Why an item isn't showing on your Catalog

An item reaches a visitor only when every gate below is open. They're in the order we check them, so start at the top — a Catalog that's switched off explains everything underneath it.

Something you set

Your Catalog is off. In Catalog → Public Catalog settings, Public Catalog has to be switched on. While it's off, the whole address answers as though the business had no Catalog.

The item's type isn't shown. Each type has its own switch under Types on the Catalog. A type that's off takes all of its items with it.

The item's collection is hidden. In a type's settings, Public collections decides which categories appear. An item in a hidden collection is hidden with it — including on its own page, not just in the listing.

The item isn't shown. On the item, Catalog visibility has to be Shown in Catalog to appear in the listing. Only by direct link gives it a working page but deliberately keeps it out.

It has no published version. Saving an item keeps a draft. Until a version is published, there's nothing for a visitor to be shown, however it's placed.

Nobody is at fault

The visitor isn't the audience. An item meant for customers, or for staff, isn't shown to someone browsing anonymously — and they're never told something is missing. That's the item doing its job.

It's only reachable by direct link and you sent the listing. Items set to Only by direct link are reachable at their own address and nowhere else. Send the item's link, not the Catalog's.

It's there but far down. Items shown in the Catalog are ordered by the type order you set, then the collection order, then each item's Position in Catalog. Nothing is missing; it's below what you looked at.

When something has gone wrong

The page says the Catalog is unavailable. That's the Catalog failing to load rather than a setting — try again, and check your settings still say what you expect.

Your changes saved somewhere else. Settings sheets warn you when the same settings changed in another session. Loading the latest and redoing your change is the fix; saving over it isn't offered.

Check it the way a visitor sees it

Use the preview button beside Public Catalog settings. It opens your Catalog in a new tab under the same type, collection and placement rules a visitor meets — the one difference is that it works while the Catalog is still switched off, so you can check an item before you go live.

Related

• About your public Catalog
• Put an item on your public Catalog
• Set up your public Catalog
• Who can see and hold a Catalog item