How can I switch themes without losing customizations?

Store Design

Topic summary

Switching from Brooklyn to Debut preserves store data (products, pages, orders) but not theme-specific code or design customizations; those must be reapplied in the new theme. Themes have different structures, so code edits don’t transfer automatically.

How to switch without downtime:

  • Add Debut via the Shopify Theme Store; it appears in Online Store > Themes > Theme Library.
  • Customize Debut while Brooklyn stays live, then Publish when ready. A help guide and a screenshot were provided for clarity.

Custom code considerations:

  • Recreate needed edits in Debut unless the feature exists natively. Shopify offers a free 60-minute theme design support window for smaller aesthetic changes; complex changes may require a Shopify Expert.

Search bar request (Debut style in Brooklyn):

  • Directly copying code is discouraged due to differing CSS (styling) and JavaScript (interactive behavior) across themes.
  • Suggested alternatives: apps such as Product Search Bar & Filters, Smart Search & Filter, and Smart Search Bar & Search Icon.

Status: Guidance provided; user to decide on apps/support. No final resolution yet.

Summarized with AI on March 5. AI used: gpt-5.
3

Hi @harryarkwright1 ,

Nick here from Shopify. Really good questions!

If you have made code edits to a specific theme for example Brooklyn and then change theme to Debut then you would need to make the same code changes again in the new theme as you can only change the code in one theme at a time. In this scenario, unless Debut has the fuincionality for the feature your looking for, you would need to edit the code again. Your products and pages and other aspects like that would stay, but for specific custom theme edits, you would need to change them again.

Can I ask you what code changes you made to Brooklyn? Our theme support team does have a free 60 minute design time for smaller athestic changes to your themes which you could look into if you have not done so already here. If it is quite a custom change, your best next step would be to talk to a Shopify Expert if you feel you need to or aren’t comfortable making the changes yourself.

So while all your copy, pages, products, orders will transfer over and remain the same, the customisations to the theme, will need to be applied again. I hope this helps, but please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any other questions about this!