HELP! Header search bar is broken and wont give results. Shopify support is stumped. Ritual Theme

Technical Q&A
, ,
1

I am using the Ritual theme and the header search bar has stopped working, no matter what I search for it says there are no related products. When I use the search bar in a page it works just fine. Shopify support could not find the issue. Anyone have any insight as to what could be causing this or how to fix it?

2

Hi ABdev1,

It sounds like your header search is pulling results from a different search template than the one inside your pages. This usually happens when:

  1. The theme’s header is still using the old /search route
    — but the rest of your store is using Shopify’s updated predictive search API.

  2. The search object in the header was modified or disconnected
    — for example, if the search.liquid or predictive-search.liquid snippet was edited.

  3. Your header search form is using a different filter or “type”
    — sometimes themes get stuck on type=page or type=article, so product results never show.

Here are a few things you can check:

1. Inspect the header search form

In your theme code, open:
Sections → header.liquid
Search for:

<form action="{{ routes.search_url }}" method="get">

Make sure it isn’t forcing a filter like:

input type="hidden" name="type" value="page"

If it is, remove the “type” field so Shopify returns all results normally.

2. Check if the predictive search snippet has errors

Go to:
Snippets → predictive-search.liquid

Look for:

{% if predictive_search.resources.products %}

If you see any broken conditions or a missing product resource block, that will cause empty results.

3. Clear theme customizations

Some themes cache predictive search settings.
Try switching to another theme temporarily → search → switch back.
If the header suddenly starts working, it confirms a theme-side issue.

1 Like
3

Hey thank you for the suggestion I figured out that the search and discovery was set to only have pages show up in search results for some off reason. It works now that I set it to products.

1 Like