SHOPIFY NOTIFICATIONS

Shopify order confirmation email not sending: where it breaks

Short answer: first find out whether the email was never sent, or sent and never arrived. They look the same to the customer and have different fixes. Shopify's help page says most customer notifications are sent automatically and cannot be deactivated, and that the Order confirmation notification goes out when a customer places an order. So an order confirmation that has been switched off is not the usual cause. Look at the address, spam filtering and anything that changed recently.

Step 1: Pick one affected order

Do not guess across all orders. Take one order where the customer says nothing arrived and check:

1. The email address on the order. A typo or a missing address is the cheapest explanation.
2. Spam or junk folders, including a Promotions tab. Shopify's own page gives this advice first.
3. An alternate address. Shopify says that if the problem continues, the customer should give you another email address with a different email provider. That is a quick way to tell a mailbox problem from a store problem.

If the second address receives it, the problem is on the first provider's side, not in your store settings.

Step 2: Check which emails are affected

The notification type matters, because some can be turned off and some cannot.

• Order confirmation is triggered when a customer places an order. It is not on Shopify's list of notifications you can deactivate.
• Shipping confirmation is sent when you fulfil an order. Shopify says you can turn it off while fulfilling by unticking "Send shipment details to your customer now". If shipping emails are missing but order confirmations arrive, check whether that box was unticked, especially if a fulfilment person or an app handles fulfilment.
• Shipping update is sent when tracking information is updated. When you edit tracking on a fulfilled order there is a tick box to send a notification email, and it can be unticked.
• Out for delivery and Delivered are sent when a tracking event arrives from the carrier or fulfilment app. Shopify says tracking event sources, accuracy and timing vary by carrier, and that these notifications are not available for local delivery orders. They can be deactivated under Settings, then Notifications, then Customer notifications, in the Shipping updated section.
• Order canceled and Order refund have a tick box that says "Send a notification to the customer" when you cancel or refund, and it can be unticked.

So before you go hunting for a technical fault, check whether someone chose not to send it.

Step 3: Check Shop app notifications

Shopify notes that notifications sent from the Shop app for tracking updates and order statuses cannot be deactivated or edited by merchants. They can only be turned off through the customer's own Shop app settings. A customer who says they got a tracking message from somewhere else may be seeing this.

Step 4: Check what changed recently

Email templates can be customised, so a template edit by you or a developer is a possible cause. Treat it as a checklist: what changed in the last two weeks? A template edit, a new app, a new sender address, or a headless or custom storefront are all worth ruling out. This is general troubleshooting practice, not a Shopify list.

Step 5: If the email was sent but not delivered

If you changed the sender address to one on your own domain, mailbox providers may treat your mail differently, and email authentication on that domain (records like SPF and DKIM) is something to check with whoever manages your domain. This is general email knowledge, so check the current instructions from Shopify and your domain provider. If only one provider's customers have the problem, the cause is most likely how that provider filters your mail.

Step 6: Test

Make a test order with an address you own and see what arrives. Repeat with a few providers, such as Gmail, Outlook and a company address. Do the same for the shipping confirmation, since shipping emails can fail on their own. Shopify also lists the email clients it supports for notifications (including Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Apple Mail and Office 365), so an unusual client is one thing to rule out.

When to hire help

Bring in a developer when you are sure the order was placed, the address is correct, and even your own test addresses never get the email, when only shipping emails are missing and you use a fulfilment app, or when you have a headless or custom checkout. Fixes involving DNS or Flow are easy to get wrong. Tidewell traces missing Shopify emails and fixes them, and we agree a price before we start. Send us the store address, one affected order number and when it was placed: tell us what is happening. We never ask for your password.

Questions

Can I turn off order confirmation emails?

Shopify's help page says most customer notifications are sent automatically and cannot be deactivated. The ones you can switch off are the order canceled, order refund, shipping confirmation, shipping update, out for delivery and delivered notifications.

Is this a Shopify outage?

It can be, but check the order, the address and spam folders first. Shopify's status page shows known platform problems.

Why do only some customers miss it?

Usually spam filtering or a wrong address on the order.