All English translations disappeared after drag-and-drop locale JSON replacement; en appears as default but exported CSV has no en column

Technical Q&A
1

Hello,

I am experiencing a serious locale / translation issue on my live Shopify store, and I would like to know whether anyone has experienced a similar case or knows a safe recovery path.

My store is based in Japan, and the original content is written in Japanese. It is a live production store that supports 11 languages in total, including Japanese and English.

Around July 8, 2026, at approximately 4:05 AM JST, I replaced theme locale JSON files, including en.default.json, by dragging and dropping them in the theme editor.

Shopify Support later confirmed that this operation matched delete and recreate events around 4:09 AM JST.

After this operation, all English translations appear to have disappeared from Shopify.

What makes the situation more confusing is the current language structure:

  • en appears to be treated as the default language.
  • However, when I export the translation CSV, there is no en column.
  • The “Default language” column contains Japanese content.
  • There is no en column, but there is a ja column.

In other words, the original content is actually Japanese, and the store is operated from Japan, but Shopify appears to be treating en as the default language and ja as a translated language.

Current impact:

  • All English translations appear to have disappeared.
  • en appears to be treated as the default language.
  • The exported translation CSV has no en column.
  • The “Default language” column contains Japanese content.
  • There is a ja column, even though en is missing.
  • Multilingual display is not working correctly.
  • This affects a Japan-based live store that supports 11 languages.
  • Overseas customers have complained that they cannot view or read the site in English.
  • Shopify order notification emails started being generated with different language behavior than before.
  • I have stopped all language settings changes, CSV imports, product edits, theme edits, API operations, and automated processes while waiting for Shopify’s technical team.
  • This is affecting a live production store, customer experience, product releases, and sales opportunities.

I already have an active support ticket and was told that this requires TMS / technical team support and backend tools that normal support cannot access.

However, after several days, I still do not have a clear recovery estimate, technical status, or confirmation of whether I should continue avoiding all operations.

My questions are:

  1. Has anyone experienced a case where replacing theme locale JSON files via drag and drop caused English translations to disappear?

  2. What does it mean when en appears to be treated as the default language, but the exported translation CSV has no en column, the “Default language” column contains Japanese content, and a ja column exists?

  3. Can replacing locale JSON files trigger deletion / recreation of translation resources in a way that affects the store’s primary / default locale or multilingual display?

  4. Is there any safe action a merchant can take in this situation, or should all language settings changes, theme edits, CSV imports, API operations, and automated processes be avoided until Shopify backend support resolves it?

  5. When a live production store is affected and TMS / backend tools are required, what is the best way to escalate the issue?

I am not looking for a workaround that might make the situation worse. I need to understand whether this is a known Shopify behavior, an unintended backend issue, or some kind of primary/default locale inconsistency.

At this point, the most important thing is not just identifying the cause, but restoring the live store to an operational state.

Finally, I would also like to mention that I have been quite surprised by the support response.

In Japan, even first-level support would normally provide a clear indication of “by when” something will be checked, especially when a live production store is affected. If that timeframe cannot be met, there would usually be some follow-up or explanation at that point.

However, in this case, I have continued to receive mostly template-like replies such as “we are checking” or “we have shared this with the relevant team,” without a clear recovery estimate or a specific time for the next update.

I was also told that “soon” should be understood roughly as “近日中” in Japanese, meaning something like “within the next few days” or “in the near future.”

To be honest, I was quite surprised that “soon” could be used in that sense while a live store is affected, overseas customers cannot view or read the site in English, and the merchant has been told to stop all language settings changes, CSV imports, product edits, theme edits, API operations, and automated processes.

This is not merely a wording issue. It makes me wonder how much the support side understands the time sensitivity of merchants who are operating live stores with real customers waiting.

If anyone has experienced a similar issue or has any insight into how this kind of locale / translation inconsistency can be safely resolved, I would greatly appreciate your advice.

Thank you.

2

Additional note:

After posting this, I looked through related discussions in the Shopify Community and noticed that similar issues around default language changes, translation loss, and CSV import/export problems appear to have been reported over multiple years.

For example, I found a discussion where a merchant tried to change the default language from English to French and encountered problems with existing translations being deleted or skipped during CSV import.

I understand that my case may not be exactly the same. However, what concerns me is that my store’s default language was not intentionally changed. The issue appeared after replacing theme locale JSON files via drag and drop, and now en appears to be treated as the default language even though the original content is Japanese and the exported CSV has no en column.

From a merchant’s perspective, it is very worrying to see similar language and translation-related issues appearing in community posts over several years, while there still does not seem to be a clear, safe, merchant-facing recovery path.

This makes the issue feel less like an isolated mistake and more like a long-standing risk area in Shopify’s language and translation system.

3

Hi @rcnir the confusing part is that two separate systems are in play here.

Your theme’s en.default.json (the .default suffix marks the theme’s source locale) is not the same thing as your store’s primary language under Settings > Languages. Dragging and dropping those files can delete and recreate the theme locale resources, but it should not flip your store’s primary language on its own. Worth opening Settings > Languages and confirming the primary is still Japanese, not English.

The missing en column is expected, not a bug. The translation export never includes the default or source language as a translatable column, only the languages you translate into. So if the system now treats en as the source, en drops out of the export while ja shows up as a target, even though your real content is Japanese. That mismatch is the core symptom you are seeing.

For the theme files themselves, the safe and reversible step is the theme version history. Go to Online Store > Themes, open the theme’s menu, then Older versions, and roll back to just before the July 8 drag-and-drop. That restores the original en.default.json without touching anything at the store level.

You are right to hold off on CSV imports and API writes in the meantime. The store-level resource delete and recreate is the part only Shopify’s backend team can fully unwind, so keep that ticket active. The theme rollback is something you can safely do now.

4

Thank you very much. Your explanation was extremely helpful.

It clarified the distinction between the theme source locale in locales/en.default.json and the store’s primary language under Settings > Languages.

I checked the current state, and the mismatch is still visible: the language list shows English as “Default”, while the domain setting for rcnir.com shows Japanese as the default. The Japanese row also shows “No translation”, even though Japanese is the original/source language of the store.

Shopify Support has now confirmed that the store’s default language was changed from Japanese to English early on July 8. They also confirmed that there is no record of me changing it manually from the admin, and that it was not caused by GAS/API/app integration. They said the deleted English translations are recoverable.

Following your advice, I temporarily rolled back locales/en.default.json via the theme history as a safe isolation step. Since Shopify has now confirmed that the store-level issue needs to be restored on their backend side, I have restored the latest saved version of locales/en.default.json and am avoiding any further changes.

I am still holding off on CSV imports, API/GAS writes, and language setting changes until Shopify completes the restoration.

Thank you again. Your explanation helped me understand that the core issue is the store-level language/resource mismatch, not simply the theme locale file.

5

Thank you again for your advice.

I would like to close this thread with a note for anyone running a multilingual Shopify store.

In Shopify, a theme locale file such as locales/en.default.json and the store’s default language under Settings > Languages are separate systems. Restoring a theme locale file does not necessarily fix inconsistencies in the store-level primary language or translation resources.

In my case, the initial trigger appears to have been a drag-and-drop replacement of locales/en.default.json on July 8.

However, what happened after that was not limited to the theme locale file itself. Shopify Support confirmed that the store’s default language had changed from Japanese to English. They also confirmed that there was no record of me changing it manually from the admin, and that it was not caused by GAS/API/app integration.

The current state is inconsistent. The language list shows English as the default, while the domain setting for rcnir.com still shows Japanese as the default. Japanese is also shown as having “No translation”, even though Japanese is the original language of the store. As a result, translation exports treat English as the source language, so the en column disappears and ja appears as a target language.

For merchants running multilingual Shopify stores globally, especially those whose default/source language is not English, I would be particularly careful.

If a similar issue occurs, I would strongly recommend not immediately re-importing CSV files, not writing translations back through API/GAS, and not changing language settings manually. First, take screenshots of the current state and ask Shopify Support to check for an inconsistency between the store’s primary language and translation resources.

What may look like a theme locale issue can actually be a store-level language resource issue that only Shopify’s backend team can fully restore.

I also have concerns about the support escalation process.

Once Shopify Support had confirmed that the store default language had changed, that there was no record of a manual admin change, and that it was not caused by GAS/API/app integration, I expected the case to move quickly from investigation to restoration.

However, even after the cause was identified and restoration was said to be possible, it has been difficult to get a clear answer on whether the restoration work has actually started, which team is handling it, what stage it is in, or when it is expected to be completed.

For a live production store, especially one where the issue affects sales, SEO, translation exports, and order notifications, the lack of clear progress updates is extremely stressful.

I understand that backend restoration may require a specialized team, but in cases like this, clearer communication about escalation status, ownership, and expected timeline would make a big difference.

Thank you again.

6

Hey @rcnir ,

Based on what you’ve described, this doesn’t sound like a typical translation issue. Since Shopify has already confirmed the delete/recreate events and escalated it to their technical team, I’d avoid making any further language, theme, or translation changes until they complete their investigation.

Just out of curiosity, are only the English translations affected, or are any of the other languages showing similar issues as well?

Thank You !

7

Thank you.

Yes, I agree. I am not making any further language, theme, CSV, API, or GAS changes until Shopify completes the restoration.

As far as I can tell, the English translations are the ones directly affected by the delete/recreate event. However, the issue is not limited to English in terms of store behavior.

Because Shopify is currently treating English as the source/default language, the translation export no longer includes en, and ja appears as a target language even though Japanese is the original language of the store.

The other published languages appear to still exist, but the language-resource structure is now inconsistent because the store-level source language is wrong. So the visible damage is mainly English, but the underlying language setup affects the whole multilingual workflow.

I am waiting for Shopify’s technical team to restore the store’s primary language and translation resources before touching anything else.

8

Thanks for the clarification. That definitely makes the issue sound more like a store level language configuration inconsistency than just missing English translations.

Hopefully the technical team can restore the primary language mapping and translation resources without any data loss. Wishing you a smooth resolution!

9

Based on what you’ve described, this doesn’t sound like a normal translation import/export issue.

The most concerning part is that:

  • the Default language column contains Japanese,
  • there is no en export column,
  • yet Shopify appears to be treating en as the primary locale.

That suggests the store’s locale metadata and translation resources may have become inconsistent rather than the English translations simply being deleted.

Replacing theme locale JSON files normally affects theme text (for example, button labels and theme UI strings). It shouldn’t ordinarily change the store’s default language or all translation resources across products, collections, notifications, and other translatable content.

Since Shopify Support has already confirmed delete/recreate events and escalated the case to their technical team, I would avoid:

  • importing translation CSVs,
  • changing Markets language settings,
  • switching default languages,
  • running translation apps,
  • bulk API translation updates,
    until engineering confirms the underlying state.

If engineering has access to backend translation records, they should be able to verify whether the locale mapping, default locale metadata, or translation resources became inconsistent after those events.

If possible, ask Support for:

  • confirmation of the current canonical default locale,
  • whether translation resources still exist in the backend,
  • whether locale identifiers changed during the delete/recreate operation,
  • and whether a backend restoration from before the incident is possible.

This sounds like the kind of issue that requires backend investigation rather than something that can safely be repaired from the Admin.