The Atlas Page Builder app embed is not switched on for the theme you are publishing into. Every page Atlas publishes depends on it, so publishing is blocked until it is enabled. The fix takes under a minute: select Activate app embed, then press Save in the theme editor that opens. Atlas re-checks on its own.
In this article:
Why this happens
The app embed is what loads the code your Atlas pages need to render. It is enabled per theme, not per store, and it is off by default on any theme where it has never been enabled.
The most common situations:
Situation | Why the embed is off |
You are publishing to a theme for the first time | It has never been enabled there |
You installed or bought a new theme | New themes start with all app embeds off |
You duplicated a theme and are publishing to the copy | The copy may not have carried the setting |
Someone turned it off in the theme editor | It can be toggled off by anyone editing the theme |
How to fix it
In the message, select
Activate app embed.Shopify's theme editor opens with the Atlas Page Builder embed already switched on.
Select Save in the theme editor.
Return to Atlas. It shows
Checking app embed status...and continues on its own.
Atlas shows Press Save in the theme editor — we'll re-check automatically.
The manual method
If the button does not open the right place, or you need to enable it on a different theme, do it from the theme editor: Theme settings, then App embeds, turn on Atlas Page Builder, then Save. Atlas gives the same fallback under the button: Button not working? In your theme editor, open Theme settings → App embeds and turn on "Atlas Page Builder".
The full walkthrough, including doing it for several themes, is in How to enable the Atlas Page Builder app embed.
The step that gets skipped
Pressing Save. Opening the theme editor from Atlas turns the toggle on, but the change is not applied until you save the theme. If you close the editor without saving, the embed stays off and Atlas will report it as off, correctly.
If you have done this more than once and it keeps not working, this is almost certainly the reason.
If Atlas still says it is off
Work through these in order:
Confirm you enabled it on the right theme. The theme editor opens on one specific theme. Check the theme name at the top of the editor against the theme you selected in the publish panel.
Confirm you saved. Go back into the theme editor and check the toggle is still on. If it is off again, the save did not go through.
Check your permissions. Editing app embeds requires theme editing permission. If you are a staff member on someone else's store, you may not have it.
Re-check from Atlas. On the dashboard Theme extensions card, select
Re-check. Atlas caches the result briefly.Reload Atlas. Close and reopen the app from your Shopify admin.
If the embed is on and saved, and Atlas still reports it as inactive after a re-check, contact support from the chat bubble in Atlas, or at support@helloatlas.io, with your store URL and the exact name of the theme.
If it keeps turning itself off
An embed that was working and is now off usually means the theme changed.
You switched themes. The new theme needs its own embed enabled. See Why did my Atlas features stop working after I switched themes?
You restored a theme backup or reverted to an older version. Older versions predate the embed being enabled.
Your theme was updated by its developer. Some theme updates replace theme settings.
💡 Add "check the Atlas Page Builder app embed" to whatever you do after any theme change. The Theme extensions card on your dashboard shows all three Atlas extensions at a glance and takes two seconds to read.