Nothing you change in the Storefront Studio reaches your customers until you publish it. This article explains what Save draft and Publish each do, what the state under the Studio’s title means, and why Publish can be locked or refused.
Unpublished changes
Under Storefront Studio, at the top of the screen, a short state tells you whether customers see what is on screen:
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not published yet | Your store has never been published and you have no unsaved edits. A saved draft still reads this until your first publish. Customers see an Opening soon page. |
| Published | What is in the Studio is exactly what customers see. |
| Unpublished changes | You have edits you have not saved. Once your store has been published, a saved draft that is not live yet reads this too. |
| Finish setup to publish | Your store has never been published and its setup list is not finished, so Publish is off. This replaces the other states while it applies. Click it to open the list on your dashboard. |
| Confirm your email to publish | You signed up with your email and have not used the link we emailed you yet, so your store stays closed and Publish is off. This replaces every other state while it applies. See Publish locked until you confirm your email. |
As soon as you change anything, the preview shows it and the state turns to Unpublished changes:
Until you save, these edits live in this browser tab. They survive switching between Design and Content, a reload, and a visit to another page of the console in the same tab. They do not survive closing the tab, and nobody else can see them.
Warning
Do not close the browser tab while you have edits you want to keep. Press Save draft or Publish first: unsaved edits exist only in that tab.
Save draft: kept, not live
Save draft stores your changes on our side without showing them to customers. Use it when you want to stop for now, or to let a teammate look before anything goes live.
- In the top bar, click Save draft.
The message Draft saved. confirms it. On a store that has been published, the state stays at Unpublished changes, because the draft is still not live. On a store that has never been published, it goes back to Not published yet. The next time anyone opens the Studio, from any computer, it opens on this draft.
Your store has one draft. If two people work in the Studio at the same time, whoever saves last replaces the other’s draft.
Publish: live for your customers
Publish puts what is on screen live. You do not need to save a draft first: Publish saves the latest changes and publishes them in one step.
- In the top bar, click Publish.
The message Changes published. confirms it and the state turns to Published. Publishing puts live everything in the Studio together: the Design tab, the text on the Content tab and the order of your homepage sections. Your storefront can take a few minutes to show the new design to everyone, so if you still see the old one, wait a moment and refresh.
Publish does not change your products, policy pages, FAQ or journal: each of those has its own switch. If a product is missing from the storefront, see Why is my product not on my storefront?.
Note
There is no button to go back to an earlier published design, and none to throw a draft away. To undo a change, set the control back and publish again. Before you try a very different look, note your colour codes so you can return to them.
View store: check what is live
View store opens your live storefront in a new browser tab, at your store’s NoqtaShop address. It shows the published design, not the Studio’s draft, so it is the quickest way to confirm a publish worked.
Your store’s first publish
Every new store starts unpublished, however you signed up. Until you publish for the first time, customers who visit your store see an Opening soon page with your logo and store name, whatever you have designed. Meanwhile the state under the Studio’s title reads:
- Not published yet when you have no unsaved edits, even if you have saved a draft
- Unpublished changes while you have edits you have not saved
- Finish setup to publish while the setup list on your dashboard is not finished
- Confirm your email to publish while you have not used the link we emailed you at sign-up
Your first publish opens the store: the storefront replaces the Opening soon page for everyone, and the setup list on your dashboard moves on to the next tasks: social links, an FAQ answer and your first order, plus your domain and a team member on plans that include them.
Why is Publish locked? The setup list, and HyperPay on plans with card payments
Before your store’s first publish, Publish waits for every task on the setup list on your dashboard. While any task is open, the button is greyed out, pointing at it says Finish setting up your store, including card payments, before publishing. The list is on your dashboard., and the state reads Finish setup to publish.
The list covers your store’s name, description and logo, your contact details, three products ready to sell, a product in a category, a shipping zone with a rate, a delivery provider, and your four policy pages written and published. On plans with card payments (Growth and up), it also includes Connect HyperPay: your HyperPay keys saved and confirmed by HyperPay, card payments switched on, and the webhook secret for HyperPay’s payment notices added. On Free and Starter, which take cash on delivery, there is no HyperPay task.
The Studio itself opens before HyperPay is connected, because HyperPay can take weeks to approve an account. You can design and press Save draft meanwhile; only Publish waits.
To unlock it:
- Click Finish setup to publish, under the Studio’s title. The dashboard opens with the setup list.
- Finish each open task. A task ticks itself as soon as your store has the thing it asks for.
- Come back to the Studio and click Publish.
Read The setup list before your first publish for each task, and Connect HyperPay for card payments.
Publish locked until you confirm your email
If you signed up with your email, Publish also waits for the link we emailed you. Until you use it, your store stays closed: the button is greyed out, pointing at it says Confirm your email before publishing. The link is in the email we sent you, and you can send it again from the top of this page., and the state reads Confirm your email to publish. The email comes first: the state names it even while tasks on your setup list are open, and names the list once your email is confirmed.
Use the link in the email, or press Resend email on the banner at the top of the page for a new one. Once you have created your password from it, or reset your password from the sign-in page, Publish follows the setup list as described above. Using the link publishes nothing: your store opens to customers when you press Publish. See Confirm your email and fix a wrong address.
A team member who presses Publish on a store like this is told The store stays closed until its owner confirms their email. You can publish once they have. Only the owner can use the link.
Publish refused because card payments were removed
The setup list is checked again at the moment you publish. If something on it came undone after you opened the Studio, for example HyperPay was switched off or disconnected in another tab, the publish is refused:
The message reads Finish setting up your store, including card payments, before publishing. The list is on your dashboard. The Studio checks the list again at once, so Publish greys out and the state changes to Finish setup to publish.
Nothing is lost: your changes were saved as a draft just before the refusal. Finish the open task on your dashboard, then come back and click Publish.
After your first publish: no setup lock
The setup lock applies only to a store that has never been published. Once your store has been published, Publish and the Studio are never locked by the setup list again, even if a task later comes undone, such as a product being taken off sale or HyperPay being disconnected. Keep an eye on those things for your customers’ sake, but they will not stop you publishing a design.
Who can save and publish
Designing, saving and publishing need the Edit storefront design permission, in the Storefront section of a role. The store owner and store managers have it. Sales staff do not, and their sidebar shows no Design or Content. A role that can view your settings but lacks this permission can open the Studio, but saving or publishing shows You do not have permission to do this. A custom role can do it when it includes Edit storefront design. Uploading a hero or About photo also needs Upload files, in the Files section, which store managers have.
See Staff roles: what each one can see and do, and Add a custom role to give Edit storefront design to someone else.
When saving fails
If Save draft or Publish does not go through, a message in the corner says why, and your changes stay on screen and in this tab so you can try again:
| Message | What happened, and what to do |
|---|---|
| Could not save changes. | The save did not reach us or did not finish: click Save draft or Publish again. |
| You do not have permission to do this. | Your role does not include Edit storefront design: ask the store owner. |
| Could not reach the server. Check your connection and try again. | Your internet connection dropped. Reconnect, then save again. Keep the tab open meanwhile. |
| Your session has expired. Sign in again. | You were signed out. You are taken to the sign-in page. Sign in in the same browser tab and you return to the Studio with your unsaved edits. |
| Finish setting up your store before designing it. | Your store has never been published and a setup task came undone. Finish the list on your dashboard, then save again. |
If saving keeps failing, leave the tab open so you do not lose your edits, and open a support ticket (opens in a new tab).
Next, open your store’s address on your phone to see the published design as customers do, or learn every control from Get to know the Storefront Studio.