SHOPIFY THEMES

Shopify theme update broke my store or lost my changes: how to recover

Short answer: your old theme is normally still on your Themes page. Shopify's help says that when you switch to a new theme, you can still access the old one there. So the fastest recovery is to go to Online Store, then Themes, find the version you had before the update, preview it and publish it. That gets the store working again. Then you can work out what the update dropped.

First, stop the bleeding

1. Open Online Store, then Themes.
2. Look for the version from before the update. Shopify says an updated theme is added to your draft themes with "Updated copy of" at the start of its name.
3. Preview the old version first. Check the home page, a product page and the cart.
4. If it looks right, publish it. Only one theme can be published at a time.

If you cannot find the old version, for example because someone deleted it, skip to restoring a single file below.

How a Shopify theme update is meant to work

This is worth knowing, because many "the update broke my store" stories start with publishing too soon. Shopify's page says that for a theme installed from the Theme Store, a new version can be added to your draft themes for free. It does not replace your live theme. You then use these buttons on the copy: View release notes, Review to check it displays and works as expected, and Publish when you are ready to update your live store.

Customisations made in the theme editor are copied across. Shopify lists them: theme settings, page layouts, adding, reordering, removing or hiding sections or blocks, section and block settings, new templates, app embeds and app extensions, and wording changes in the theme content editor.

Code is different. If you or an installed app made code changes and they do not conflict with the update, they are included. The theme card then says "Theme added: code edits successfully included". If they conflict, it says "Theme added: code edits could not be included". In that case, Shopify's help says you need to copy your code changes into the new version yourself, and you should always save a copy of any customised code before updating.

Why changes go missing

Shopify says code changes can come from two places: manual edits in the code editor (apart from the Templates folder and the settings_data.json file in the Config folder), and automated code changes an installed app has made on your behalf. Both are at risk in an update. A related Shopify page is blunter: if code changes you made are incompatible with a theme update, your changes are removed in the updated copy.

Other things Shopify's page notes:

• Custom CSS needs checking. Make sure the selectors you targeted still exist in the new version and that your CSS still applies.
• A change to a theme's schema, such as a section's block limit, might cause an update to fail.
• Some apps may not be compatible with a new theme. Check the app's documentation or contact its developer.
• Not every feature reaches an existing theme. A feature that needs a newer theme structure will not be applied to your current one.
• Updates are only for themes installed from the Shopify Theme Store. An uploaded theme does not update automatically, and one bought from a third party designer needs the designer to supply updates. Vintage themes no longer receive updates.
• If Add to draft themes is not shown for a Theme Store theme, you cannot use the standard update. Shopify says you can install a fresh copy from the Theme Store and re-apply your settings and customisations by hand.

Step by step: find out what was dropped

1. Open the old theme and the updated copy side by side in two browser tabs.
2. Write down what you remember changing: a banner, a font, a tracking snippet, a custom product tab.
3. Check the code editor in the old theme for the files you suspect.
4. Shopify's page says an app from the Shopify App Store can help identify code changes made to a theme. Alternatively, download both themes and compare them with a free file comparison tool on your computer (general practice, not from Shopify).
5. Make a text file with each missing piece, which file it came from and the lines around it.

Step by step: put it back

1. Work only on the updated copy, not the live theme.
2. Paste back one customisation at a time.
3. Save and preview after each one.
4. Test product, collection, cart and checkout, on desktop and a phone.
5. Publish only when everything you need works.

Keep the old theme in your library for a while.

Restoring one file

If only one file went wrong, open it in the code editor (Online Store, then Edit code from the theme menu) and use the Timeline view. Shopify says the Timeline restores one existing file at a time, not a whole theme, and cannot recover deleted files. History is finite, so older versions may be missing. Restoring replaces the whole file, including changes you want to keep, so copy the current contents somewhere safe first.

Keep it from happening again

• Keep a changelog of every code edit: file, what and why.
• Prefer the theme editor and app embeds over pasting code into theme files, where you can.
• Add the update to your draft themes, review it, and only then publish.
• Choose a quiet day. Never update the day before a campaign. (Common sense, not from Shopify.)

When to hire help

If your store has years of custom code, nobody remembers what was changed, or the update touched checkout related pages, a careful comparison is worth paying for. Tidewell compares old and updated themes, reapplies what is needed on a copy and tests the result. We agree a price before starting. Send us the store address, the theme name and what changed: tell us what is happening. We never ask for your password.

Questions

Is the old theme gone after I publish the new one?

Per Shopify's help, no: you can still access it on the Themes page.

Will every customisation survive an update?

Editor customisations are copied over. Code edits only if they do not conflict, so check the message on the theme card.

Do all themes get updates?

No. Only themes installed from the Shopify Theme Store, and not all of them.