What to check after you publish a new Shopify theme

Theme changes are the moment stores break most often. Footer links from the theme's sample content, a product template that lost its Add to cart button, an announcement bar pointing to an old sale: none of it shows an error in your admin.

Before you publish: preview it

• In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
• Under Draft themes, click the three-dot menu next to the new theme, then Preview.
• Go through the checklist below in the preview, in a desktop browser and in a mobile browser.

The checklist

• Every item in the main menu and the footer opens a real page (no "Page not found").
• The announcement bar and homepage buttons go where they say.
• A product page shows its name, price and image, and every option (size, colour) can be picked.
• Add to cart works, the cart shows the right item and price, and checkout opens. Stop before paying.
• Search finds a product you know you sell.
• On a phone-sized screen, the menu opens and nothing (chat bubble, popup) covers the Add to cart button.
• Social icons and your refund, shipping and terms links open the right pages.

After you publish

Run the same checklist on the live store. Your previous theme stays under Draft themes, so if something important broke you can publish it again while you fix the new one.

Write the checklist down once and reuse it for every theme update. The bugs that slip through are almost always the ones nobody thought to click.

Let a robot run it

When a store with the BugRadar app publishes a theme, BugRadar starts a full check right away, in desktop and mobile browsers, and emails you the moment one of these steps breaks. The Free plan covers your menus, a product page and the cart.