My website inventory was showing as normal, and then I randomly checked it today and everything is showing up as sold out. This isn’t possible as my website is not live yet and is protected by a password, and my inventory is linked to a print on demand business (dropshipping) so I have like unlimited stock. I’ve checked a couple other threads but couldn’t apply the info to mine. I have checked on the back end and I definetely have a lot of stock, and I don’t have the option on my product page to “sell even when sold out” like I saw on another persons post on here.
When a store that’s still password-protected suddenly shows everything as “sold out,” even though you’re using POD with essentially unlimited inventory, the problem usually isn’t the products themselves it’s the way Shopify is syncing availability between your product setup and the fulfillment app.
A couple of things I’d point you to right away:
Inventory tracking vs. POD logic: Since POD products don’t rely on “real stock counts,” Shopify sometimes defaults to showing them as sold out if the “track quantity” box is ticked incorrectly, or if your fulfillment app hasn’t pushed through the availability status. That’s why you won’t see the “Continue selling when out of stock” toggle it isn’t relevant for POD products.
Sales channel publishing: Even though your store is locked by a password, each product still has a “Sales Channel” status. If a product isn’t properly published to the Online Store channel (or got auto-unpublished during a sync), Shopify can mark it as unavailable, which looks like “sold out” on the frontend.
Theme rendering issue: Some themes grab stock info differently. If the theme can’t detect “unlimited” from the POD provider, it defaults to “sold out.” Switching to a free Shopify theme like Dawn temporarily can confirm if the problem is theme-related or app-sync-related.
● A quick fix before diving deeper: go into one of your products → “Inventory” section → toggle off “Track quantity,” then save. Refresh your storefront (even behind the password) and see if that single product switches to “in stock.” If it does, you’ll know the issue is with how inventory is being tracked, not the POD sync itself.
The good news is—you don’t actually have a stock issue, it’s just a display/sync mismatch. Once you pinpoint where that toggle or sync breaks, your storefront will show the correct availability again.
@forcharlieboy I understand how frustrating this is. Since you’re using a print-on-demand app, here’s a quick way to fix the sold-out issue:
Check Inventory Management: In Shopify, open a product and make sure inventory is managed by your print-on-demand app, not Shopify.
Re-sync Products: Open your POD app in Shopify and use the sync or refresh option to resync your products.
Confirm Product & Variants Status: Make sure your products and all variants are marked active and have inventory synced. Look for “continue selling when out of stock” if available.
Check Sales Channels: Ensure your products are available on the Online Store channel.