Ongoing 500 Internal Server Errors occur when paginating products via the Shopify REST API, especially with limit=250 and page_info pagination. Failures started around Sept 10 and affect different stores and pages unpredictably, disrupting app features and real-time reporting.
Evidence includes a support ticket (50836811), a request ID and timestamp, and a screenshot of failures. Initial community feedback suggested a Shopify-side system issue and to await support.
Latest update: Shopify Developer Support attributed the errors to database timeouts likely triggered by the 250-item page size. Recommended action: reduce page size to 50.
Outcome: Changing to limit=50 stopped the errors for multiple affected stores. However, this is considered a workaround rather than a permanent fix.
Context: REST (legacy) is being replaced by GraphQL (recommended), and migration is planned before the Feb 1 deadline, but the REST instability complicates this.
Status: Partially mitigated with a smaller page size; root cause appears Shopify-side performance under larger pages. Open/ongoing pending a permanent fix or further Shopify guidance.
Summarized with AI on December 18.
AI used: gpt-5.
Shopify team
Since Sept 10th, we’ve had multiple stores fail with “500 Internal server” error. Even re-running them 12 hours later does not fix the issue.
I’ve attached one of the request id and timestamp for debugging by Shopify staff.
Already raised ticket id 50836811 but no response yet
date: Wed, 18 Sep 2024 08:04:02 GMT API version: 2024-01
GET /admin/api/2024-01/products.json?limit=250&page_info=eyJzdGF0dXMiOiJhY3RpdmUiLCJkaXJlY3Rpb24iOiJuZXh0IiwibGFzdF9pZCI6NDQ2ODExOTMwNjM1MywibGFzdF92YWx1ZSI6IkNob29zZSBIYXBweSAtIE1ldGFsIEVuYW1lbCBXYWxsIFNpZ24gLSAxNC0xXC8yLWluIn0& HTTP/2
According to the error code description in the docs, this is clearly an issue on shopify’s end
500 Internal Server Error An internal error occurred in Shopify. Simplify or retry your request. If the issue persists, then please record any error codes, timestamps and contact Partner Support so that Shopify staff can investigate.
All we are trying to do is paginate and get the products for the store.
Each time it is a different store that fails and each time the error happens on a different “page” number of the products pagination.
This has become a production support nightmare for us where we have to explain to customers why the app is not working only for certain stores.
Yes I know the correct answer is to migrate to GraphQL before Feb 1 deadline.
We are working on that.
But it is hard to juggle the migration while also firefighting REST API failures when the current REST api is unstable well before the deprecation date.
yea. but the percentage of impacted stores has been growing each day. that’s what is alarming.
impacting real-time web reports and other app functionality.
I’m surprised no one else is facing this problem
Update:
Shopify Developer Support got back to me pretty quickly with a solution that worked!
our Developer Support team advised that it appears to be due to a database timeout, which could be related to the fact that they're 250 products. Could you try reducing the page size to 50 and see if it solves the issue?
I reduced the page limit to request only 50 products at a time and that worked without any errors.
@arsuceno
Shopify Developer Support got back to me pretty quickly with a solution that worked!
our Developer Support team advised that it appears to be due to a database timeout, which could be related to the fact that they're 250 products. Could you try reducing the page size to 50 and see if it solves the issue?
I reduced the page limit to request only 50 products at a time and that worked without any errors.
