No more Customer PII in Custom App integrations for Shopify Basic users.

[dlacom]

Custom Apps no longer have access to Customer PII in the orders API etc for users on the Basic Plan. It looks like the merchant needs to first upgrade to the Advanced Plan, and then pay an additional fee for the Customer PII add-on. This change seemed to come out of nowhere and left us scrambling to plug holes.

Why was this change made? Why aren't Basic plan users allowed access to their Customer PII through the API? It doesn't make sense and certainly isn't a change for the better for merchants or partners. SMH.

[AlexandreG]

They don't realize the chaos it's causing for us and our clients. We manage about twenty stores, and we haven't received ANY email notifications regarding this change.

This is serious and unacceptable 😡😡

[dlacom]

Sorry to hear that, we're in a similar boat. I don't recall receiving any warning about this change either. It's out of character for Shopify. I know they can do better.

[icarry_dev]

Same situation for us. Is there some workaround or change in the works for this to allow it like before ?

[jackmccarthy]

Yeah this is crushing us right now and we're just coming to find out that this is why a slew of integration issues have been occurring for our SAAS users that integrate with Shopify via custom apps (most of which have Basic and below plans). I can't believe more people aren't talking about this

[jhel007]

Did you get anywhere with this? My understanding from the docs here;

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/apps/app-types/custom-apps

Suggests that Custom Apps can access PII on the "Shopify" level plan (not Advanced, and no additional Add-on required)

This was pain to discover after the merchant account was activated by the customer, and broke all my integrations, I'm trying to find a way forward.

[AppDeveloper3]

Same problem for us, integrations stopped working and customers are angry. Any way forward discovered? 

[SproutStudio]

I can't believe this just stopped out of the blue. Yet another reason to seriously consider finding another solution to go away from Shopify. This is only going to get worse and they are too big to care.

[healthstore2024]

Did anyone figure out a fix to this? Or did everyone end up needing to upgrade to advanced? Having the same issue preventing our 3pl shipping out orders and trying to come up with a fix asap. Would really appreciate any advice from others who've gone through it!!

[AlexandreG]

The only way to fix this, is a plan updagre...

[Christian121223]

But this only applies to custom apps, meaning private apps created by the store owner, right?

So, a potential workaround would be to release an app in the Shopify App Store. Such an app would then also be able to access personal data via the API for basic plan users. Or am I misunderstanding this?

Even so, this is a really poor decision by Shopify. Not all apps are suited for the App Store. Many private apps are specifically tailored to a single store and, due to their individuality, cannot be listed in the App Store.

I run a SaaS platform myself, and until now, order data could be transferred using a private app. Now it seems we'll have to publish an app in the App Store. I don't see any other option.

[tim3233]

If you are Shopify Partner you can create a Custom App in your Partner Dashboard. Then you have to install this app in the customers shop. The restrictions are only on Custom Apps created in the Admin area of the store:

https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/launch/protected-customer-data#requirements

If you scroll down you can see a table showing that Custom Apps can retrieve PII Data:

[ShopDevTeam]

Thanks a lot for clever solution. We could keep our custom apps more less without change. The major change was to implement oauth to get access token for custom app. Its now possible to access PII also with basic plans!  Thaaaaankkkksss

[MonicaG10]

Question... we have a customer with a store on basic plan and we get the address information.  This has been live since Oct. 2023

We just went live with their new store, which is also basic plan.  We are not getting address information.

So is this new requirement only for  custom apps created after a specific date?

[tim3233]

I believe so. Stores launched before the PII switch (beginning of 2024?) should still be able to use the data with admin-created custom apps. If you need this functionality in your new store, you can use the Partner Dashboard to create a custom app there.