Create Fulfillment API: Tracking Number not getting linked to the provided URL for Other Company

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Main issue: Intermittent failure to associate a tracking URL with the tracking number when creating fulfillments in Shopify, specifically when the carrier company is set to “Other.”

Observed behavior:

  • The same API request works for some orders but not others.
  • Tracking numbers are always updated, and Shopify returns a success response.
  • The tracking URL is not consistently linked to the tracking number.
  • The request body structure is asserted to be correct.

Key questions raised:

  • What conditions cause Shopify to skip linking the tracking URL?
  • Are there known scenarios where providing a tracking URL with company “Other” does not result in linkage?

Context clarification:

  • Create Fulfillment API: Shopify endpoint to create shipment fulfillments, including tracking number, tracking URL, and carrier (using “Other” for non-listed carriers).

Status and outcomes:

  • No resolution or confirmed cause provided.
  • Thread is seeking guidance; open with unanswered questions.
Summarized with AI on December 15. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi,

We are facing a strange issue where the tracking number sometimes doesn’t get linked to the provided tracking URL for Other company in the Create Fulfillment API call.

The same request for some other order works just fine. The tracking number does get updated everytime and we always get back a success response from Shopify, however the URL doesn’t get linked to the tracking number every-time.

What could be causing this? Are there any cases where Shopify will not link the tracking number even when the URL is provided and company is Other?

Note that our API request body structure is correct as is evident from the success response we get.

Regards,

Nilesh