Fix Shopify 'This shop is currently unavailable' (503/500 Error)

Updated: 11/29/2025

You type in your store URL, ready to check sales, but you get a gray screen: 'This shop is currently unavailable.'. For a business owner, this is terrifying—every minute down is lost money. This error usually means your domain subscription has expired, your DNS records are misconfigured, or you are stuck in a login loop.

Table of Contents

Method 1: Clear Admin Cookies (Login Loop)

Sometimes the store is actually online for customers, but you (the Admin) see an error because of a bad session token.

Step 1: Incognito Test

Open an Incognito window and visit your store. If it loads fine, the problem is your browser cache.

Step 2: Clear Data

Go to Chrome Settings > Privacy > Clear browsing data. Select 'Cookies and other site data'. Restart your browser and log in to the Shopify admin dashboard again.

Method 2: Verify Domain DNS Settings

If you bought your domain from GoDaddy or Namecheap, the connection to Shopify might have broken.

  • Log into your Domain Provider.
  • Check your A Record. It must point to: 23.227.38.65
  • Check your CNAME Record. It must point to: shops.myshopify.com
Note: If you recently changed these, it can take up to 48 hours to propagate (load) globally.

Method 3: Check Shopify Status

Sometimes the entire platform has a hiccup.

Go to shopifystatus.com. If you see yellow or red bars next to 'Storefront', the issue is on Shopify's end. You cannot fix it; you must wait for their engineers to resolve the outage.