Customer webhook updated_at incorrect

Retired Boards Appdev Graphql Basics And Troubleshooting

Topic summary

Issue: customers/update webhooks did not change the customer’s updated_at when only tags were modified, despite emitting an update event. This affected apps relying on updated_at for ordering because webhook delivery order isn’t guaranteed.

Early reports confirmed the behavior across REST (event version 2023-01) and API v12.0.1. Shopify reproduced the issue and began investigating.

Interim improvement: Shopify introduced a new webhook header X-Shopify-Triggered-At that timestamps all customer changes, including tag edits, in UTC with higher precision. This header applies to all webhook topics to help with event ordering.

Final fix: Shopify deployed a change so updated_at now correctly updates when customer tags are added or removed. Shopify verified the fix on a test store.

Outcome: The original reporter confirmed updated_at updates correctly on tag-only changes. The thread is resolved; developers can rely on updated_at and/or X-Shopify-Triggered-At for precise ordering.

Summarized with AI on January 29. AI used: gpt-5.
1

On customers/update webhooks, the updated_at field does not update when only the tags on the customer have been updated. To replicate:

  1. Subscribe to customers/create and customers/update webhooks via REST
  2. Create a new customer
  3. Note the updated_at timestamp on the webhook payload
  4. Update the customer’s tags in the shop admin
  5. Note the updated_at timestamp on the webhook payload has not changed from the customers/create payload

Subsequently updating other fields on the customer does result in the updated_at timestamp being updated on webhook payloads. My app was using 2023-01 event version.

5 Likes
2

Having same issue with the “updated_at”, Updating tags are resulting into customers/update webhook but does not change the “updated_at”. Shopify does not guaranty the order of webhooks so I have to rely on “update_at” to store latest the tags in my system using webhooks.

Is this bug introduced recently or it was like this since beginning.

1 Like
3

Hi @jason-gadget ,

Thanks for your post. We’ve been able to replicate this behaviour in a test store and internal teams are investigating.

Hope you have a great day

4

Hi @ShopifyDevSup , we had the same issue that “the updated_at field does not update when only the tags on the customer have been updated”.
As you said in 03-15-2023 “internal teams are investigating”, is there any update?

Hope to get some feedback, thank you so much.

Hope you have a great day.

5

We are also seeing this behavior in the shopify Api v12.0.1 for the customers endpoint

6

Thanks for your patience! We’ve added an additional header x-shopify-triggered-at to the customers/update webhook that timestamps all changes to the customer object, including customer tags. It will be formatted in UTC to offer higher precision as well.

7

It seems roundabout to only check for this header on customer/update webhooks. Is there any plan to fix the updated_at timestamps?

2 Likes
8

Hi @jason-gadget ,

Thanks for your reply. The fix for the updated_at timestamps on Customers when tags are added or removed is now in place and we’ve confirmed it’s working on a test store.

The new ‘X-Shopify-Triggered-At’ header field was an improvement intended to address what @pratikvii mentioned about needing to rely on the updated_at timestamp to sort out the order of webhooks and applies to all the webhook topics with increased time precision.

Hope you have a great day

9

Just tested and confirm that the updated_at timestamps are correctly updated when only changing tags.

1 Like