Publish New Menu to Theme

Publish your menu to a theme and choose where it appears on your storefront.

A new menu starts as a Draft: you can edit it as much as you like and customers don't see it. Publishing makes it Active on your storefront. This page covers the Publish dialog and the Position settings that decide where the menu appears.

Steps to Publish

1

Click Publish

In the menu editor, click Save if you have unsaved changes, then click Publish in the top-right corner.

You can also publish from Menu manager: click Publish on the menu's row.

2

Choose the theme

The dialog is titled Publish menu followed by your menu name. Under Choose theme (1), select the theme. The list shows your live theme — marked (Live theme) — and your unpublished themes.

Publish dialog: (1) Choose theme, (2) Preview and Publish buttons

The app checks the app embed on this theme and uses it to fit the menu to the theme's header.

3

(Optional) Schedule publishing

Tick Schedule publishing to show the menu only for a period of time, then set:

• Start date / Start time — when the menu goes live.

• End date / End time — when the menu is taken down.

You must set at least one of the two, both must be in the future, and the start must be before the end. More details: Schedule Menus and Items.

Schedule publishing is a Pro Navigation feature. On Basic Navigation and Growth Navigation the checkbox is disabled, with a note linking to the Pro Navigation plan on the Pricing page.

4

(Optional) Preview

Click Preview (2) to open your storefront in a new tab with this menu, before customers see it. See Preview Menu Before Going Live.

5

Publish

Click Publish (2). The menu's status changes to Active.

• Publishing from the editor: the dialog closes and you only see a Menu published message. It does not warn you if the app embed is off, so check the App status card on Home (or follow Enable App Embed) the first time you publish to a theme.

• Publishing from Menu manager: if the app embed is off on the chosen theme, the dialog stays open, tells you to enable it and shows a Go to app embeds settings button — click it, turn Mega menu on and click Save.

There might be a small delay while publishing. Wait a few minutes and refresh your storefront before testing.

Features outside your plan: if the menu uses features or submenu items that aren't included in your current plan, the dialog shows a warning listing them (for example Multi-language, Menu Versions (Switch Multiple Menus) or Bottom navigation bar). Those items are not displayed on your Online Store until you upgrade. Click Go to pricing to see the plans, or remove those items before publishing. See Plans and Billing.

Update a Published Menu

After you edit an Active menu, click Save and then Publish again so the storefront gets the latest version of your menu (items, blocks, settings and position).

You don't need to republish when you change products, collections or blog posts in Shopify admin: product, collection and blog blocks load that data live on your storefront, so titles, prices, images, stock and new posts update automatically. What the menu stores is its own item titles and links and the products/collections/blogs you picked (by handle) — if you change the handle (URL) of one of those or delete it in Shopify, pick it again in the menu. Item titles you typed yourself don't follow renames in Shopify. See Changes I Made in Shopify Admin Don't Appear in the Menu.

Take a Menu Down

Click Disable (in the editor or in Menu manager). The menu goes back to Draft and, unless another app menu is published in the same place, your theme's original menu shows again. See Disable App from Theme.

Choose Where the Menu Appears

In the menu editor, open the Settings tab (⚙️ icon in the left bar). Under Position, pick one of three methods:

The three Position options in the Settings tab

Method	How it works	When to use it
Automatically replace	The app recognises your theme and replaces its header menu.	Recommended. Start here — it works out of the box on 150+ Shopify Theme Store themes.
Replace existing menu	You pick the Shopify navigation (e.g. Main menu) that your theme's header uses; the app finds it on the page and replaces it.	Automatic doesn't pick the right menu, or your header uses a navigation other than Main menu.
Show menu on this CSS selector	You enter the CSS selectors of the elements to replace, for desktop and mobile.	Custom or heavily edited themes, or to place the menu somewhere specific. Meant for developers.

After changing Position, click Save and Publish again.

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Related Articles

AutomaticReplace NavigationShow Menu on This CSS SelectorEnable App EmbedSchedule Menus and Items

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