Enable STOQ on your theme
STOQ adds its buttons to your storefront through a Shopify app embed, a theme extension that injects the "Notify me" and "Preorder" buttons onto your product pages. If the app embed is off, the buttons don't appear even though everything else is set up. This is the first thing to check when buttons are missing.
Before you begin
- STOQ must be installed.
- You (or your staff) need the Themes permission in Shopify.
- The app embed is enabled per theme. It doesn't carry over when you switch or duplicate themes, so enable it on each theme where you want STOQ buttons, including a draft theme you want to preview before publishing.
Check the status from STOQ
When the app embed is off on your live theme, STOQ tells you in three places:
- A Turn on app embed badge next to the page title on STOQ pages.
- On the Home page, the Back in stock and Preorders status cards show App embed is not enabled with an Activate button. When it's on, they show App embed is enabled with a green check.
- An App embed is disabled banner on the Settings tab of Back in stock alerts and on the Offers tab of Preorders.
Turn it on from STOQ
Open the guide
Click the Turn on app embed badge next to the title of any STOQ page. The same guide also opens when you click:
- Activate on the Back in stock or Preorders card on the Home page.
- Enable app embed on the banner on the Settings tab of Back in stock alerts or the Offers tab of Preorders.
Open the theme editor
In the Turn on the app embed window, click Open theme editor. The Shopify theme editor opens your live theme in a new tab, with the App embeds panel already open.
Turn on STOQ and save
In App embeds, make sure the STOQ toggle is on, then click Save in the top right corner of the theme editor.
Go back to the STOQ tab
Switch back to the STOQ tab. The window shows Waiting for you to save in the theme editor and checks every few seconds. Once it confirms, it shows App embed is on and closes itself, and the badge goes away. You don't need to refresh. To check right away, click Check now.
STOQ's Home cards reflect your published theme only. To check another theme, enable the embed in that theme's editor directly.
Enable it manually in Shopify
Open your live theme
In your Shopify admin, click Online Store in the left menu bar to open the Themes page, then click Edit theme on your live theme.
Open App embeds
In the top-left of the editor, click the third icon, the blocks icon, to open the App embeds panel.
Turn on STOQ and save
Find STOQ in the list, toggle it on, and click Save in the top right. Refresh your storefront to confirm the buttons appear.
Which themes work
All Online Store 2.0 themes support the app embed and are recommended. Vintage (Online Store 1.0) themes generally don't support app embeds; on those, the App embeds section may be missing and STOQ may need an alternative placement. Heavily customized themes can also interfere with button placement.
Troubleshooting
The buttons don't appear on my storefront
The most common cause is the app embed being off. Enable it in Online Store > Edit theme > App embeds, save, and hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R or Cmd+Shift+R).
There's no App embeds section or no STOQ toggle
You may be on a vintage theme that doesn't support app embeds, or the install didn't finish. Switch to an Online Store 2.0 theme, or reinstall STOQ.
The buttons disappeared after I switched themes
The app embed is per-theme and doesn't carry over. Enable STOQ on the new live theme.
The guide says it could not confirm the app embed
STOQ keeps checking for about 5 minutes after you open the theme editor. If it can't confirm by then, it asks you to check again. Go back to the theme editor tab and make sure:
- The STOQ toggle in App embeds is on.
- You clicked Save, and you saved your live theme, not a draft.
Then click Check again in the STOQ window. If you closed the theme editor tab, click Open theme editor again.
The Home card says the app embed could not be checked
STOQ couldn't read your live theme, so it doesn't know whether the embed is on, and the badge next to the page title doesn't show. Click Activate on the card to open the guide, or check it yourself using the steps in Enable it manually in Shopify above. If the card keeps showing this, contact support.
Buttons still missing with the embed on
Confirm the feature is on (signups collecting for back in stock, or an active preorder offer for that product) and that the product's status actually calls for the button. See Where the Notify me button shows and Troubleshoot the preorder button.
FAQ
Does the app embed slow my store down?
No. It's lightweight and only loads on the product pages where it's needed.
Does disabling the embed delete my data?
No. It only stops the buttons showing. Your waitlist, offers, settings, and history stay intact.
Why is there a Turn on app embed badge next to my page title?
It means STOQ checked your live theme and the app embed is off, so customers can't see your Notify me or Preorder buttons. Click the badge to open the guide and turn it on.
Do I need to refresh STOQ after I save in the theme editor?
No. Keep the STOQ tab open. It checks every few seconds and confirms by itself once you click Save in the theme editor.
I turned the app embed off, but STOQ still says it's on. Why?
STOQ reuses an "on" result for up to 10 minutes. After that, reload STOQ and the badge comes back.
Can I preview the button on a draft or unpublished theme?
Yes. The app embed is per-theme, so enable STOQ on the draft theme too: in Shopify admin go to Online Store, click Edit theme on the draft theme, open App embeds, turn STOQ on, and Save. Use the theme editor's page selector to preview an out-of-stock product. When you publish that theme, the embed stays on.
