I'm new and struggling. My Store DISAPPEARED and I see no opportunity to even start a new store.

[BothHands]

I'm trying to understand Products, Categories and Collections. 

I created one Collection (no contents) and four Categories (two fake products in one of them). 
I deleted the 'New Products' Category.  Hopefully that didn't cause this problem...

I was watching a YouTube vid on Categories and Collections, trying to follow along.  Was adding a few stand-in (fake) products and randomly applying the few images I've uploaded to Z as Category thumbnails, just trying to get things to appear so I can figure out next moves. 

Attempts to view my Public Storefront resulted multiple times in the message, "Whoops! Something went wrong."  Frustrated, I finally logged out, cleared my browser cache and logged back in.
No more Store.  It's gone.  All I see is my Profile, and I don't even see an option for creating a Store.

Z Help is closed.  Any help, much appreciated.  

[Windy]

If you know your store number, try substituting that number here for yourstorenumber and then click. It MAY get you to your settings. You may have arranged your settings to show no stores, is all I can think. Change that, and you might see your stores again.

https://www.zazzle.com/mbr/yourstorenumberhere/settings/advanced

[Windy]

By store number, I probably meant to say profile number. This would be a string of numbers you see in the webaddress of your profile, as in my first message.

[BothHands]

@Windy  Thank you, Windy.  Last week I copied my complete Store URL into a wordprocessor file, just because "stuff goes wrong" so often.  Per your instructions, I pasted that URL into my browser, and sure enough, the store does display.
I'll have to log back in tomorrow and try to figure out what setting I changed to "Show no stores."  I hope it's something as simple as that.  Just knowing the Store still exists is helpful, and a step in the right direction.  

If anybody knows what setting would cause all references to my Store to disappear, please let me know.  You'll probably save me hours of thrashing tomorrow.  And BTW, it has to be something I can access from my Account or my Profile.  The Store does not appear...at all.
THANK YOU, WINDY.  
 

[WHS_Designs]

@BothHands Tom, you might want to check out the article below:

Closing Stores - Setting Stores and Products to Private/Hidden – Zazzle Help Center
https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/220432247

I think you have just hidden your store (i.e. made your store private).
It's not possible to delete a store (or rename it), once you've created it (you can, however, delete the products within it).

So when you went to view the public storefront, that's why you did not see your store.

To restore the visibility of your store, first go to the tab in your backend called Settings

Under these tabs are six links to the left. Click on the link called Store Information.

Under this link you'll find the heading Edit Store Information, where you'll see an option to make this store private.

If you have the checkbox next to this option clicked, your store is not publicly viewable (even by you, if you click on the View Public Storefront option). It should be visible to you, but ONLY in the backend.

Unclick the checkbox and hit the Submit button at the bottom of this page.

You have now made your store (publicly) visible again.

Hope that makes sense,
W.H.

[BothHands]

@WHS_Designs  
W.H. ==
Thank you very much for the detailed step-by-step.  I don't deserve it, but am GLAD to have it!   =D  I'm not really a klutz or a dufus, but you wouldn't know from my thrashing about here at Zazzle.  I'll "settle down" soon.  =O  

I understood (and appreciated) every syllable of your instructions, and followed them easily.  When I logged in this evening, my Store was BACK(!) like nothing had happened.   Hmmm...  By following your instructions I determined that my Store was not hidden (but I have hidden it now because it's better to "thrash" behind closed doors, ha).  Whatever happened last night remains a mystery for now. 

I see you posted another suggestion, as did @CreativeDesign and @KeegansCreation and @Shakenbake.  I'll read them now and perhaps solve this mystery (or at least avoid a relapse).   Thank you, W.H., as always.

[adnan122]

But I got the big problem. I deleted my 2 old stores. Then opened a new store on the same day. My store visibility box is already UNCHECKED. But I am still unable to see my store at Public Front. That is very strange. 

This is my back end store....     https://www.zazzle.co.uk/store/adnansalimitopprints/products

And this is my Public store front page.........https://www.zazzle.co.uk/store/adnansalimitopprints/products Whoops something went wrong error 404

[WHS_Designs]

Both your links go to a 404 page for me.

I do see this Collection: SPACESHIP ART ON WHITE COFFEE MUG (zazzle.com) with 2 coffee mugs in it.

There may be an indexing lag that's preventing new/recent Collections from being publicly viewable right now.

W.H.

[WHS_Designs]

@BothHands Tom,

Here's a way to make your store visible from your member/profile page.

From your profile page (zazzle.com/mbr/yourmembernumber/settings/advanced),
go to the Settings tab.

From the four links on the left, select the one called Advanced Settings.

Under the first heading called "Customize Home Page", make sure "Stores" is not in the Hidden Sections column.

If it is, click on the Add link to the right of it. This will move it to the Visible Sections column on the right.

Click on the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

Note: don't panic if you don't see the change right away after making it -- it may take a few minutes before this change takes affect in the Public View.

Hope this helps,

W.H.

[BothHands]

The image below is what I see per your instructions.  It's not exactly as described, but I get the gist.  I think the important point is that the Store does not appear to be hidden (anywhere in my pages).  

I was working through a YouTube video tutorial last night when things went wrong.  I was indeed in the Advanced Settings, so you're on the right track, W.H.  =]  

As a noob, I (and other noobs) much appreciate the way you post an actual URL along with a Page name, as you did for your reference to the Profile Page in your post above.  That's a lot of extra work for you, and I thank you on behalf all Z neophytes. 

Zeophytes?  =D

At first (and even now) I get confused about which page or tab I'm on, or how to get to some other page.  I'm building my own website, so I'm not entirely clueless, but sometimes my unfamiliarity with this Zazzle UI stumps me.   

And thanks for cluing me about the potential LAG TIME.  That could be part of what was happening last night.  I much appreciate the expanded perspective. 

[WHS_Designs]

Tom,

You're welcome! When I was working in the tech industry as a graphic designer, I also wrote manuals, topcards, and tutorials, so being sufficiently descriptive for the intended audience isn't as mentally intensive for me as you might think. 😊

I also had to build a few websites, making often reluctant acquaintances with JavaScripts, DHTML, and Flash. Having to pop in and adapt sometimes nightmarishly long and complex lines of code is no picnic, so I can empathize if you have to deal with the nasty backend of website building/maintenance. Today's [free] website builders, like Wix and Adobe Spark, do away with having to figure out if I have errors in my HTML coding, and how to fix them. I sure wish these time savers had existed a long time ago!

W.H.

[adnan122]

I can see my store at pubic front end now. But can not see any of my collections I created nor products. But I can certainly see them at back end.

[CreativeLeahG]

Do NOT panic!

If this is a new store it will NOT show in public view for a few days, maybe even longer presently due to various site delays in updating new products.

You CANNOT delete a store accidentally or even purposefully!

You can access it in your backend using the zazzle.com/store/storename/settings 

[KeegansCreation]

Nuclear option in case none of the above solutions work: make a new store. You are allowed to have multiple stores. If it comes to that, don't delete the New Products category. It's the default that all new products are put into unless you put them somewhere else. It is possible (although not likely) that deleting it caused a problem. But first try the solutions listed by others.

[BothHands]

@KeegansCreation  Thanks for discussing the potential problem created by my deleting the New Products Category.  The first time I tried to delete it, I could not.  I think after I removed a test product from that Category, I was able to delete the Category.  Only afterward (duh) did I wonder if that Category wase a required "default catch all" for products not assigned to some other category.  Just as you said.   Yep, it's a Learning Curve.  =] 

I'll try to go back and create a NEW New Products Category for my Store.  If that Category is required and I cannot reestablish it, have I crippled my Store...forever?  Gulp.   It's the only Store name I want to use, so I'd better find a way to set things straight.

Thank you for these insights.   Onward!

[BothHands]

@CreativeLeahG
Thanks, Leah!  "Do NOT panic!" was exactly what I needed to hear last night. I've only uploaded a few photos for my experiments, and had been using them indescriminately as Category and/or Collection thumbnails...AND as product photos, etc.  So I worried that perhaps doing that had crossed some line and incurred some unexpected, unintended Zazzle Sanction (OhNo!)  And in "the fog of war" I also wondered if I had BROKEN my little corner of the Zazzle website.  HA! 

I'm glad to know that I cannot delete a store under any circumstances.  Thanks for making that clear.  Apparently I can hide a store, and hide products in that store.  And I'm pretty sure I can move all products out of that store, but cannot actually delete the store. 

And thank you for the link / URL for how to hide/unhide the Store. 

Clearly you sensed my "concern" (guys never admit 'PANIC' ha). 
Thanks for helping me out, Leah.  

[Shakenbake]

Bear in mind currently, that the site is lagging. New products posted since February 8th have not gone live on the front end yet. They are stuck.

So, if you made products on the 8th/9th/10th/11th they're not posting live, so there is nothing to show on the front end and that's also why you can't see your store. Hopefully the delay isn't going to be for much longer. But once the delay is over, and the products show up again (they USUALLY show up live on the front end after 24 hours, but there have been delays. About a month ago exactly it took almost a week for products to show up again. So that is the other reason you are probably not seeing anything because no products have gone LIVE yet so there's nothing to show.

Make new CATEGORIES before you delete the new products category, or rename it if you'd like. You don't have to keep it. 

[BothHands]

@Shakenbake  Two very helpful points!  Thank you.  

Last night I encountered what appeared to be a System Warning several times when attempting to view my Store's public front end (I think...)  "WHOOPS!  Something went wrong!" 

It looked to me as though the Zazzle site was experiencing a system glitch, but I thought, "Naw, it must be mistakes I'm making."  I'm glad (in this instance) to know that the problems I had might have been just a case of unfortunate timing.   'Not glad to know new products are not showing up as expected, but it does explain why I couldn't get new products to appear in my Store.  I MUCH APPRECIATE THIS CONTEXT.

I'm also very glad to know that I do NOT need to keep the New Product Category.   Mine's gone, and if it's required as the Default, I'm not sure a new one that I make would be accepted as the Default.  (?)  But if I don't need it, no worries.  And I intend to assign each new product to a Category when I create the product, so again, no worries.     

Thank you, Shakenbake.

[KeegansCreation]

The learning curve is steeper at Zazzle than at any of the other PODs because it has so many moving parts. But I think it is ultimately worth it. Flexibility requires complexity because many different variables have to be juggled. But flexibility means that you can do far more with your designs than you could at other PODs. The design tool is superior to the design tool of literally every other POD. It even has a clipping mask.

[BothHands]

@KeegansCreation 

Agreed.  Despite the steep curve, once I do understand a process, I usually am pleased at how easy and logical it is.  But the fact that new users find it difficult to accomplish things suggests that more work is needed on the Zazzle UI. 

Are you following this, @WHS_Designs?   Might be a win/win for you to offer your expertise to Zazzle on a consultancy basis... =]

[WHS_Designs]

ROTFL. All us creators are involved, in varying degrees, in providing our feedback towards the goal of improving the Zazzle design tool. 😉😉😉

[BothHands]

@WHS_Designs 

Fair enough.  =D

My contributions to this Stone Soup will likely come under the heading "what not to do" for the foreseeable future.  =]  If knowledgeable contributors post helpful solutions in response to my...er...predicaments, that enlightens the community at large (and ME in particular), and I call that Progress!   

I followed the three links to your stores.  I see you're a Zazzle PRO BRONZE, which explains, at least in part, your Zexpertise.  Thanks for expending some of that for the benefit of new users. 

I looked through some of your products, too.  CLEVER.  =]

[WHS_Designs]

@BothHands 

Stone Soup ... now that's an interesting parable! Never heard of that one before. You are quite correct. Knowledge shared is enlightenment for all. Very utilitarian. I'm of the "give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and feed him forever" mindset. Which I suppose is similar. 

You're welcome. One hopes that wisdom is something that comes with experience! 😉

Thanks for visiting my stores! I certainly hope some of my designs rub off on customers, because my style (and humor) can be quite esoteric at times!

[Donna]

---

To restore the visibility of your store, first go to the tab in your backend called Settings
Under these tabs are six links to the left. Click on the link called Store Information.

---

I don't see "store Information"

I only see:

Profile
Social Networks
Advanced Settings
My Account

[WHS_Designs]

@Donna you're looking at the Settings under your member profile page (thanks for bringing that to my attention, my bad).

This are the Settings under the store's page that I'm actually referring to.

[BothHands]

Thanks @Donna and thanks @WHS_Designs . 
My Store seems to be back, and I'm pretty sure its (temporary) disappearance was caused by the apparent system problem the Z website has been experiencing.  

I am very frustrated at this point.  I STILL cannot get things to appear on my Public Storefront the way (I think) they're supposed to.  I have questions, but rather than complicate this thread, I'll start a new thread on the subject of my latest brick wall.  A gigantic TIME SPONGE so far.  A week in and zero progress.     

[WHS_Designs]

@BothHands 

Feel free to ask away, Tom.

Progress isn't linear; you'll take three steps back for every step you take forward, and at times it will feel like you're just stuck in quicksand. It took me months before I was happy with the way my first store looked.

[BothHands]

Thanks, W.H.  I posted the new thread, and don't even have to tell you the title.  You'll know it's me.  I'm developing a recognizeable pattern, or a trademark or something...  =D  

[Lillylol]

Good day, did anyone help you with the your problem? I have having the same issue. My store disappeared and I can't find the link to create a new store. Spent the whole day trying to resolve this  issue. Most frustrating. I am thinking of deleting my account and starting all over again. 

[Megan]

Hi @Lillylol, 

I have flagged this with our team to take a look into it, I can see your stores from our side but in your account like you said they are not showing. We will keep you updated once we have a reply.

- Megan 🦋

[Scott]

Are you still experiencing this issue?

When I view your stores listing I see one store. If I log in as you then I see two stores.

[Scott]

Closing this discussion. If you're still experiencing this issue please let us know in the conversation below:

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/technical-issues/i-have-a-request-error-on-my-account-page-or-store-...