Problem with adding in a variant

I must be doing something wrong.

I have products with variants and I add all the info just fine and it shows up in the front end product just fine. Then later I find that I need to add an additional variant. When I add it to the list in Characteristics - go to the alias and add another variant, it will show up in the product back end page - but not in the front end page. Everything is saved ok at this point. The only way I can get the front end to display the new adjusted list of variants is to - delete the list in the back end (from the product page) - save - add the list back in - and save. Then the new variant shows up in the front end - BUT ALL THE PREVIOUS DATA IS LOST - all I have left is the variant names - and I have to fill in all the prices-size-images-etc again.

I must be doing something wrong. :ohmy:

When you add a new value to a characteristic, you need to go in the "manage variants" area of each product using it and, if you need it, create a new variant and choose that value.
If you don't create that new variant, the system will consider that you don't want to have that value of the characteristic for that product and you won't see it. The same way s you won't see a value if you delete the variant.