Products or category descriptions not showing on PrestaShop

Why a product doesn’t show in its category

I check these in order, because each one hides the product independently of the others:

• The Associations tab on the product sheet: the product must be ticked for the category in question, in addition to having a default category set. A correct default category doesn’t mean the product is genuinely associated with every category it’s expected in.
• The product’s online status, in the back-office product list: an active status filter on that list can also visually hide the product on screen without it actually being disabled, which often causes confusion.
• Availability date: a product scheduled to go live in the future stays invisible in the shop until that date, even if it’s otherwise correctly set up.
• The category itself: if it’s disabled, or if the site runs multistore and the category isn’t linked to the shop in question, none of its products will show on that shop.

Product display order within a category is set by drag and drop directly in the category’s product list in the back office: useful for featuring certain items without touching any code.

Why the category description doesn’t show

Two distinct causes: the Display category description setting may be switched off at the category level, or the theme’s template simply doesn’t render that block at all, notably on custom themes that removed this part of the category.tpl template for a different layout.

A disabled setting is a few clicks to fix. A block missing from the template means reopening the theme file and reinstating the description, possibly in a different spot on the page — which is exactly what several merchants ask for when they want the description at the bottom rather than the top, and that stays a template tweak, not a standard setting.