Is it possible to search my order comments? It doesn’t work for either the main search bar or filter in the order overview.
Topic summary
Users are seeking the ability to search within order comments/timeline notes in Shopify’s admin panel, but this functionality is currently unavailable. The primary use case involves tracking purchase order (PO) numbers and vendor information stored in order comments—when vendors send updates without referencing the original order, merchants struggle to locate the relevant order.
Current Workarounds Suggested:
- Tag orders with staff names and filter by tags
- Use third-party apps like “Stages” (21-day trial) or “Data Export Reports” (15-day trial)
- Add notes to customer profiles instead, then export customer lists to search through notes
Status & Timeline:
- Feature request submitted to Shopify’s development team in 2021
- No specific implementation timeline provided
- As of January 2025, the feature remains unavailable
- Multiple users have expressed continued interest over the 3+ year period
The suggested workarounds are acknowledged as imperfect solutions requiring extra steps or paid apps. Users can monitor the Shopify Changelog for future updates.
Hey, @MikeOSTS !
At the moment, there is no way of searching for specific order comments within the admin. For a full list of what you can see here, you can check out the Timeline info page from our Help Centre. There are some workarounds you can use though! I’ll run through them in a list below so you can decide if any of these would work for you:
- You could add your name/ a staff members name as a tag on the order, then you can filter through the orders to find any comments left by either you or a specific staff member.
- There is an app called Stages that helped with order management, this looks like it will allow you to sort/filter orders by customer and team notes. You can check the app out here! This is a paid app, but it does offer a 21-day trial to see if it will suit your needs first.
- A similar app here called Data Export Reports does something similar; it will allow you to export more custom reports than you would be able to with a regular CSV file Export. This is also a paid app, though it does have a 15-day free trial.
I know these workarounds are not ideal, as they would require an app or extra tagging/filtering.
I do think this is a great idea though! I will submit this to our internal team to be reviewed as a possible future feature of the admin. As our platform is constantly growing and improving, our team love to get feedback from our merchants on what features/edits they need to improve their workflow. So once I submit this as a feature request on your behalf, our team can review the request. So hopefully, this can be something that is available in the future.
While we would not have a specific timeline for how long that might take, you can definitely keep an eye on our Shopify Changelog. We will post any new updates or developments there.
Can I ask why you would like to search through the order notes? Just so I can get a better idea on how I can help!
I appreciate the response and Ideas. I have seen several fullfillment apps that do what I want but I prefer the look of the shopify order overview over others.
Our team uses the comment section for all notes in the order post payment. So if we get order PO numbers that are related to that order we put them in comments. Sometimes we will getting tracking or updates on a PO number from a vendor but have a difficult time finding the order number as not all of our vendors attach our PO numbers to their outgoing messages or tracking updates. It would be nice to be able to search the comment section to find comments with PO numbers and other things as well.
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Thanks for the response, @MikeOSTS !
That does sound like a custom request, but I can understand why you would need it for your business. If it is mainly PO Box numbers, etc, that you would need to leave as notes, would it work for you to leave the note on the customer profile instead? As each PO Box would be specific to each merchant. After that, you could export your customer list to see the notes show! You can search through them this way.
I tested this on my own test store and you can see the note added to the profile here:
And then the customer notes here on the export:
I know this is not an exact solution to your question, but would something like this work as a workaround? Let me know what you think!
I’ll have to try it out. I feel like exporting a customer list to find a
single order might be a bit tedious. We are able to make do as is so it’s
not that big of a deal.
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No problem at all, and I understand it would be an extra effort for you! I have left feedback with our developers so hopefully, there will be more features and functionality around order notes in future. Let me know if you have any more questions, happy to help!
Thank you!
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Seconding this request as a feature.
If I get a call from a customer asking about their order, I’d like to be able to simply search their PO# and find it within the shipping/billing details or as an additional note straight from the order page, without the need to enter a different page or extract and navigate a CSV.
4 Likes
Hi Ava,
Just to follow up, how did this feature go? This was a feature request in 2021 and it hasn’t avaialble yet in 2024 October.
It would be really benefitial if we can search a timeline comment in the order, such as PO number or produt serial number, etc.
Kind Regards,
Thomas
It is now 2025…is there an option to search all timelines yet?