Deep link to adds wrong extension

Shopify Apps

Topic summary

A developer is experiencing inconsistent behavior with Shopify deep links that add app blocks to theme sections.

The Problem:

  • Deep link URL uses addAppBlockId parameter to add an app block to product page sections
  • Link correctly navigates to the product page but frequently adds the wrong extension
  • Success rate is approximately 1 in 20 attempts
  • When failing, it defaults to adding the first app in the list instead of the intended one

Technical Details:

  • The extensionId variable comes directly from the .env file generated by Shopify CLI
  • Target is set to newAppSection

Key Finding:

  • Issue only occurs on the developer’s dedicated test store
  • Deep linking works correctly on other development stores
  • This suggests a store-specific configuration issue rather than a code problem

Status: Unresolved. The developer is seeking help identifying which store configuration setting might be causing this inconsistent behavior.

Summarized with AI on October 26. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I have my deep link setup like this:

https://${shop}/admin/themes/current/editor?template=${template}&addAppBlockId=${extensionId}%2F${widget.widgetId}&target=${target}

The target to this url is newAppSection in product page.

It successfully directs me to the product page buts adds wrong app to the section.

But the weird part is that it sometime gets it right. (about 1 out of 20 times)

When it fails to put correct app to the section, it just adds the first app that’s on the list which I guess that is its fallback behavior.

My guess is that the link is unable to find correct app using the addAppBlockId.

The extensionId variable is a value straight out from the .env file that shopify cli generated.

Please help!

Thank you

Additional info I found out after posting:

I have several development stores but this only happens to my own dedicated test store.

Deep linking from other stores works fine.

Please help to clarify which part of the store config is triggering this issue.