Why aren't categories and sections visible to customers?

Question

I created a new section or category but the content isn't visible in the Help Center 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 a Category > Section > Article segmentation. All sections must be in a category, and all articles must be in a section or subsection. Based on this segmentation, if you created a new category with sections, but did not add any articles to the sections, the category and section are hidden from end users and agents who do not have manager permissions. To display the category and section to all users, add content in them.
  
  
• If a category only has a single section within it, the system logic forgoes displaying 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, but the section or category that it belongs to is still not visible, you may have set the incorrect view permissions on the article for your target audience. To ensure that that your section and category are visible, ensure that you 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.

For more information on troubleshooting issues within the Help Center, see the article: How can I troubleshoot common Help Center issues?