What Content Protection Does for Your Shopify Store
What right-click and copy protection does for a Shopify store, how it works on desktop and phones, and how to set it up so it never gets in a customer's way.
Short answer
Content protection stops the quick, everyday ways people take your work: saving photos with right-click, dragging them off the page, copying your descriptions and pressing and holding on phones. Ongoing Defender switches all of it on with no code, and keeps your forms, search engines and team working normally.
What it protects
| Your content | How people usually take it | What Defender does |
|---|---|---|
| Product photos | Right-click, dragging, Save Page | Blocks right-click, dragging and the Save Page shortcut |
| Photos on phones | Press-and-hold, then Save to Photos | Blocks press-and-hold on iPhone and Android |
| Descriptions and blog posts | Highlighting and copying | Blocks text selection, copy and cut |
| Your pages | Developer-tools shortcuts like F12 | Discourages them with a shortcut deterrent |
Why it's worth having
- Your photos and descriptions cost real time and money to make. Protection keeps them working for your store, not a copycat's.
- Most copying is quick and casual, which is exactly what protection stops.
- It covers phones, where most of your shoppers are.
- It tells visitors you take your content seriously.
Protection that never costs a sale
- Search, login, newsletter and discount-code fields always work normally.
- Google and link previews always see your full store, so your rankings and shared links are safe.
- The script is about 4 KB, so your pages stay fast.
- In the theme editor, protection steps aside so you can edit freely.
How to set it up with Ongoing Defender
- 1Install Ongoing Defender from the Shopify App Store.
- 2Follow the setup guide to switch on the app embed in your theme editor, and click Save.
- 3Right-click, image, text and mobile protection are on from the start.
- 4Turn on the Save Page shortcut block and the developer-tools deterrent if you'd like them too.
- 5Add your own IP under Exclusions, so you can keep working freely.
Make it fit your store
- Protect images only, so links still open in new tabs.
- Leave protection off on chosen products, collections, pages or blog posts, like a size guide or recipe blog.
- Let your team, wholesale customers and VIPs copy freely with exclusions.
- Exceptions keep working after you rename a product, and on translated URLs.
Tips for best results
- Watermark original artwork and photography, so your brand travels with the image.
- Check your store from your phone after setup to see mobile protection in action.
- After changing themes, switch the Defender app embed on in the new theme.
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