Blog post metafield definition - file list order not accurate

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

Issue: A blog post metafield of type Files (list) did not preserve the reordered image sequence when rendered in Liquid. A simple for-loop over article.metafields.example.exhibition_hero_images.value produced an incorrect order. Screenshots and a code snippet were central to illustrating the mismatch.

Initial guidance: Changes might be delayed by Shopify’s system cache; waiting was suggested, but did not resolve the ordering.

Observation: A “Single line text (List)” metafield respected sort order, pointing to a problem specific to file-type lists. Local development via Shopify-CLI was noted but likely unrelated.

Resolution: Shopify replicated the issue, confirmed it was a bug, and deployed a fix. Liquid entries should now reflect the order set in metafield entries on Product/Blog pages.

Key terms:

  • Metafields: Custom fields in Shopify used to store structured data.
  • Liquid: Shopify’s templating language for rendering storefront content.
  • Shopify-CLI: Tool for local theme development.

Outcome & status: Fix applied; user should retest. Discussion appears resolved, pending confirmation.

Summarized with AI on February 13. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hello, I’ve recently created a Blog post metafield definition to allow my content creator to add multiple image files to a blog post. You can upload files and display them just fine. The problem occurs when you want to re-arrange the images in a particular order.

I’ve attached some screen grabs of what my current config is along with my forloop. It’s pretty basic. I don’t think its a caching issue as I’ve cleared my cache and still. Same result.

{%- for image in article.metafields.example.exhibition_hero_images.value -%}
            
              
            

          {%- endfor -%}

Order of images in custom field on post
Order of images in custom field on post965×228 27.2 KB

Result on screen
Result on screen1631×700 141 KB

Custom Field
Custom Field868×688 30.5 KB

2

Hi @Boba ,

It will take time to clear the system cache, not the site.

So you can test it in a few minutes or the next day it will work fine and this is managed by Shopify, you cannot clear cache or speed up the process.

Hope it helps!

3

Hi @LitExtension

Thank you for your response. I thought that very same thing but I’m still getting the images in an incorrect order. I don’t think this should make a difference but I’m developing locally using the Shopify-CLI.

I did on the other hand create a “Single line text (List)” field that does seem to respect the sort order of the list. Maybe it’s something with lists of files?

4

Hello Boba,

Thanks for reporting the issue. We were able to replicate your issue and determined it was a bug in our system.

We just added a fix for it and the entries in liquid now should reflect the order from the metafields entries on the specific Product/Blog page.

1 Like