Local theme previews served via Shopify CLI stop reflecting changes (sections, Customizer edits, even direct Liquid edits), while the Online Store version updates correctly. Symptoms suggest caching or the preview showing the live theme instead of the local one.
What was tried:
Restarts, port changes, and confirming file syncs (edits trigger sync but don’t appear in preview).
Reproduced across different stores and themes; same behavior.
Noted: first load after theme dev may be correct, then reverts to showing the live theme. A screenshot was shared.
Temporary workarounds reported:
Update Shopify CLI to the latest version.
Git branch switch: checkout to another branch, then back to the working branch. This sometimes restores editability but must be repeated per store and can regress.
Suspected cause / open questions:
Possible JSON settings error implicated by similar reports, but no definitive error identified yet (others asked for details).
Multi-store/account usage via CLI might be related; unclear.
Status: Unresolved/ongoing. Workarounds exist but are inconsistent; users ask if this has been reported to Shopify.
Summarized with AI on December 28.
AI used: gpt-5.
I have used the CLI for some time and don’t think I’m doing anything incorrectly:
I’m previewing my theme to look at a new section I’ve developed
In the preview customizer (accessed via the CLI) I’ve added the new section and content, all visible in the customizer
The preview of the theme is not showing this section. I tried changing something simple in a different section - a title - this change doesn’t show either
I check the template (index.json) and the new section and the change I made are visible there
The section was visible when I was working on it last week, but now not when viewed locally. When viewing the version which I’ve pushed to the Online Store, the section appears
I’ve tried restarting, rebooting, changing the port, making changes to liquid to ensure the CLI is syncing these changes (it is)
It’s as if the templates are showing a cached version - can anyone help?
I’ve just done another test, using a different store, different theme - and changes I make in the Customizer for this one also do not change.
Update: Even changes made when modifying a liquid file don’t show up in the locally served theme, so my issue is not exclusive to Customizer changes.
For instance, if I add a h1 element directly into the theme.liquid before the existing content, nothing gets added despite the sync update in the CLI. When I delete the entire theme.liquid content, it throws the error and un-deleting syncs properly - but none of this, or editing in Customizer, affects the theme preview in any way.
I’ve had a few hiccups but seem to have a solution:
Update Shopify CLI to latest
Git checkout to another branch (should now be editable)
Git checkout to the required branch
I’m not sure what was causing this but I needed to follow all steps for each distinct store. And when I swapped back to the first store I did this with, I had to do the git checkouts again to make it editable again..
From reading other people’s posts of a similar issue, I believe it might have something to do with an error in json settings. While the solution above can be helpful, the issue returns - but this seems resolved in other branches.
I had this issue, sometimes whatever was modified on remote was not saved on local, so lost when the service go restarted… adding the sync flag solved for me
