Unpublishing removes a layout's theme files from Shopify. The layout stays in your Instant project — you can keep editing it and republish later — but it's no longer live on your storefront.
When to unpublish
Retire a campaign page that's no longer relevant
Remove a layout you published to a draft theme for testing
Return products or collections to your theme's default template
Swap in a different home page, header, footer, or cart
Clean up before republishing a heavily redesigned layout
How to unpublish
Select the layout in the Layouts & layers panel.
Open the layout's ⋯ menu.
Choose Unpublish (this option only appears once a layout is published).
Confirm in the dialog. Instant warns that unpublishing also removes the associated layout and theme files from your Shopify store.
Instant removes the theme files, and the publish menu updates to Not published.
What unpublishing does
Unpublishing removes the layout's theme files from Shopify, so the storefront stops showing your Instant design for that layout. What shoppers see instead depends on the layout type:
Pages and blog posts — the URL no longer serves your Instant design.
Home page — your store's root URL returns to your theme's own home page.
Product and collection templates — assigned products or collections fall back to your theme's default template.
Sections — the section is no longer available to place in the Shopify theme editor.
Headers, footers, and carts — if set as your main header, footer, or cart, the storefront returns to the theme's default until you publish a replacement.
What unpublishing keeps
The layout and all its content stay in your Instant project.
Layout settings — name, handle, assignments, and defaults — are preserved.
Your saved versions remain available in Version history.
You can edit the layout and publish it again at any time, subject to your plan's publish limits.
Unpublish vs remove
Unpublish takes the layout off Shopify but keeps it in Instant.
Remove deletes the layout from your Instant project. If the layout is published, removing it also deletes its associated theme files from Shopify — Instant warns you about this in the confirmation dialog — so removing a published layout does not leave orphaned files behind.
Use unpublish when you want to keep the layout for later; use remove when you're done with it entirely.
Replacing a default safely
When you swap a default layout (home page, main header, footer, or cart), publish the replacement before removing the old one:
Create and publish the new layout.
Set it as the default in its layout settings.
Unpublish the old layout.
This avoids a gap where no home page, header, footer, or cart is active on your storefront.
Republish later
To bring a layout back, select it in Layouts & layers, click Publish, and complete the publish flow — all your settings and content are preserved. If you unpublished because of a theme switch, confirm Settings → Shopify points at the correct theme first.