I’m using themekit to upload my changes to my development theme. Every time I save it automatically uploads the changes and reload the page to see the changes. Now It seems to pick an upload and just cache it for 10 minutes at a time. It’s not cached in my browser, because I’ve cleared the cache. Any ideas? I can’t work on this theme if I can only see an update every 10 minutes after constantly reloading it.
Topic summary
Developers are experiencing severe caching issues with Shopify themes, particularly affecting .js.liquid and .css.liquid files. Changes uploaded via ThemeKit or made directly in the theme editor aren’t reflecting in previews for 1.5-10 minutes, despite clearing browser caches.
Confirmed Issue:
- Shopify acknowledged this as a known problem affecting preprocessed files
- Issue has persisted for months with no clear resolution timeline
- One user reported it being “fixed” but others continue experiencing problems
Current Workarounds:
- Rename files then revert to original names to force cache refresh
- Rapidly refresh pages multiple times
- Close and reopen theme preview
- Push code as entirely new themes
- Use incognito/private browsing windows
- Clear browser cookies specifically
Impact:
- Development time nearly doubled for some users
- Particularly severe with bundled JavaScript files
- Affects both development stores and production sites
- Makes rapid prototyping nearly impossible
Developer Frustration:
Many express that Shopify’s developer experience for theme development remains poor, with some suggesting moving to custom storefronts (Hydrogen) or treating theme development like compiled code rather than expecting real-time updates. The issue also affects end customers who may not see updated sites due to prolonged cookie expiration.
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Running into the same issue. It’s tripled my working time.
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Generally I just rapidly refresh the page twice
Caching has always been an issue with no clear guidance on bypassing it.
Sometimes it’s been bad enough it’s saner to just push code as a new theme.
A softer approach is making alternate templates, or toggling a change to trigger multiple themekit uploads.
When working on a section/snippet there’s also using the section rendering api to see if that gives the current changes and adding javascript for updating the page inline either in the theme as a utility , or as a userscript, or a devtools script.
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I’ve been having trouble with this over the last few days too. Also using themekit.
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Facing same issue.
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Same issue as well, it’s nerve-wracking. This seems more like a bug…
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I’m having same issue, I’m actively developing on a dev store, and it takes up to 1.5 minutes for me to see new code. Multiple F5s, and manually clearing browser cache does not solve the problem. I noticed it starting a 2-3 days ago. REALLY ANNOYING 
Any other tips to work around this?
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Shopify support has just replied with this message.
”As discussed, I followed up with our development team regarding this and explained that this issue persists when you are using theme kit to save changes made to your theme. They explained that the reason they are able to see the changes they made on your theme is because they aren’t using theme kit to make changes to the theme. They further explained that changes made to the theme via theme kit is beyond their scope of support and recommended making the changes directly to your theme as a workaround. ”
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But the issue persist even by making changes directly to the theme, not just the theme kit.
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Oof, you’re right. Having the same issue using the code editor in the admin.
Same issue here … it’s almost impossible to make design changes. I really, really hope there will be a fix for this soon. Please make this high priority, because it frustrates developers / designers, but it also cost them a lot of useful time. I also want to mention that developers new to Shopify will definately change their mind and choose a different platform. I’m sure there are developers here who can’t afford such time and effort and thus considering leaving Shopify. Point made 
BTW. Explaining customers why implementing their wishes is also a big issue, which cost a lot of energy and time also. Everyone gets frustrated. It is not my intention to give a negative impression, or to blame the developers, but only to clarify how much impact this issue has. Go developers! Go! Make us happy
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Same for me, even changes made to my collections or products directly within the shopify admin take about 5 minutes to show up. I’d love a response from Shopify here.
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Yea same issue.
Its frustating,
has to refresh refresh and wait.
Bang Bang ufffff.
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Yeas same issue
What’s happened suddenly? theme doesn’t matter, but pages cached for longer time, and we are not seeing changes in realtime after doing theme edit, this is very frustrating for dev.
Shopify should look at this issue, i have this issue since last night, not sure if it’s there from more days back, and still it’s not fixed.
Shopify cache system showing always “x-cache:hit” doesn’t making sense, they need to overcome this issue as soon as possible, it’s hard to troubleshoot something in theme with such issue
Please check with high priority Shopify Dev Team
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Here too, I am having the same problem. What I’m doing is closing the theme preview and opening it again, clearing the cache, but it’s really annoying to have to do this all the time.
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what can we do on live theme 
I don’t know if anyone else is having this issue but when I make changes to a page or a theme file, I see the changes right away in shopify’s online theme editor.
When I make a change to an asset (example: style.css.liquid file), I don’t see the changes at all on my live theme however they do show up right away in the online theme editor but it also says that there are no recent changes even though the change is there.
All that to say that when I refresh my browser, it still doesn’t show the changes.
Theme file:
Css File:
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FWIW I raised this with plus support – the answer I received:
Since we’ve noticed the high volume of same concern, this has been raised already with our developers. They are working on it as of the moment, we are hoping for it to be resolved as soon as possible. Just to set proper expectation, we don’t have the exact time frame yet as to when this will be resolved completely. We will update you once we have an update on this incident.
I will be asking for your understanding and patience.
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Just posting to bring more attention to the issue. Shopify support is outsourced now and even with a plus store, I can’t get ahold of anyone that can even understand me when I spell the name of the store out much less deal with a technical issue which is a major downfall for support in general. I’m sure glad they spent all their time on the summer update instead of making the main product actually work. There is literally no way to build a store our when the caching is holding it the last update for up to 5 minutes. The only work around I have found is injecting styles directly into the header which is super super annoying. Shopify Devs, jump on this, you are killing our ability to launch new stores or improve current ones and your going to lose your precious credit card fees from lost sales.
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