Every contest has a display status that tells you where it sits in its entry window and whether customers can submit entries.
Live
A Live contest has been activated and is between its scheduled start and end dates. It can appear on the standalone page, popup, and app block and can accept entries. On a new Free-plan contest, the base entry remains live while bonus actions stay paused for entrants until you upgrade to Pro.
Scheduled
A Scheduled contest has been activated but its start date is still in the future. It sits in the dashboard's Active tab and becomes Live when the entry window opens.
Draft
A new contest starts as Draft. It is not customer-facing, and you can configure it in the editor before launch. Drafts also sit in the dashboard's Active tab because they are in-progress work.
Paused
Deactivate pauses a contest. A Paused contest is offline but keeps its settings, entries, storefront selections, and results. Activate it again when you are ready. Paused replaces the older Inactive dashboard label.
Ended
A contest appears as Ended as soon as its end date passes or when you end it manually. New entries stop, but the Results stage remains available for reviewing entrants and choosing winners.
To reactivate it, choose a new future end date. If the contest still uses auto-generated terms, they are regenerated for the new schedule; custom terms remain unchanged and should be reviewed manually.
Archived
Archiving hides a contest from the normal workflow and removes it from customer-facing surfaces without deleting its data. Find it under the Archived or All dashboard tab. You can unarchive or reactivate it later.
Permanently deleted
Permanent deletion is a destructive action, not a recoverable status. In the contest editor, open More actions (…), choose Delete permanently, and review the confirmation carefully. UserLoop removes the contest with all entries, winners, uploaded photos, and statistics. Uploaded entry photos are also removed from Shopify Files. This cannot be undone.
Use Archive instead when you may need the contest, results, or entrant data again.
Plan-aware bonus actions
A Free-plan contest can be activated even when it contains paused bonus actions. Launch names the paused actions before activation, and a running contest can appear under Needs attention as Activate bonus actions. Upgrading to Pro makes the saved actions live immediately, with no relaunch. Contests that already had bonus actions when plan gating was introduced are grandfathered and keep them live.
See Bonus Entry Actions for configuration and removal behavior.
Dashboard filters
- Active contains Live, Scheduled, Draft, and Paused contests.
- Ended contains ended contests.
- Archived contains archived contests.
- All contains every contest.
Common actions
- Activate — launch a draft or resume a paused contest, subject to a valid schedule.
- Reactivate — restart an ended contest after choosing a new future end date.
- Deactivate — pause a live or scheduled contest reversibly.
- End contest & draw now — stop a live contest early from Results and continue to winner selection.
- Archive — hide the contest while preserving data.
- Duplicate — create a new draft with copied settings and a unique slug; entries and winners are not copied.
- Delete permanently — irreversibly remove the contest, results, uploaded photos, and statistics.
Status flow
Draft → Scheduled → Live ⇄ Paused
↓
Ended
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Archived
A contest can move straight from Draft to Live when its start date has already arrived. Ended and archived contests can also be reactivated. Permanent deletion ends the lifecycle and is not shown as a status because no contest remains. Before changing a live campaign, consider what customers have already seen and ensure the public terms remain accurate.