Shopify store "Site can't be reached"

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A user experiences intermittent “Site can’t be reached” errors when accessing their Shopify store and admin panel (approximately 25% of the time). The issue affects all store URLs and occurs exclusively with Shopify—no other websites are impacted.

Temporary workaround: Turning on a VPN immediately resolves the connection, which then persists even after disabling the VPN until the error recurs.

Proposed solutions:

  • Disable the QUIC protocol in Chrome (chrome://flags), which appears to have resolved the issue for now
  • Switch DNS servers to Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1)
  • Check if the ISP supports QUIC or if there are rate-limiting/IP flagging issues

Current status: The user disabled QUIC and the problem hasn’t recurred yet. They plan to contact their ISP, though it’s a major provider. The issue likely stems from local network infrastructure, ISP routing, or browser configuration rather than Shopify itself, as the store loads normally for others.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

About 25% of the time I try to open my store I get the below error. This can be any store URL - e.g. Homepage, Product Page - but strangely it also happens with Shopify Admin itself.

MyCsPiTTa_1-1749473813120.png
MyCsPiTTa_1-1749473813120.png400×184 19.8 KB

This is on Chrome. I’ve tried Deleting All Browsing Data, and it doesn’t help.
Sometimes opening in Incognito works, but now always.

What does always work is turning my VPN. I don’t even need to click the URL again - it just refreshes and loads successfully. Then it continues to work, even with VPN turned off. Until the next time, that is…

I know this is probably a issue on my end. But its ONLY happens to Shopify, both frontend and backend. No other webpages are affected.

Any ideas what it could be?

2

Hi @MyCsPiTTa ,

Could you please try to

  1. Disable QUIC in your browser by
    1. Open Chrome and type chrome://flags in the address bar.
    2. Search for “QUIC”.
    3. Find “Experimental QUIC protocol” and set it to Disabled.
    4. Relaunch Chrome.
  2. If this works, it means your LSP may not support QUIC, I would suggest you to contact your ISP regarding this problem.

Please let me know if this answer is fulfilled and please let me know if you have any other questions

Kind regards,

Den from FlashWombat

1 Like
3

Thanks for sharing this, I can imagine how frustrating that must be, especially when it affects both your storefront and your admin access.

Since turning on your VPN fixes the issue (even temporarily), it sounds like it might be related to your network’s DNS routing or how your IP is being flagged or cached by Shopify’s CDN (Content Delivery Network). It’s odd, but not unheard of, especially if your ISP is having trouble resolving certain requests to Shopify’s servers.

Try switching your DNS to Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1)

If you’re on a dynamic IP your IP might be getting rate-limited or temporarily flagged by Shopify’s edge network.

1 Like
4

Sorry for the delay in responding as we took some time away. Disabling QUIC does indeed seem to have prevented the issue recurring for now.
I’ve never heard of it! I will reach out to our ISP, but they’re a large player so it would be unusual if they weren’t up to date with industry standard architecture…
Do you know how QUIC relates to Shopify issues? As it’s the only site been affected.

5

Hi @MyCsPiTTa ,

Networking issue is usually very hard to debug. Even experienced networking engineer may take a few days or a few weeks to figure out what goes wrong. I would try my best to see if I could narrow down the issues.

Based on what you provide and your website. I have no issue connecting to your website. This means that this applies to how the network infra works in your local area or the browser extensions you install. You could try to connect to your website in incognito mode, which removes all browser extensions.

  1. If incognito mode doesn’t have this issue, then it means the browser extension you install is causing this issue. You could delete your extension one by one until this issue doesn’t happen again. However, you mentioned that using VPN prevents the QUIC issue. This one is highly unlikely.
  2. If incognito mode works, then it means something is wrong with your home router setting, your local ISP, or even the whole network infra around your area.

I would try to help if you could provide me more info.

Kind regards,

Den from FlashWombat

1 Like