A fresh install does nothing to your storefront until you finish four steps. The Home tab shows them as a Getting Started checklist, and this is the same list with the detail filled in.
- Customize a template
- Publish it
- Turn on the theme app embed
- Switch the page on
Steps 3 and 4 are the two that catch people out, and they catch people out in opposite directions — 3 is easy to leave half-done, and 4 is easy to forget entirely.
1. Customize a template
Go to the Templates tab. You are given both designs at install:
- Notice — a heading, a message, and an optional free-text line saying when you expect to be back.
- Countdown — the same, with a live timer counting down to a date and time you set.
Click Customize on the one you want. The editor opens with a live preview beside the settings, so you can see the page change as you type. See The template editor.
At minimum, change the Heading and Message — the defaults are deliberately generic and every store using this app starts with the same two sentences.
Click Save when you are done.
2. Publish it
Saving stores your changes. Publishing is what selects that template as the one visitors see.
In the editor, or from the Templates list, click Publish. The Home tab then names it as your published template.
3. Turn on the theme app embed
This is the step that connects the app to your storefront, and it happens in Shopify’s theme editor rather than in the app.
From the Getting Started checklist, open Enable app embed in theme and click Open Theme Editor. Toggle Loman Maintenance Mode on, then click Save.
Full walkthrough, including how to get there without the checklist: Enabling the app embed.
4. Switch the page on
On the Home tab, under Maintenance Status, tick Show the maintenance page to visitors.
That takes effect immediately — no save button, no delay. Unticking it is how you reopen the store, and it is the switch you will use most. See Showing and hiding your page.
Check it worked
Open your storefront in a private or incognito window. You should land on your maintenance page rather than your normal home page.
If you still see your storefront, the answer is nearly always Shopify’s own password setting or an unsaved theme editor — work through My maintenance page isn’t showing.
Before you actually need it
The useful thing about this app is that step 1 to 3 can be done in advance. Set up your page, publish it, save the embed, and leave the visitor toggle off. Your storefront carries on as normal.
Then, when the moment comes, closing the store is one tick — and reopening it is one more. That is worth ten minutes on a quiet afternoon rather than at 2am mid-migration.