Cancelled Unfulfilled orders forever in notifications

[paulpostma]

Hi,

This question has been asked many times before and is a real issue that needs to be sorted out.

We have two refunded, cancelled orders that have status unfulfilled. These orders are still being shown in both the left menu and also on the app, as the red notification number. We are unable to fulfil these orders, as they are cancelled. Once an order is cancelled, it should not show up in the notifications anymore.

This disrupts our workflow and we would like to see this fixed soon.

To illustrate what I mean; below is a screenshot. We currently have 3 orders to fulfil, but it shows 5 in the left menu:

[GoldenGaitMerc]

Hello Maz,

Just speaking up here as it seems like we all are still very much waiting to see any action be put on the agenda of fixes as this issue clearly effects all admin users. Your answer may be correct, but unacceptable. 

Can you please provide a link for further suggestions or a person we can speak to that can actually make change? Are you helping your colleagues rally to support for this? Are you able to?

[Maz · Accepted solution]

Hey, @GoldenGaitMerc!

Thank you for sharing your additional feedback with us. We appreciate it.

I can understand how important this is to have resolved, and the impact in can have on your daily workflow.

To confirm, the suggested workaround is to manually archive the orders as listed here or set up filters in saved searches to only display “paid” and “unfulfilled” orders. More details on this workaround can be found in the provided help documentation here. This is all that is possible at the moment.

We are working on addressing this issue and making improvements with our developer team. I understand the importance of this issue and aim to provide updates as soon as they become available. Any new updates will be shared in our Changelog here.

To streamline our efforts, we kindly ask that any new feedback focuses on any unique aspects that highlights the impact on the business. This will help us address the specific concerns related to your business.

Going forward, we'll continue to monitor this thread for unique feedback but will engage selectively, as we have already forwarded your feedback to our developer team.

[edahlen]

Maz, 

Again this is crazy it has yet to be fixed. As soon as they are archived the "Should NOT" register as unfulfilled. 

Please help with a solution.

Thanks,
Erik

[apenn]

Would appreciate an update to the metric shown in the lefthand panel next to orders in response to my comment and others. This issue is NOT fixed.

[cpinto7]

Hi @Maz , thanks for sending this feedback to the developers.

Can you share if this is planned to be fixed anytime soon? 

Marking the answer as resolved does not actually resolve the open issue posted by the initial poster or the issues raised by others like myself here.

Can we keep this issue open until the actual problem is resolved?

If it is not planned to be resolved, can Shopify share a product reasoning why this is the case and how the product should be used differently?

Thanks

[GoldenGaitMerc]

Thank you Carlos! We agree. Marking this issue resolved is actually
misrepresentation of the issue that still exists. Being reminded of a “work
around” is not helpful.

TNS

[apenn]

Kindly requesting an update here @Maz 

If there is not an actual solution with a timeline to go live then REOPEN this issue as it is NOT currently solved.

Your "workaround" is moving the goalposts and dishonest, negligent, or both. We are not asking for much here over the YEARS this has been an issue.

Right now this metric in the lefthand panel has ZERO value for the majority of merchants. We shouldn't have to prod this hard for a small yet key (broken) part of the UI.

[Foggybottomsboy]

Exactly. This is not solved and funny enough the request to focus on the impact of the business as requested is nebulous to the way it is being handled! 😝 

[Trevor]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for your continued interest and support for this feature.

As Maz has pointed out, a suitable workaround has been shared. All new, unique feedback regarding the impact on your business will be incorporated into our feature request for further evaluation.

Please understand that updates on these matters will be provided as and when they are available. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide updates on demand. Rest assured, as soon as we have more information, we will promptly share it with all of you.

In the interim, we appreciate your patience as our dedicated product teams and developers triage and review this matter. 

Thank you.

[apenn]

Sounds like this is being treated like a cosmetic "nice to have" improvement when the reality is the base core functionality of this feature (to show an accurate number of the orders needing fulfillment at any one time) is BROKEN and useless. The shopify team has chosen to define this metric in a way that does NOT give an accurate count. As such this should be treated more akin to a BUG with a higher priority. If you disagree @Trevor please explain.

[Foggybottomsboy]

Agreed. If this was not a key feature or function then why not remove the
bubble that shows the unfulfilled orders?

[waxracing]

So because they don't seem to care about getting rid of this it means that the company i use to ship which reads shopify sent out the item because it was unfulfilled even though it was cancelled. Please give me the email so i can invoice shopify for lost product

[craigm2]

This is so clearly not a solution. The workaround doesn't even work.  Fix the problem Shopify. This is unacceptable.

[AllBlownup]

the work around doesn't work - 😞 

[Foggybottomsboy]

Nope but it never really has. I spoke with the Shopify person off-line the
other day, and they basically said things like this are not concerning so
much anymore for the user experience as Shopify has basically turned into a
Banking institution.

[AndyFine]

We still see cancelled and archived orders that are technically "unfulfilled" showing in the number on "Orders". This is very annoying, and more importantly, an EASY fix for Shopify to implement. I can't imagine there's a single merchant who wants to see a number there that includes orders that are cancelled or achived, as when that's the case, there's NO further action required. So it's essentially a useless number that will only grow over time as the total number of cancelled or refunded and archived orders increases in the natural course of business.

Shopify Developer team - this is probably a FIVE MINUTE fix. Just do it. Please. Will make that number actually useful for merchants to see how many currently ACTIVE orders are not fulfilled. Archived orders must be excluded from this number. Thank you!

[edahlen]

Yup! - A simple tix that would help a LOT.

Shopify... What is the reason for these orders to show? - Do you have a
reason for this?

[waxracing]

They dont care. I have asked them about it 

[Maz]

Hey, @AndyFine, @waxracing & @edahlen!

Thanks to all for contributing to this thread with your feedback.

As of now, there are no updates to report.

While I empathize with your requests for us issue a fix on this, I don't have direct influence over the decisions made by the Shopify development team on what to work on next. They prioritize and plan their updates based on various factors, including user feedback, technical feasibility, and overall platform improvements if and when they are needed.

I understand the frustration and lack of updates can be demotivating, I hope that your feedback, along with that of other merchants, will contribute to future updates that address this issue and improve the usability of the platform.

Thanks again for reaching out!

[apenn]

@Maz this is clearly a bug and not an improvement, which it sounds like you understand. This is the admin homepage we're talking about-- the page 100% of merchants view more than any other page within the Shopify admin ecosystem. What bug could possible be higher priority and easier to fix on the admin homepage than this? We are really at a loss for words at how powerless you and other community admins seem to be. After years of requesting it begs the question of what the value in this forum even is.

[MBowland]

Hi there. January 2024 still no resolution. I also have returns showing up as part of my total in my notifications bubble. I have 6 unfulfilled orders, 3 old returns, 9 orders in the notif bubble.  This gonna get real messy real quick. Please fix this. 

[InventifDesigns]

And I’m still having the same issue as well. Shopify is Too Big To Care now. 

[Dotflakes]

It's frustating. I think shopify doesn't care. 

[Steve82]

Add me to the list of people unhappy with this problem. It sure seems like shopify doesnt really care about a lot of issues including bots testing their network making fake orders, which we had to cancel all of them leading to this problem, and image hotlinking that I have been pushing for years. These problems really do have easy fixes and a developer should have them done in 1 hour. Why does it take shopify so long @Maz ? Do they even have developers?

Here is a clue without knowing server syntax/variables

if orderstatus=cancelled

update fulfillmentstatus=cancelled

display unfulfilled

[Skye]

Hi, @paulpostma , and @Steve82 

Thank you for posting this to the Community Forums.

It seems there is some confusion regarding Open, and Fulfilled/Unfulfilled orders. Please allow me to clarify.

Fulfillment refers to an order that has been shipped, or provided to the customer. If an order is unfulfilled, it means that nothing was provided or shipped. As such, you would not want an order that was cancelled, and/or refunded to be shown as fulfilled which would be incorrect. However, you would not want it to show as open.

An open order means an order that has not been completed and is remaining as "open" and will display as such (bolded and showing in your notifications.) These orders simply need to be archived. You can do this by filtering your order display to only open orders, then checking off all the orders on the left hand side, then selecting Actions > Archive Orders. This will close the orders so they no longer show as bolded and open in your notifications.

I hope that helps clarify things!

[Steve82]

Seems the little bubble in the top left corner doesnt update the number until you refresh the page, not just click on a different section like products then click on orders.

[Skye]

Hi, @Steve82 

Yes, once you select archive and save changes, you will need to refresh the screen. The notifications will then be gone for the selected orders.

[AndyFine]

Hi Skye, what you said would be GREAT - unfortunately it's just not what the functionality actually does. ALL of our archived orders that were cancelled before fulfillment still show up in the number next to Orders - which is what every other merchant on here is saying. Once you have an order that is unfulfilled and archived, there's no way to get it to not count towards that total unless you unarchive it, mark it (incorrectly) as fulfilled, and then rearchive it.

The entire purpose of the number next to "Orders" in the main menu in the admin is to show the number of orders that REQUIRE ACTION. Orders that have been archived by definition don't require further action, or they wouldn't be archived. The number should show unfulfilled ACTIVE (not archived) orders only. It's a super simple fix and would make this number actually useful for merchants to see how many orders are in the pipeline and not yet completed.

Let me put this another way with an extreme example. Let's say a merchant gets 50 orders, and 48 of them are spam (fake) orders. The merchant goes in and cancels / archives the 48 fake orders and has two left to process. The orders number in the menu will still show 50, and even after processing the two real orders, would still show 48. From then on - the orders number would show a minimum of 48. That's not useful. 

[Shay]

Thanks for following up about this @AndyFine - I just tested this in my own store and once I archived the open, unfulfilled, orders and refreshed the page the order count was back to 0. 

The order count that you see next to the orders tab in the admin is a direct reflection of the amount of open orders in your store admin. If this number is not updating when you archive your orders then please connect with our authenticated chat support in our Help Center to report this. To access our authenticated support, please follow this link: Shopify Help Center. 

[AndyFine]

This was quite confusing but it finally makes sense now. Orders can get stuck in the "Open" category for a number of reasons. By reviewing the orders that are in the "OPEN" filter but should be archived and clearing those out, I was able to get this back down to the correct level.

SUMMARY for all following:
- if the Orders Number in the main column is showing higher than expected (higher than the number of unfulfilled orders you have), it means you have orders that are in the "Open" status. If you review and archive those, you'll get the number back down to match what you would expect it to be. 

Two years later, it finally makes sense!

[natedawg23]

I don't know what you're talking about. This doesn't work. Interestingly enough, the Shopify mobile app does not have this problem. It only shows orders that require action!

[fleshandblood]

I just want to be able to change unfulfilled orders to fulfilled regardless of the reason they are unfulfilled. If its because I cancelled the order through lack of stock or because the customer ordered someting I didnt have in stock any more, whatever. Once I have refunded the order, there needs to be a button which allows me to change the rder status to fulfilled so it isnt showign as an outstanding order. Full stop 

[fleshandblood]

Why is this marked "Solved" it is not solved.

Oh, one thing you *can* do for anyone desperate, is add a fake item to teh rder, uncheck email customer, then mark that item as fulfilled...

[Shay]

Hey @fleshandblood and @natedawg23 

Just wanted to connect with you about your concerns with the thread being marked as solved. This thread was created to ask for a solution to why cancelled orders were still showing as open in the store admin. The answer to that concern is that the orders need to be archived to no longer show as open.

I believe the concern you are referencing is that you want to have cancelled/refunded orders shown as "fulfilled" in the order details, regardless of if they are open or archived orders. Is that correct? This is a separate topic from what the OP posted. Due to how Shopify views the fulfilled state, this is not something that can be done at this time. Your feedback in this thread has been shared with our development team though, and any new feedback from other merchants will be as well. 

[waxracing]

Let's be honest your reply this is simply a deflection. It's been pretty obvious to EVERYONE what was being talked about. Maybe time would be better spent solving the issue and not deflecting. This is people livelihood here 

[natedawg23]

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Shay]

I appreciate your feedback @waxracing and our community team continues to share it with our developers for further consideration. 

I understand you want to mark closed orders as "fulfilled", even if they aren't fulfilled based on Shopify's definition of that state. This is not something that is possible in our system at this time. This is not a bug or something broken, but an intended behavior of the platform. I know you, and other merchants, are requesting for that functionality to change. Our community team can't make those changes happen. We do always want to ensure that feedback shared in our community is channeled to the right teams though and to confirm with the merchants sharing it that it has been received. 

We are always happy to hear additional feedback from our merchants on changes that you would like to see on the platform. 

[natedawg23]

Do you suggest we start a new post on this topic then? Since this one has been "resolved" according to your standards

[Shay]

While the main topic of the thread has been resolved (marking open orders as archived to remove them from the order count), feedback on changing the fulfillment status of orders is still being received and passed to our developers. There are other threads on this topic in our community and feedback from all of them is constantly being shared. 

If you feel you have any additional information you wish to share and would like to start a new thread about this topic, you are welcome to. From a feedback stand point though, that is not required. 

[natedawg23]

For anyone wondering, this isn't actually a solution.

[waxracing]

I don't think they have it as a priority in the system that's for sure

[apenn]

If you told someone we're still waiting for a multibillion dollar commerce company to give us an accurate count of immediately fulfillable orders in the main admin ui (without cumbersome error-prone multi-filter workarounds), they would laugh. yet here we are...

[Capy]

Hi Maz,

I'm experiencing this issue still (still seems unresolved as of Aug 2024), but worse, I deleted an order I created as a test (that was unfulfilled) and it's counting towards my "unfulfilled" orders count in notifications and there's no way for me to retrieve the deleted order to manually archive it. Is there any work around for this issue?

Thanks

[Victor]

Hi @Capy,

I am not sure if this can be done but I would recommend contacting our support team about this. They can authenticate you on your account and check this on more detail.

[Foggybottomsboy]

Another reason Shopify doesn't care. They can't authenticate you...

[immnul]

Hi Maz, we stumbled upon this chain searching for a solution to this same issue we’re having. It’s incredibly frustrating and disruptive to see that we have one order to be fulfilled, when this one order is a canceled order. Clearly, it doesn’t need to be fulfilled if it’s been canceled! It’s been over a year since you posted this reply. Can you provide an update? I fully appreciate that the developer team has lots to work on, but this really seems like a bug that needs to be fixed — not just a « nice to have. »

Emmanuelle  

[ajoyforever]

This was posted a year ago, and still no fix, is that right? It's very confusing.

[thecatthrone]

Has anyone solved this problem? It's been months and the Shopify chat people have had 0 solutions as usual. please get these off of my orders. It's confusing and frustrating. has anyone figured out how to get the tag "unfulfilled" off of the order?

[immnul]

It automatically goes away after a certain amount of time (not exactly sure how many days… I just noticed that old ones that used to bother me aren’t there anymore. If I had to guess I’d say a week or two?). So I’d put this at “annoying but mostly resolved” issue with Shopify. 

[3DGuy]

Mine are still sitting there,  For years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!