How to use it
- Read the live status above. It tests Shopify from outside your network.
- Open the official Shopify Status page for confirmed incidents.
- If Shopify is up, work through the fixes below, cheapest first.
- Press the report button if it still fails, so other visitors see it.
Is Shopify down for everyone or only for you?
Shopify has three parts that can fail separately. The admin is where you manage products and orders. The storefront is the public shop your customers browse, often on your own domain. Checkout and payments take the money and depend on your payment provider as well as Shopify. A merchant can have a working storefront and a broken checkout, or the reverse.
Our check requests Shopify's main site and its help center from outside your network. That shows whether the company's public sites are up, but it cannot see inside one store. Shopify's status page lists platform incidents for areas such as checkout, admin and storefront, and it notes that issues affecting a small share of stores may not appear there.
The live check on this page requests www.shopify.com and help.shopify.com from our servers every few minutes. A normal answer from those addresses means the service is reachable from outside your network. It does not prove that every feature inside Shopify works, which is why the problem reports and the fixes below matter.
What usually breaks with Shopify
Admin access
The admin will not load, logs you out or shows an error after login. This can come from Shopify, your browser or an app in the admin.
Storefront
Pages load slowly, show an error or return a too many requests notice. A theme script or app that fires repeated requests is a frequent cause.
Checkout and payments
Customers cannot pay or see that the store cannot accept payments. Check your payment provider setup before assuming an outage.
Apps and integrations
Apps stop syncing orders or inventory. This can be a Shopify API problem or the app vendor's own downtime.
Custom domain
Your own domain does not load while the myshopify.com address works. That points to DNS or SSL, not the platform.
How to fix Shopify when it only fails for you
Start at the top. The first steps are the cheapest and fix most cases that are not a real outage.
- Check Shopify Status. Open shopifystatus.com and look at admin, checkout and storefront. If all are operational and only your store fails, the cause is likely local to your store.
- Test your myshopify.com address. Open yourstore.myshopify.com. If it works while your custom domain fails, check domain settings under Settings, then Domains in the admin.
- Use a private browser window. A cached page or extension can break the admin or checkout. Open a private window and sign in again.
- Check payment settings. Go to Settings, then Payments. Turn off test mode if it is active and confirm you have an active primary payment provider.
- Disable apps and embeds one by one. In the Theme Editor turn off app embeds, then add them back one at a time. Duplicate the theme first so the live store is untouched.
- Test a default theme. Publish or preview a free Shopify theme such as Dawn. If the problem disappears, your current theme or its code is the cause.
- Check crawler and bot traffic. A 429 notice for SEO tools can appear when crawlers run too fast. Slow the crawl or set a crawler signature in Online Store, Preferences.
- Contact Shopify Support. From the admin open Help and contact support with the store URL and the exact message. Include when it started.
If none of this helps and the live check above shows the service as up, read our guide on why a website is not loading, or see how to flush DNS.
Common Shopify error messages
| Message or code | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| This store is currently unable to accept payments | The store has no active primary payment provider set up. | Go to Settings, Payments and activate a provider, then finish its setup. |
| 429 Too many requests | Shopify temporarily throttled requests because a rate limit was reached, often from a crawler, app, script or bot. | Slow the traffic source and test with apps disabled. |
| Sorry, this shop is currently unavailable | The storefront is not available to visitors, for example when a store is paused or not reachable at that address. | Check the plan and store status in the admin and confirm the address. |
Official Shopify status and support
The company itself has the final word on outages. Check Shopify Status for confirmed incidents and use Shopify Help Center if your account has a problem that is not an outage. We are not affiliated with Shopify.
Facts and menu names on this page were checked against the official sources below on October 25, 2026. Apps change their menus, so a setting may sit in a slightly different place in your version.
- www.shopifystatus.com
- help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/troubleshooting
- community.shopify.dev/t/429-too-many-requests/29212
Other services people check
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if Shopify is down for everyone?
Check shopifystatus.com and our live result. If the status page shows incidents for checkout or admin, it is a platform issue. If not, test in a private window and from another network.
Does the status page show every problem?
No. Shopify notes that issues affecting a small percentage of stores may not appear. Contact support if only your store is affected.
Why does checkout work for me but not customers?
Test mode, payment provider limits or a country restriction can differ by customer. Place a real test order from a different device and location.
Is a 429 error an outage?
Usually not. It is a rate limit. Look for apps or scripts that send repeated requests and for crawlers hitting your store.
Should I change my theme when the store is slow?
Test first. Preview a default theme and disable apps. Only change the live theme once you know what is causing the problem.