Issue: Merchants want to bulk paste distinct barcode values for multiple product variants directly in Shopify’s Bulk Editor, without using CSV. Current behavior pastes the entire list into every selected variant instead of one value per variant.
Context: Attempts to paste from Apple Numbers and various bulk-edit apps didn’t work. Screenshot provided illustrates the paste-from-Numbers attempt.
Proposed workarounds:
API automation: Map barcodes to variants via existing unique identifiers (e.g., SKU, variant ID, product handle/ID).
CSV/app-based import: Use an app like Excelify to import only the Variant Barcode field while identifying each variant by Handle + SKU or IDs. Critics note CSV “de-scrambling”/reformatting effort and prefer to avoid CSV entirely.
Custom app if CSV/app imports are not acceptable.
Platform stance: A Shopify staff member acknowledged the feature request and forwarded feedback to product development; advised monitoring the Shopify Changelog for updates.
Status: No native solution to paste one-to-one values directly into the Bulk Editor. Discussion remains open; users request a built-in paste capability without relying on CSV or third‑party apps.
Summarized with AI on December 22.
AI used: gpt-5.
running into an issue with no solution so far. Just to be clear, we DO NOT want to use the CSV route as it brings in some issue for our unique product listings.
Basically trying to paste barcode number for products, so each product i want to copy from excel and paste the barcodes al once for each product. right now the bulk editor in shopify only lets you either paste each one individually under each varient and thats it. if i try to paste for example 10 barcodes at once and choosing 10 varients , it will paste all 10 barcodes to every single varient and not one each as its suppose to.
tried many bulk apps including the excel one and it will doesnt work to just paste the in bulk.
using a macbook if that makes a difference.
here is a snapshot of how it looks when you trying to paste from “numbers” to the shopify online bulk editor.
Can’t help with the UI limitation in Shopify but if you can map the barcodes via a unique key that is already in Shopify you could automate the process via API. Not sure if that would still work seeing how you mentioned you have issues with csv importing.
[quote=“shebley_group”]
running into an issue with no solution so far. Just to be clear, we DO NOT want to use the CSV route as it brings in some issue for our unique product listings.
…
tried many bulk apps including the excel one and it will doesnt work to just paste the in bulk.
[/quote]
CSV is a lingua franca of the business world and not being able to generate the values you need to integrate with process is a critical weakness.
The bulk editor is great for most things but it is not a spreadsheet program with all the modern conveniences excel facilitates.
It has multirow multicolumn selection for editing repeat values, such as changing all variants to the same price.
But it doesn’t have multi value multi column pasting.
If your unwilling to address blocking issues with the data exporting, and apps like ?excelify? don’t address the problem, that just creates a situation where you will need custom app development if there’s some quirk in some admin UI somewhere impeding a workflow.
You can construct a file that would only update your Product Variant Barcodes.
In your file, you would need to identify the Product and Variant in the product.
You can identify Product by ID or Handle
You can identify Variant by Variant ID or Variant SKU
So create a file with any combination that identifies the Product and Variant you need to update, for example, you can import a file with 3 columns:
Handle
Variant SKU
Variant Barcode
The app would find Product by Handle, find Variant by SKU, and update that variant’s Barcode.
If you need more details on how the app works and how you could achieve this task in bulk, please reach out to us directly.
Thank you.
I know this is an old post but I was wondering if you found a solution to this. I’ve been wasting time for more than a week going through several Shopify agents that contradict each other and get me nowhere. “Bulk Edit” won’t work. Import/Export file won’t work because de-scrambling the file is necessary to get all the TRUE values together in order to be able to bulk paste into the appropriate cells. If any one finds a solution to this, please do share. Thank you.
I can definitely understand how valuable this feature is and can help save time when adding barcode information to products. I’ll be sure to pass along your feedback to our product development team to look into. If you’d like, you can keep an eye on our Shopify Changelog for updates.
