Shopify mega menu / header dropdown not opening.

Several header surfaces can look like “the top of the store is broken.” They do not share a settings panel. This page is only when a parent header link’s mega menu / dropdown never opens on hover or click (theme header section, Online Store nested menu links, header JS/CSS, mobile drawer). Announcement / promo bar missing is shopify-announcement-bar-not-showing. Predictive search / autocomplete empty is shopify-predictive-search-not-working. Collection faceted filters / filter sidebar broken is shopify-collection-filters-not-working. Do not chase Search & Discovery suggest settings when the broken control is the navigation mega menu.

Open the live storefront header with a parent item that should open a mega menu — not only Theme editor preview. Capture four proofs before you install another megamenu app:

1. Customize Current → header / mega menu / navigation section: is the mega-menu / dropdown block present and enabled on the published theme (not only a draft)?
2. Online Store → Navigation: does the menu assigned to the header have nested child links under the parent (not a flat one-level list)?
3. DevTools Console: hovering or clicking the parent — any red errors from theme.js, header.js, megamenu apps, or consent scripts that abort the panel?
4. Desktop vs mobile: does the mobile drawer open while desktop hover stays dead (or the reverse)? Screenshot both.

If you only tested the announcement / promo bar, the predictive search box, or the collection filter sidebar, you are on the wrong playbook.

Online Store 2.0 themes gate mega menus behind a header / mega-menu / nested-navigation section (or a header menu block with “mega” style). After a developer paste or section-group edit, that section can vanish from Current while parent links still render as flat anchors. Separately, the assigned Navigation menu can be flat — no indented child links — so the theme has nothing to expand even when JS is healthy.

Fix path: Customize Current → header → enable Mega menu / Dropdown / Nested navigation → Save / Publish Current. Online Store → Navigation → nest children under the parent → Save. Theme editor publish failures are theme-editor-publish-failing. Broken header-group JSON is json-templates-section-groups-broken.

Native mega menus depend on theme JS listening to hover / focus / click on the parent. A broken import, CSP / third-party script error, or an app that overrides event handlers can leave the parent link clickable for navigation while the panel never mounts. Separately, custom CSS, sticky headers, announcement overlays, or chat widgets can set the panel to display:none / pointer-events:none / opacity:0 / a z-index under the overlay — the mega menu “exists” in the DOM but buyers never see it.

Fix path: fix or remove the Console error that fires on first hover/click; inspect the live panel for CSS hides; temporarily lower sticky header / chat z-index; hard-refresh without extensions. If the announcement bar is the only missing surface, use shopify-announcement-bar-not-showing. Consent banners blocking clicks are cookie-banner-blocking-checkout.

Many themes share one menu between desktop mega menu and mobile drawer. Drawer listeners can steal pointer / touch events so desktop hover never opens, or a hamburger-only config leaves desktop parents as plain links. Third-party megamenu / mega menu builder apps (App embed + theme app block) can replace or freeze native dropdowns: embed off on Current, enabled only on a draft, scoped to Markets the buyer is not in, or set to own the header while the theme still renders a dead native parent.

Fix path: Theme settings → App embeds → enable one megamenu path on Current (or disable the app and use native mega menu only) → Save. Retest desktop hover with the drawer closed. Temporarily disable the second menu app. Generic App embeds failing across many apps is app-embed-not-loading.

Announcement / promo bar missing or hidden is shopify-announcement-bar-not-showing. Predictive search / autocomplete empty is shopify-predictive-search-not-working. Collection faceted filters / filter sidebar broken is shopify-collection-filters-not-working. Do not chase Search & Discovery filter sources or query suggestions when the header mega menu is the broken control.

The only honest test for this page: on a live storefront, hovering or clicking a parent header item with nested children either never opens a panel, the mega-menu section is missing, or Console / CSS shows errors / hides — fixable with theme header mega-menu on Current, nested Online Store menu links, JS errors cleared, CSS / z-index fixed, and one menu path (native or one app) without drawer / consent freeze — not the announcement bar alone, not predictive search alone, not the collection filter sidebar alone. Capture theme + Navigation + JS + drawer, fix the path. Anything else is a different product.

Stay DIY if the theme mega-menu section is on Current, the assigned Navigation menu has nested children, Console is clean on hover/click, and the panel opens on the live storefront (desktop and mobile drawer as designed). That is ordinary Shopify admin + theme work.

Pay $997 when the gap is wiring: lead capture, ops alerts, and a checkout-ready workflow on the stack you already pay for, installed in 72 hours after collaborator access lands. Latch does not sell an earnings, conversion, or menu-click lift number. Latch does not rebuild your theme’s header as a design agency. One live store. Clock starts when collaborator access is in.

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