New Collections Admin is a Huge Step Back – Can We Switch Back?

Shopify Discussion
1

I recently noticed that Shopify has rolled out the new Collections page in the Admin, and honestly, it’s been a major step backwards for our workflow. We spend a lot of time working with collections for SEO and merchandising, and almost every task now takes longer.

A few examples:

  • Editing the collection description is much more cumbersome. We use detailed, multi-paragraph descriptions for SEO, and having to open a small pop-up editor every single time is frustrating and inefficient.

  • The new layout no longer shows the meta description length, making it much harder to optimize metadata without relying on external tools or counting characters manually. This can’t be real.

  • Overall, the interface requires more clicks and feels less efficient than the previous version.

I’m genuinely surprised this was released, as it seems to slow merchants down rather than improve the experience.

Does anyone know if there’s a way to switch back to the previous Collections view? Or has Shopify confirmed whether this is permanent, or if merchant feedback could lead to changes or a rollback?

I’d also be interested to hear whether others are finding the new experience as frustrating as we are.

2

Yeah, it’s a bummer.

I’m quite certain that there’s no way to switch back. You can lodge a complaint or contact support and perhaps if enough people make enough noise (and I guess what you’re doing here is a good first step), they’ll take it on board.

All the best,

Nathan

3

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible to switch back to the old Collections interface, and that is genuinely frustrating. I think the best thing to do is contact support and ask them to log your feedback. For now longer descriptions have to be written in an external editor and then pasted into Shopify. The more merchants report these issues the sooner Shopify may address them

4

Hey @ecomecom

hope you’re doing well!

I agree. The new Collections page adds extra clicks for common tasks, especially SEO work. I haven’t seen a way to switch back to the previous view, but hopefully Shopify take merchant feedback into account and improve the experience.

5

It’s awful, i’ve been building my Website for a couple of months. I’m not that techie and I’ve got my head round it. I just come on to make a new collection and I’m I don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s awful. I hope they change it back.

6

You’re definitely not the only one. I’ve seen similar feedback from merchants who manage a lot of collections for SEO and merchandising.

The biggest complaints seems to be the extra clicks for editing descriptions, the smaller editing experience, and the loss of helpful indicators like the meta description length. Those small workflow changes add when you’re updating dozens or hundards of collections.

As far as i’m aware, Shopify hasn’t provided a way to switch back to the previous cCollection interface. These Admin redesigns are typically rolled out permanently rather than a optional views.

The best course of action is to submit feedback directly through the Shopify Admin (Settings → General → Share your feedback, if available) or via Shopify Support. Shopify does monitor merchant feedback, and previous Admin updates have been refined based on consistent feedback from merchants.

8

Hi,

You can’t switch back.

As a Shopify Partners, we’ve been noticed only two weeks before the release of this new UI and we warned Shopify that various things would not work well, even at our internal level. Our overall feeling was that they’re trying to push the new feature as soon as possible despite it not being ready regardless of the various issues it has.

Thank you,

Soufiane for Smart Collection Pro

9

Hello there @ecomecom
The revised Collections experience has disrupted the process for a lot of merchants (myself included) who run SEO heavy collections or have complex collection structures. One workaround is to simplify editing by using bulk editors, CSV workflows or apps focused on SEO that make managing metadata easier. To provide more detailed feedback, you can submit particular use cases via Shopify’s feedback channels they might be able to tell or act on things that impact your daily operations. You can also take notes on tasks that take longer than expected to find furtrher potential process improvements.

10

Shopify has no concept of a UI version freeze*

Shopify is a SASS(software as a service ~ read:cloud) and publicly traded company spending even a second hoping to counter this behavior is a passive waste of time.
There is no version freeze or even SLA’s , there is no negotiating power for this.
shopify plus has test-drives but this is NOT a freeze

Real talk use spreadsheets or build it yourself

Hi :waving_hand: @ecomecom Do you only have a business process when & how shopify says you do.

Don’t use the shopify admin for this stuff, just use spreadsheets or an ERP or build custom dashboards etc.
Not the first not the last expect more and more as time goes on, just like how the shoehorned an entire full blown bloated IDE for developers in place of the simple theme editor for merchants, or change the overview area every ~4 months etc etc etc etc etc etc.

If some software UI changes enough that it disrupts your daily business and you have no control over it or when it happens what does that tell you?

The admin is an ENTRY level heavily UI generalized for 5 MILLION+ merchant use cases.
It’s not made for just you. If your ready to double down and insist it’s something
they should just do" or other cliche just start counting up to a million to get a sense of the scale your spending time against ; bonus divide 5 million by the number of replies in this thread.

Make the process you need do not rely on a publicly traded SASS building your dream UI.
Put another way don’t care about what shopify or any platform does to some admin UI only care about which actual features exist for rubber meets road.

:knife: Double edge sword this exact type of dogbowl moved complaint is why ERPs are exasperating for not adding features or improving things that don’t make sense, not changing things makes them STABLE.
:face_with_head_bandage: The DIY stint can be to ask the AI-assistant to generate an internal admin app to your specifications but be ready to burn time on that on general LLM wonkiness and if you don’t have specifications.

Build it yourself for yourself QED

11

WHY? WHY? WHY? This is a TERRIBLE “update”!
The new Collections Admin is not an improvement.
It is a major step backward in usability, efficiency, and productivity.

I have been using Shopify for years ( we have 4 Websites with them), and I simply cannot understand how this new interface was approved and released.

Tasks that were previously quick and straightforward now require unnecessary clicks, unnecessary screens, and unnecessary effort.
The editing collection descriptions IS THE WORSE PART!
Also, working on SEO content, reviewing metadata, and managing collections has become unnecessarily cumbersome.

And removing useful information such as the meta description character count is particularly difficult to understand.
For anyone who actually manages SEO seriously, this was useful information that should have been preserved, not removed.

What frustrates me even more is the apparent Shopify philosophy that every new interface must replace the previous one, regardless of whether the new version is actually better for the merchants who use it every day.

Shopify seems to be confusing “new” with “better.”

We are merchants.
We are not beta testers.

If Shopify wants to introduce a completely redesigned Collections interface, fine.
But give merchants the choice to use the new system or keep the previous interface until the new one has actually reached the same level of efficiency.

Instead, Shopify has effectively said: Here is the new interface. You don’t like it? Too bad.

That is not a good way to treat the businesses that pay Shopify every month to run their operations.

I strongly urge Shopify to listen to the merchants raising these concerns and, at the very minimum, restore the previous Collections interface as an optional option.

And if Shopify insists that the new system is better, then let the merchants decide.

Don’t force a downgrade on us and call it an upgrade.