A preview is not visible
A lesson marked as a preview is not open to the public.
1. Is the preview flag actually set?
Open the lesson and check This lesson is a preview.
It is a per-lesson setting. Marking one lesson does not mark the section, and duplicating a lesson does not always carry your intentions with it.
2. Do previews require login on this course?
Open the course and check Preview lessons also require login.
With it on, preview lessons still require an account — which is a legitimate configuration and a common surprise. A visitor who is not signed in sees the login form on a lesson you believe is public.
Turn it off if the preview's job is to sell to strangers.
3. Is the lesson published?
A draft lesson is invisible to everyone but editors, preview flag or not.
4. Is the lesson attached to a course?
A lesson with no attached course returns not found, whatever else is set. Preview does not override that — with no course, there is nothing to preview.
5. Are you testing correctly?
Signed in as an administrator, every lesson opens, so you cannot tell a working preview from a broken one.
Test in a private window, signed out. Open the preview lesson's URL directly.
6. Can visitors find it?
A preview that opens correctly but nobody reaches is a different problem with the same symptom.
Previews are reachable from the course outline, but a visitor who never lands on the course page never sees the outline. Link the preview from:
- The product page.
- The course's no-access message.
- Your catalogue page.
The opposite problem: a preview you did not intend
If a lesson is public and should not be, the preview flag is on. Turn it off and check the rest of the course:
- Open Lessons and filter by the course.
- Check which lessons carry the preview flag.
- Turn off the ones that were only ever meant for testing.
Audit this before every launch. A preview flag left on after testing publishes a paid lesson permanently, and nothing warns you.
What a preview does and does not do
| It does | It does not |
|---|---|
| Open the lesson to anyone, subject to the course's preview-login setting | Expire |
| Show in the outline as accessible | Grant access to any other lesson |
| Work for signed-out visitors | Record progress for anonymous visitors |
Confirm the fix
- Private window, signed out.
- Open the preview lesson. It plays.
- Open a non-preview lesson from the same course. It is blocked.
Step 3 is the important one — a preview that opens the rest of the course is a configuration problem, not a preview.