Why aren't categories and sections visible to customers?

Question

I created a new section or category in the help center, but the content isn't visible to customers. I can see the section or category when I sign in as an agent, but not my customers. Why aren't the category and sections visible to customers? 

Answer

There are different reasons for categories or sections to not be visible to customers.

• Help center content is managed in this segmentation: Category > Section > Article. All sections must be in a category, and all articles must be in a section or subsection. Article permissions control the visibility the section and category. If you create a category with sections, but you did not add articles to your sections, the category and section are hidden. To display the category and section, add articles that are visible to your users.

• If a category only has a single section within it, the system logic forgoes the category container and instead displays the section container. This same logic applies if you have multiple sections within a category, but the viewing user only has permission to see articles of one section.

• If you added an article to a section, the section or category it belongs to is not visible, you set the incorrect view permissions on the article for your target audience. To ensure that that your section and category are visible, set the article's visibility to Visible to everyone as detailed in the article: Setting view permissions on articles with user segments.

• When you confirmed that the section or category is visible after setting the article's visibility to Visible to everyone, apply the relevant view permission to the article if you need to restrict access to the article further.

• If you create a new article and selected Save, the article isn't displayed. You need to select Publish and consequently, the section or category becomes visible.

• If you add a translation for an article, which does not have a translation for its section or category, the article translation will not appear in the help center, even if the article is published.

For more information on troubleshooting issues within the help center, see the following page: Guide advice and troubleshooting.