on Dawn. I’m introducing several new page templates, including a Shopify Bundles PDP.

My question is two-fold:

  1. How can I preview my newly created Bundles template on my unpublished theme? On my live theme, I have a Bundles PDP template. When I go to the Products section in the Admin, I do not see the new template I created in the Theme Template dropdown menu.
  2. Similar but slightly different – I created a new Page template that also doesn’t show up in the Theme Template dropdown menu. This is brand new page but cannot view how it’ll look when I promote my new theme to production.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Bill

2

Hey @bill_wishgarden

For point number 1, you’ll have to setup a new product template in your Dawn theme and set it up exactly how it’s setup currently in your live theme.

For point number 2, remember theme template dropdown only shows the templates of the Live theme, not the draft themes so to view those templates you’ll have to publish the theme to view those templates.

Happy to help if you require any assistance in your new launch.

Best,
Moeed

5

Hi Bill,

No worries, this comes up a lot when working with an unpublished theme in Shopify. The key thing to remember is that the “Theme Template” dropdown in the product or page editor only shows templates from your currently published theme. That’s why you’re not seeing your new Bundles or Page templates from your unpublished Dawn theme.

Here’s how you can preview them:

  1. Assign the template in the unpublished theme’s editor.

    • Go to Online Store → Themes.

    • Click Customize on your Dawn (unpublished) theme.

    • In the top bar, use the dropdown to select Products → choose the product you want.

    • In the left panel, change the template to your new Bundles template.

    • You can now see how it looks without affecting your live theme.

  2. If you need to preview a brand-new page

    • In Customize, choose Pages from the dropdown and select your new page.

    • Switch the template in the same way as above.

    • This works even if the page isn’t linked anywhere yet — just access it directly via the preview.

Why does this happen?
Shopify ties the template dropdown in the Admin to the active (live) theme only. The unpublished theme’s templates are hidden from that dropdown until the theme goes live. The workaround is to do all previewing and template assignments directly inside the Customize editor for the unpublished theme.

Once you publish Dawn, those new templates will automatically appear in the Admin’s “Theme Template” dropdown for easy assignment.

6

Hi @bill_wishgarden,

You can add ‘?view=’ to it.

First, you need to view the store from the Dawn theme preview link, then go to the product page or page and add ‘?view=template handle’, it will display fine.

I hope it is clear to you.

If I helped you, then a Like would be truly appreciated.

7

Hey @bill_wishgarden ,

First off - happy to hear about your upcoming store launch on Dawn! That’s always an exciting milestone.

On to your questions:

1. Why your new Bundles and Page templates aren’t showing in the Theme Template dropdown
This usually happens when the template files were created in your unpublished theme, but Shopify only shows templates from the currently published theme in the Admin product/page editor.
So, if you’re working on an unpublished Dawn version, your new templates won’t appear in the dropdown until that theme is published.

Workaround:
You can still preview them without publishing the theme:

  • Go to Online Store → Themes in Shopify Admin.

  • On your unpublished Dawn theme, click Preview.

  • In the preview URL, navigate to the specific product or page and append ?view=template_name (replace template_name with the name you gave your template file without .json). Example:

  • https://yourstore.myshopify.com/products/sample-product?view=bundles

    This lets you see the page with your new template before launch.

2. Testing a new Page template before publishing
Same idea applies — use the preview mode of your Dawn theme, then visit the page’s URL with ?view=your_template_name. This way, you can check layout and content before going live.

Once Dawn is your active theme, all those new templates will appear automatically in the Theme Template dropdown for easy assignment.

Happy to know you’ll be launching soon - if you’d like to see some of my previous work, please feel free to visit my portfolio here: https://www.rajatweb.dev

Best Regards,

Rajat | Shopify Expert