Core Issue:
Shopify store owners in Nigeria cannot access their websites without a VPN, while the sites work normally in other countries. The problem affects multiple ISPs, particularly MTN and Airtel, and has persisted for months in some cases.
Root Cause:
The issue appears linked to Nigeria’s NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) blocking certain Shopify IP addresses, possibly due to recent cryptocurrency website bans that inadvertently affected Shopify servers sharing similar IPs.
Proposed Solution:
Multiple users report success by changing their domain’s A record to IP address “23.227.38.72” through their domain registrar (e.g., Namecheap). This workaround has restored accessibility across Nigerian ISPs for several store owners.
Current Status:
Some users confirm the fix works after DNS propagation
Others report mixed results, with accessibility issues persisting on specific ISPs
Shopify support has been unable to replicate or resolve the issue effectively
Business impact includes lost revenue, customer complaints, and high-risk order flags when customers use VPNs
One user created a video tutorial demonstrating the IP change solution
Note: DNS changes require propagation time (typically up to 48 hours) before taking effect.
Summarized with AI on October 26.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
I created a shopify store recently and also bought and linked a domain name from a third party provider. So far, the domain won’t even connect when I try to visit the url (beststore24.com is the web address). I get the below error.
Unable to connect> > An error occurred during a connection to beststore24.com.> > - The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.> - If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network connection.> - If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the web.
It’s almost as if the domain name doesn’t exist. But then I visit the same domain with a VPN connected to other countries like the US, Britain, Canada, Turkey and so on and it opens! I’m from Nigeria and it doesn’t open in my country!
I’ve asked for help from both shopify and my domain registra and they both asked me to wait 48 hours, well it’s past 48 hours now and still no progress.
I haven’t found any help anywhere on what to do about this and my subscriptions to various services for this endeavour is running down.
I have cleared caches, cookies, and flushed DNS several times to no avail. I have even switched domains managed by other providers like Hostinger yet to no avail. I have my DNS records (A-record and CNAME record) set correctly.
The problem is that you cannot simulate this error from where you are even when you try to switch your IP to Nigeria.
Seeing someone else complaining about this only gives me relief. Because I have been getting this same response from the support team that nothing is wrong with my site for 4 days now.
Please, can the technical team look into this as this is seriously crippling our businesses? I am so frustrated and confused. I have lost a lot of revenue. My customers on Instagram are just complaining, they can’t access my site.
Please, can you help escalate this issue? I know if this continues you will still be getting more complaints like this.
No, it’s not. back and forth with Shopify support they take over 12hrs to reply with nothing to show. I’m considering changing platforms from Shopify to something else
It seems to be a general issue. I am having the same issue with a website I am currently developing for a client, I can only access it through VPN which is not supposed to be.
I am also having the same issues with my website. It’s been a long back and forth with support and they don’t seem to know what the issue is because its hard to replicate the issue if you are not in Nigeria.
My guess is that the recent ban of some crypto websites in Nigeria by the ISP has directed by NCC is the challenge. I feel one of the websites has a similar IP to shopifys server IP and thats why we are all affected.
I have lost so many orders this period, so I am left with no other choice to migrate my website back to wordpress. Thank God I am a software developer so I don’t have to pay for that.
I have been a shopify customer for years and this issue is not new. It happens every once in a while without store owners even knowing. The last time it happened and stayed long was late 2022.
I see your store is working and opening fine. Kindly advise on what you did to resolve ot.
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 .
Thank you for this. I am working on it now. I am just really shocked that @Shopify_77 would get multiple complaints regarding an issue that is crippling business for customers, and won’t do anything about it.
