Troubleshooting checkout issues

Resolve common issues with customer checkout.

Last updated February 3, 2025

Use this guide to troubleshoot problems you or your customers might see on your checkout page.

Check for browser issues first

If a customer is using a valid form of payment and can't check out, it’s likely because of an issue related to their browser. Unless they see one of the error messages listed below, ask your customer to try these troubleshooting steps:

Error messages

Message

Next Steps

Unable to process payment

This means: There’s an issue with your payment processor connection.

To resolve the issue:

We couldn't find the page you were looking for

This means: Your domain might not be connected properly. If this happens, the order was still processed, and you didn't lose the customer's payment.

To double-check that the order went through, look up their order in the Orders panel.

To resolve the issue: Ensure that your domain is correctly connected. If you recently connected your domain, it can take up to 72 hours to fully process.

Your order can’t be completed because of an issue with the merchant payment setup. Please contact us about this issue.

This means: Your Stripe or PayPal account may have been disconnected from Squarespace. You may also see this error in Test Mode. For your security, Stripe or PayPal will disconnect if:

  • There was an attempt to connect the same account to multiple sites.
  • If an authorization change occurred within your account (a password change, for example).

To resolve the issue, reconnect your Stripe or PayPal account:

  1. Open the Payments panel.
  2. Click Stripe or PayPal.
  3. Click Disconnect Stripe or Disconnect PayPal.
  4. Click Connect Stripe or Connect PayPal to reconnect.

For more help, contact Stripe or PayPal directly.

Payment for your order was declined (email)

This means: There was an unexpected error processing a payment after the customer saw the confirmation screen.

Next steps: The customer wasn’t charged. They should double-check their payment details and try again.

One or more items from your order aren’t available (email)

This means: There was an unexpected error processing a payment, and the product sold out before our system could make a second attempt.

Next steps: The customer wasn’t charged. They should go back to your store to purchase any available items.

Other issues

A "checkout is closed" message displays

If your site displays a Checkout is closed message, it could be because:

Authentication failed

If the customer sees an Authentication failed message, this means their bank is located in the European Economic Area (EEA) and they need to authorize the purchase for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). Ask your customer to retry the purchase and watch for a pop-up from the bank to authorize the payment. If they continue to have trouble, the customer will need to reach out to their bank for help.

Country unavailable in drop-down menu

If the customer can't select their country in the shipping or billing information, you don’t have a shipping option for that country yet. For help adding a shipping rule, visit Setting country shipping rules.

Expired download products

After a customer orders a download product, they receive a link to download the product. The link will expire 24 hours after it's sent. Clicking an expired link will automatically send a new link to the customer's email address. You can also re-send the link for them:

  1. Open the order in the Orders panel.
  2. Click Email notifications.
  3. Click Send under Resend and Refresh digital goods.

Your site is private

For your customers to complete the checkout process, you need to set your site to public.

Shopping cart icon is missing

In most templates, the icon appears when a customer adds a product to their cart. In some templates, it always displays.

If your shopping cart icon isn't showing, look for the following potential causes:

  1. Check that your site has at least one product on a store page.
  2. Ensure Express Checkout is disabled in Checkout Settings. Enabling Express Checkout disables the shopping cart.
  3. Check your site styles to see if your shopping cart is hidden.

The shopping cart can be hidden in these templates. Use the listed site styles tweak to show it again.

Tip

In version 7.1, enable the icon in the header to ensure it always displays.

Test mode

Your store can’t accept real payments while it’s in test mode. To resolve this issue, disable test mode.

Customers can't add products to their carts

If a customer reaches out with trouble adding products to their cart, try these troubleshooting steps:

  • Ensure the products are set to visible, and that the store page is live.
  • Check for custom code in the product's Additional Information tab and your site's Header Code Injection field. Remove the code to see if that resolves the issue.
  • Ask your customer to ensure cookies are enabled on their browser. Here are instructions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
  • If you use a third-party domain, check for domain connection issues. If you can add products to your cart when visiting your site's built-in domain, it's likely an issue with your DNS records. Ensure the DNS records for your third-party domain match these.
  • If you use domain forwarding, ensure you don't use masked forwarding. If your domain provider doesn't offer unmasked forwarding, try connecting your domain to Squarespace instead.
Footer Image
  • Get help from our community

  • Get help from our community on advanced customizations.

  • Hire a Squarespace Expert

  • Stand out online with the help of an experienced designer or developer.

Troubleshooting checkout issues