Shopify or theme issue?

Some parts of your store are run by Shopify, some by the apps you installed and some by Alpha Start. Knowing which is which gets your question to the right team and saves you a round of emails.

Who can help

What doesn’t work	Who to contact
Checkout, payments, taxes, shipping rates, discounts and order processing	Shopify Support. The checkout is not part of the theme.
Domains, email delivery and Shopify notification emails, such as order confirmations	Shopify Support.
Products, collections, menus, markets, languages and other data in your Shopify admin	Shopify Help Center. The theme only displays this data.
Filter groups and values, related and complementary product recommendations	The Search & Discovery app by Shopify. The theme displays what the app returns.
A widget added by an app: reviews, chat, upsells, wishlists, translations	The developer of the app. Its contact details are on the app’s page in the Shopify App Store.
A theme section, block or setting that doesn’t work as described in this documentation	Alpha Start support.

See Support policy for what theme support covers.

Common problems

Catalog links in the header and the mobile menu come from Theme settings → Catalog → Catalog menu. Choose a menu that has items. See Catalog menu.
The top bar shows the header’s Secondary menu, which is hidden when it is the same menu as the catalog menu. Choose a different menu in Header → Secondary menu.
Footer menus come from Catalog menu and Menu in the Footer section. An empty Catalog menu uses the one from theme settings.

See Header and Footer.

Filters are missing on a collection or search page

In the theme editor, open the collection or search template, click the Collection products or Search section and check that Enable filtering is on.
Filters are set up in the Search & Discovery app. If you haven’t added any filters there, nothing is shown.
A filter appears only when products in the collection have values for it. For example, a Color filter needs products with a color option or a color metafield.
Shopify doesn’t show filters on collections with more than 5,000 products. See Shopify’s filter requirements.

On screens up to 1024px wide, filters open from a button above the products instead of the sidebar. See Filters.

Color swatches are missing

Swatches use the colors and images set on option values in Shopify, not the option value names.

On product cards: an option shows swatches when it has at least two values and every value has a swatch color or image. Also check that Theme settings → Product cards → Show color swatches is on.
On the product page: an option shows round swatches when every value has a swatch. The Variant selection setting of the Product section must be Option buttons; the Table of variants layout shows values as text.
Variant photos instead of swatches: turn on Show variant images on option buttons in the Variant picker block. It works for options where every value has its own variant image.

See Color swatches.

Star ratings are missing

The theme shows the rating that a product reviews app saves to the standard product rating field in Shopify. It can’t count reviews itself.

Install a reviews app that saves the rating to that field. Most popular reviews apps do; check the app’s documentation.
On product cards, turn on Theme settings → Product cards → Show product rating.
On the product page, add the Rating block to the Product section.
A product without reviews shows no rating.

See Ratings and reviews.

Images look blurry or cropped

Blurry: the uploaded image is smaller than the space it fills. Shopify doesn’t enlarge images beyond their original size. Upload a larger image; see Image sizes.
Cropped in the wrong place: most banners and tiles keep a fixed shape and crop the image to fill it. Set a focal point on the image in Content → Files, so the crop keeps the important part.
Product photos cut off in cards: cards crop photos to the Image ratio in Theme settings → Product cards. Choose the ratio that matches your photos, or turn on Add padding around images to show the whole image.

Changes don’t show in the store

Save: changes in the theme editor are visible only in the editor preview until you click Save.
Check which theme is live: in Online Store → Themes, the live theme is at the top. If you edited a copy, publish it or make the change in the live theme.
Check the template: products, collections and pages can use different templates. If a change shows on one product but not another, the other product uses another template. See Alternate templates.
Reload without the cache: your browser may show an older copy of the page. Reload the page with Ctrl + Shift + R (Cmd + Shift + R on Mac), or open it in a private window.

Apps add content to the theme in two ways:

App embeds add floating or invisible content, such as a chat button or tracking code. In the theme editor, click the App embeds icon in the left sidebar and turn on the app.
App blocks add content in a specific place. In the theme editor, open the section, click Add block and choose the app’s block under Apps. The Product, Featured product, Cart, Collection products, Search, Customer reviews and Page sections accept app blocks. You can also add a whole app section with Add section → Apps.

If the app is turned on and still doesn’t appear, contact the app developer. See Apps and Shopify’s guide to apps in themes.