Proofmark / Guides

How to preview a Shopify theme before publishing

Updated 29 October 2026 · 7 min read

Three ways to see an unpublished theme

A theme in the Draft themes section of your theme library isn't visible to shoppers. You can still look at it in three ways, and each is good for something different:

Shopify calls the Preview button's address a merchant preview and the shared link a visitor preview. We explain the difference in how long Shopify preview links last.

Preview in the theme editor

The theme editor shows the theme in a preview window next to its settings, so you see each change as you make it.

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store.
2. In the Draft themes section, click Edit theme on the theme you're working on.
3. Use the template menu in the middle of the top bar to move between page types: home page, product, collection, cart and the rest.
4. Click the mobile button in the top bar to see the mobile layout. Click it again to go back to desktop.
5. To see the page at full width, click the active sidebar button to collapse the sidebar.

The editor is the quickest way to check a section, but it shows one template at a time. It won't tell you how the store feels to click through, which is what the Preview button is for. If your theme shows a Canvas badge, it opens in Shopify's Canvas editor rather than the theme editor, so the controls are different.

Browse the store with the Preview button

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store.
2. Find the draft theme, click the ⋯ button to open its actions menu, then click Preview.

The store opens in the new theme with a preview bar. The bar shows the theme's name and its Draft status, and has:

• View as, to see the store for a different country or language.
• A link button, to copy a link you can share.
• Edit theme, to jump to the theme editor.
• Close preview, to go back to your published theme.

This is a merchant preview: it only works for people logged in to your admin, it can reach checkout, and it lasts 30 days. Use it to shop the store from the home page to the cart, the way a customer would.

Share the preview with someone else

To show the theme to someone who doesn't log in to your admin, click the link button in the preview bar. The link is copied to your clipboard, and it's a visitor preview on shopifypreview.com:

• Anyone with the link can open it without logging in.
• It expires 2 days after you create it, and there's no setting to make it last longer.
• You can make as many links as you like. A new one doesn't break the ones you've already sent.
• It can't reach checkout.

You can't share a preview of your published theme. If you want feedback on changes to the live design, duplicate it first (⋯ > Duplicate), make the changes on the copy, and share that. For the full steps and common problems, see how to share a Shopify theme preview.

If your store is password protected

New stores start in private mode, with a password page in front of the storefront. That's normal before a launch.

• You preview the theme from your admin in the same way. If the password page appears, enter the storefront password once.
• Other people: Shopify's Help Center says visitor previews don't require authentication, but people do report landing on the password page. Send the storefront password with the link so nobody gets stuck. You'll find it under Online Store > Preferences, in the Store access section.
• Publishing doesn't launch the store. If your store is in private mode, Shopify's publish confirmation says the store stays private after you publish. Taking the password off is a separate step.

That last point is useful: you can publish the new theme on a private store, check it once more as the live theme, and launch when you're ready.

Check it on a real phone

The editor's mobile button shows the mobile layout, but it's still your desktop browser. Many of your customers will shop on a phone, so open the theme on one before you publish:

• Copy a share link and open it on your phone. Do this the same day: the link stops working after 2 days.
• Or, in the Shopify app, go to Online Store > Manage themes, tap ⋯ on the theme, then tap Preview.

On the phone, check the menu opens and closes, buttons are easy to tap, product images aren't cropped badly, text is readable without zooming, and pop-ups or sticky bars don't cover the Add to cart button.

Pre-publish checklist

Work through this on the preview, on a computer and on a phone.

Pages

• Home page, a collection, and a product with variants (sizes, colours) all look right.
• Cart, search results, the contact page and your policy pages work.
• No placeholder text, demo images or sample products left over from the theme.
• Menus and footer links go where they should, with no dead links.

Shopping

• Add to cart, change quantities and remove items.
• Place a test order from the merchant preview, which can reach checkout. Shopify lets you do this with its test payment gateway or Shopify Payments test mode, after you've picked a paid plan. Customers can't place real orders while test mode is on, so switch it off afterwards.
• If you sell in more than one country or language, use View as in the preview bar to check prices and translations.

Apps

• Apps that add things to your storefront may not be active in the new theme. Shopify's Help Center says you'll need to re-activate them in the new theme. Check the theme editor's App embeds and app blocks for reviews, chat, pop-ups and anything else you rely on.

The switch itself

• Note the current theme's name. When you publish, the old theme moves to Draft themes and none of its changes are lost, so you can switch back if something goes wrong.
• Publish from Online Store (click Publish on the draft theme) or from the theme editor's top bar.
• After publishing, load the live store on a phone and a computer, and place one more test order if you changed anything near checkout.

Get a second pair of eyes

You've looked at the theme for weeks, so you'll miss things a fresh pair of eyes won't. Before you publish, ask a few people to go through it. Our guide on getting feedback on a new Shopify theme covers who to ask and what to ask them to check.

If you'd rather not juggle screenshots and expiring links, Proofmark lets the people you invite click anything on the unpublished theme to leave a comment, with a screenshot attached. They sign in from an email link, with no account and no extension, and it works on password-protected stores. You reply and resolve each comment in your Shopify admin, and your store staff never count as reviewers.

Sources: Shopify Help Center, Adding, previewing, and buying themes, Theme editor features, Restrict access to your online store, Publishing themes, Duplicating themes, Apps and themes and Placing test orders, checked 29 October 2026.