Hello everyone,
I’m still new to Shopify. I’ve recently created two online store themes simultaneously to compare their designs. While switching between them, I accidentally clicked the publish button on the wrong one. After watching a few tutorials on how to unpublish a store, I tried the deactivation option, but a warning message appeared (attached). I was afraid that if I deactivated it, I might lose the other theme as well.
So, instead of deactivating it, I followed the other solution, which is to restrict access using password protection. But today I removed all the website content to be in safe side.
As the theme is not my preferable one. My question is: if I deactivate the wrongly published theme, will it also deactivate the correct one?
Also, if deactivating won’t affect the other one, can I then delete it from Shopify?
Thank you so much for your kind help!
Nada
*Hi @nadadesign *
Thanks for reaching out to the Shopify Community! We’re MooseDesk, your go-to Live Chat, WhatsApp and FAQ App here to help you enhance your customer support experience 
Regarding to your question, let me address your concerns:
- Deactivating the wrongly published theme will not affect your other theme. Each theme in Shopify is treated as a separate entity.
- When you deactivate a published theme, it simply removes it from being the active, live theme on your store. It doesn’t delete the theme or affect any other themes you have.
- After deactivating the wrong theme, you can safely publish your preferred theme without any issues.
- Regarding deletion: Yes, once you’ve deactivated the unwanted theme, you can delete it from Shopify if you no longer need it. Deleting a theme only removes that specific theme and doesn’t affect any others.
Here are the steps you can follow:
- Go to Online Store > Themes in your Shopify admin.
- Find the wrongly published theme.
- Click on the “…” (Actions) button next to it.
- Select “Deactivate” (or “Unpublish” depending on your admin interface version).
- Confirm the action.
- Once deactivated, you can then delete it if you wish by selecting “Delete” from the same Actions menu.
After this, you can publish your preferred theme without any concerns. The password protection and content removal steps you took were unnecessary but didn’t cause any harm. You can reverse these actions on your preferred theme when you’re ready to make your store live. Remember, Shopify keeps your themes separate, so actions on one theme don’t affect others. You can always preview themes before publishing to ensure you’re working with the right one.
Moreover, if you are looking for customer support app, I suggest exploring MooseDesk , a FREE LiveChat, WhatApps, FAQ that can help your support experience easier, better, faster!
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With MooseDesk’s Omnichannel Support, you can engage with customers through live chat, manage inquiries with a robust ticket system, and provide quick responses via a WhatsApp button.
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So this is my answer for your question . If this is helpful for you, please let me know by giving me a ‘LIKE’. If your question is answered please mark this as 'SOLUTION’. Wishing you all the best in the future
Hi @MooseDesk ,
I can’t thank you enough for your detailed response and clear explanation; it’s incredibly helpful. Also, thanks for recommending MooseDesk,I’ll definitely check it out.
After following the steps and deactivating the wrongly published theme, unfortunately, I lost both themes. I was trying to figure out what went wrong, and I realized that my question wasn’t entirely accurate. What I actually did was duplicating the same theme, not creating two different ones, which might be the reason I lost both.
Now, when I sign in to Shopify, a pop-up appears prompting me to select a plan (it says I have 3 days left in my trial, ending on 9 October, with an offer for the first month at $1). I got confused because I had already been working under a plan.
Additionally, when I click on “My Store” and select “All Stores” from the drop-down menu, I see both active and inactive stores. Under “Active,” I see my store, but it’s empty. Under “Inactive,” I see three stores, all with the same name but with different website links.
I’m not sure what went wrong, but it seems I’ve mixed up a lot of things while I was exploring Shopify.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much indeed for your kind help.
Nada
Thank you @PaulNewton , appreciate your kind assistance.
1 Like
For this you need to contact shopify support if you need to untangle multiple store plans
https://help.shopify.com/en/support/topic-select/login-issue/contact/chat
Just publish the theme you want to be live, your waaay overthinking it.