Checkout isn't available in preview

shopfy-2020
Shopify Partner
73 3 18

We've had the account for over a year and just noticed after trying to process a payment to see how the checkout flow works that we get a "Checkout isn't available in preview" although nothing is in preview, the listing is active, all channels are active, and we've been paying for our Shopify monthly payment plan for a year (which was said to be the reason for this notification in another post).

Now we understand why there are so many cart abandonments!

Can someone explain why we get this message?

Shopify is simply an ENDLESS technical mess with bugs and problems.

Replies 3 (3)

Ava
Shopify Staff
1161 78 197

Hey, @shopfy-2020!

I'm Ava from Shopify, I'd like to help here.

If a product is not published to the Online Store, you are able to preview your theme in the Online Store > Themes section, or from a product page. In both of these cases, Shopify will create a special preview link instead of opening something on the merchant's domain.

Previews make it possible to see how products or websites will look before they are published, or for people working on a shop to share things they're working on with other collaborators, but they are not intended for customers. Previews created from the themes section and the product pages function in slightly different ways, but neither type of preview works with checkout.

If your (or one of your customers) are getting a "checkout isn't available in preview" error, I'd like to ask you some troubleshooting questions to find the root of this error:

  • Is the product published to the Online Store sales channel?
  • Are you viewing the product from a URL that is on your store's domain, and not a preview link?
  • Can I ask how you accessed this link initially?

Let me know the above and we can take things from there.

 

Speak soon!

Ava
Social Care | help.shopify.com

Ava | Social Care @ Shopify 
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shopfy-2020
Shopify Partner
73 3 18

 

 

The answers to your questions is already in the original post:

.... 1) we get a "Checkout isn't available in preview" although nothing is in preview, 2) the listing is active, 3) all channels are active, and 4) we've been paying for our Shopify monthly payment plan for a year 

Ava
Shopify Staff
1161 78 197

Thank you for responding.

My main concern was how you were accessing the link that was giving you the error message - were you clicking on a link in the theme editor that let you view the live store, or are you typing in your web address directly into the browser manually and the error is still showing? 

I'd like to check on this with our Technical team now to investigate further, could you share a link to your store here so we can take a look? 

 

Thank you.

Ava
Social Care | help.shopify.com

Ava | Social Care @ Shopify 
 - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog