Cannot delete customers due to "Active subscription" that doesn't exists.

Topic summary

Core issue: Customers created for testing cannot be deleted in Shopify Admin because the system flags an “Active subscription,” even though all related subscription contracts were set to CANCELLED.

Context and steps taken:

  • A subscription app was tested; after tests, all subscription contracts for those customers were cancelled in the app’s database.
  • Shopify Admin still blocks deletion with the message: “Unable to delete [customer] … Active subscription.”
  • The customers were only used with this app (no other subscription apps involved).
  • Shopify Support indicated the problem lies with the app, offering no platform-side fix.

Evidence: A screenshot (central to understanding) shows the Admin deletion error stating the active subscription block.

Status and recency:

  • No confirmed root cause or workaround is provided in the thread.
  • As of Nov 2023, another participant reports the issue persists, suggesting it remains unresolved.

Open questions:

  • Whether any hidden or lingering subscription state in Shopify (beyond the app’s database) must be cleared.
  • No guidance on required cleanup steps or API actions is documented here.
Summarized with AI on January 14. AI used: gpt-5.

So we’re making a subscription app, and one of our clients tested our app on their store, after they’re done with the test, they canceled all the subscription contracts, then tried to delete all these test customer data via the admin page but many of them can’t be deleted due to the “Active subscription” error.

Unable to delete [customer name]

This customer can’t be deleted because they have:

  • Active subscription

We have run the queries and checked our database to make sure that every subscription contract associated with the customer has been set to “CANCELLED” and there are no active subscription contracts left. Yet, we still can’t delete the customer.

These customers are also made solely for testing with our app and don’t have a subscription contract with the other app. We’ve tried to contact Shopify support and they said it’s our app’s problem and we have to work on it.

Is there anything we missed that makes us unable to delete the customer due to this “Active Subscription” problem?

3 Likes

Anything to report on this? It is still an issue in Nov 2023.