Why does my website show 'page not available' frequently?

Topic summary

Frequent “page temporarily unavailable” errors occur when Shopify rate-limits a location sending excessive web requests. Initially, support advised checking local causes (multiple devices, browser extensions, alternate browsers/incognito), and noted a brief platform incident affecting admin access that was resolved.

Root causes identified:

  • Theme/app scripts repeatedly failing and re-calling APIs (e.g., an app.js referenced in theme.liquid), triggering temporary IP blocks.
  • Misbehaving or expired app code; updating/removing the app resolved the issue for some.
  • A few users suspect DNS/CDN behavior; switching nameservers/DNS to Cloudflare reportedly stopped the errors for some stores.

Impacts and perspectives:

  • Merchants and customers experience intermittent lockouts, lost sales, and editor logouts, sometimes across devices.
  • Some argue Shopify should whitelist admin IPs to avoid blocking normal development workflows.

Actions/outcomes:

  • Use Chrome DevTools Network tab to find the initiator of repeated failing calls; fix or remove the offending script/app.
  • Try Cloudflare DNS as a workaround (reported success by multiple users).
  • If local troubleshooting fails, contact Shopify Support.

Status: Mixed. Several stores resolved issues via app/script fixes or DNS changes, but others report ongoing lockouts. Screenshots of error pages and a network trace showing request spamming support the diagnoses.

Summarized with AI on December 29. AI used: gpt-5.

Happy to hear that it’s since been resolved! If that reappears, let me know!