Lock not working

A step-by-step checklist to work through when a lock isn't blocking or unblocking visitors the way you expect.

Start with your symptom, or work the checklist in order.

Find your symptom

What you're seeing	Usually means	Go to
Nothing is locked anywhere	Embed is off for the theme you're viewing	Step 1
One product or page ignores the lock	It's not in the content selection, or it's excluded	Step 3
You aren't blocked, but should be	A cookie from your own earlier test	Step 5
A Custom liquid rule lets everyone in	Broken snippet — this rule fails open	Step 6
Wrong country or IP detected	A VPN or a different network	Step 7

Checklist

1

Check the app embed on this theme

The embed is per theme — enable it on one theme, test another, and nothing is locked.

Check the status badge for your current theme on the app's Theme Setup screen. See Enable the app embed.

2

Check the lock is enabled

Each lock has its own enabled/disabled state, separate from the embed. A disabled lock never applies, whatever its rules say. See Manage locks.

3

Check the content selection covers what you're testing

Confirm the item you're viewing is in the lock's content selection, and not on its Exclude list. A lock scoped to manually selected products does nothing on a product that was never added.

4

Check every condition passes

Every condition in an access key must pass — one failure keeps the content locked. Re-check each condition and its If/Unless setting against your test visitor. See Combining rules.

5

Rule out your own grant-access cookie

Passcode, Secret link, Subscribe, and Confirmation prompt set a cookie so a verified visitor isn't asked again. Verify once and you'll stay unblocked in that browser, even after changing the rules.

Test in an incognito window. See Grant access duration.

6

Check Custom liquid snippets

Custom liquid fails open. A snippet that's missing, broken, or doesn't render true/false lets visitors through instead of blocking them.

Check the snippet for errors first. See Custom liquid.

7

Check country and IP rules

Location reads a public IP-geolocation lookup, not a saved address, so a VPN on either end changes the detected country.

Certain IP addresses needs an exact match on the visitor's current public IP, which changes with their network.

See Location and Certain IP addresses.

8

Still stuck?

Send us your lock's configuration, what you expected, and what happened. See Contact support.

Related docs

• FAQ

• Contact support

• Enable the app embed

• Combining rules