Cannot Delete Customer with Cancelled Subscription

Topic summary

Issue: Stores cannot delete customers that have or previously had subscription contracts, even after canceling/removing subscriptions and orders. CMS shows an “Active subscription” block, while GraphQL reports “Existing subscription contracts.”

Platform update/position:

  • Deletion is currently blocked by design if any subscription contracts exist(ed).
  • Alternative: use “Erase personal data” (GDPR). Processing may take ~10 days. A screenshot shows where to access it in the customer profile menu.
  • The GUI error wording (“Active”) is a known bug; language will be aligned to “Existing.”

Feedback and impact:

  • Merchants testing in production report being unable to clear test customers, affecting stats and data hygiene.
  • Some report no active subscriptions (e.g., via Recharge) yet deletion remains blocked; “deleted” subscriptions may still appear in order histories.

Webhooks guidance:

  • For failing webhooks, return HTTP 200 quickly to stop retries and handle processing asynchronously (per Shopify webhook best practices).

Latest stance and status:

  • Deleting customers will not be an option; only data erasure is available.
  • Discussion about enabling deletion continues internally, but no ETA or resolution. Open issues remain around cleaning up test data and removing lingering subscription artifacts.
Summarized with AI on December 25. AI used: gpt-5.

So…how are we supposed to delete and clear out our test orders and sub customers with this bug? I have spent hours with your support, pointing the finger at the apps, but this is a shopify issue. When will this be resolved and what is the work around? this affects our stats so its’ pretty uncool tbh. thx

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