Whitelist Mode Blocking Everyone

If you are using whitelist mode and legitimate customers (including yourself) are being blocked, the issue is usually a configuration misunderstanding.

How Whitelist Mode Works

In Whitelist mode, only visitors from the countries you have selected can access your store. All other countries are blocked.

This is the opposite of Blacklist mode, where only selected countries are blocked and everyone else is allowed.

The Help Text in the App

  • Blacklist: “Visitors from blocked countries and cities won’t access your store.”
  • Whitelist: “Only visitors from allowed countries and cities will see your store.”

Common Issues

Forgot to Add Your Own Country

If you switch to whitelist mode and only add your target market countries but forget your own country (if it differs), you will be blocked from viewing your own storefront.

Fix: Add your own country to the whitelist, or whitelist your IP address in the IP Blocker (whitelisted IPs bypass all other blocking rules).

Added Too Few Countries

With whitelist mode, any country not explicitly listed is blocked. If you serve customers in multiple countries, make sure every target country is included.

Fix: Review your whitelist and add all countries where you have customers.

Confusion Between Whitelist and Blacklist

A common mistake is selecting Whitelist mode and adding countries you want to block — this has the opposite effect. In whitelist mode, selected countries are the ones allowed in.

Fix: If you want to block specific countries while allowing everyone else, switch to Blacklist mode.

How to Recover If You Are Locked Out

If you have accidentally blocked yourself from your own storefront:

  1. The Kedra Shield admin dashboard still works — Blocking only affects the storefront, not the Shopify admin or embedded apps. You can always access the Kedra Shield dashboard from your Shopify admin.
  2. Go to Location Blocker in the dashboard.
  3. Either add your country to the whitelist, or switch to Blacklist mode.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Test in an incognito/private window to verify.

Alternatively, whitelist your own IP address in the IP Blocker. Whitelisted IPs bypass all blocking rules, including country blocking.

Next Steps