Here are solutions to the most common issues merchants encounter with UserLoop Contests.
Contest page shows "not found" (404)
Cause: The contest is not in Active status.
Fix:
- Open the contest in your Shopify admin.
- Check the status badge — it should say Active.
- If it says Draft, click Activate to make it live.
- If it says Ended or Archived, the page is intentionally unavailable.
Also check that you're using the correct URL slug. The URL format is:
https://yourstore.com/apps/contest/your-slug
Popup is not showing on my storefront
Possible causes and fixes:
-
The popup isn't enabled in your theme.
- Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize.
- Check App embeds — make sure Contest Popup is toggled on.
- Make sure a contest is selected in the popup settings.
-
Frequency settings are blocking it.
- If set to "Once per visitor" and you've already seen it, it won't show again.
- Try opening the page in an incognito/private browser window.
- Or temporarily change the frequency to "Always" for testing.
-
"Remember when dismissed" is on.
- If you previously closed the popup, it remembers. Clear your browser's local storage or use an incognito window.
-
Page targeting is restricting where it shows.
- Check the page targeting settings. If "Show on all pages" is off, make sure the specific page type you're visiting is checked.
-
The contest isn't active.
- Only active contests appear in the popup. Check the contest status.
Entries are not appearing
Possible causes:
-
Rate limiting.
- The app rate-limits entries by IP address to prevent spam. If you're testing repeatedly from the same IP, you may hit the limit.
- Wait a few minutes and try again, or test from a different device/network.
-
Contest isn't active.
- Entries are only accepted for active contests. Check the status.
-
Email already entered.
- If the same email has already entered and the entries-per-customer limit is reached, no new entry is created. The customer sees a message that they've already entered.
Customer sees "You've already entered"
Cause: The customer's email has already been used to enter the contest, and they've reached the maximum entries per customer.
This is expected behavior. Each email address can enter a set number of times (configured in Entry Settings). If you want to allow more entries, increase the "Entries per customer" setting on the contest's Setup tab.
Theme blocks are not visible in the theme editor
Fix:
- Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize.
- For the popup: Look under App embeds (the paintbrush icon in the left sidebar). Toggle on Contest Popup.
- For the form block: Navigate to the page where you want it, click Add section or Add block, and search for "Contest Form."
If you don't see the blocks at all:
- Make sure the app is installed and active.
- Try refreshing the theme editor.
- Check that you're editing the correct theme (your published/active theme).
Contest colors aren't applying to theme blocks
Cause: The "Use contest colors" option might be turned off in the block settings.
Fix:
- Open the theme editor.
- Select the contest block (popup or form).
- Check that Use contest colors is toggled on.
- If it's off, the block uses its own color settings instead of the contest's Design tab colors.
Images aren't uploading
Possible causes:
- File too large. Images must be under 10 MB.
- Unsupported format. Supported formats are: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, and SVG.
- Permission issue. The app needs the "Write files" permission. If you denied this during install, reinstall the app to re-grant permissions.
Contest URL slug conflict
Cause: Another contest in your store already uses the same slug.
Fix: Each slug must be unique within your store. Edit the slug to something different. If you're duplicating a contest, the app automatically adds a timestamp to the slug to avoid conflicts.
Need More Help?
If you're experiencing an issue not covered here, reach out to our support team. Include:
- Your store URL
- The contest name or slug
- A description of what you expected to happen vs. what actually happened
- Any error messages you saw