"The Balance theme’s compiled_assets/styles.css is render-blocking and causing 15s LCP on my store. PageSpeed Insights flags it as a 1,440ms delay. This is a theme-generated file — can Shopify advise on how to defer it safely?"This is a legitimate theme performance issue and Shopify Support should be able to help
This does not sound too logical – if the file is “a 1440ms delay” how it can cause a 15 seconds LCP – surely something else is at play?
You would not be able to do much about this file without signinficant theme re-write.
This looks like a legitimate theme performance issue. Since the file is generated by the theme, I’d recommend contacting Shopify Support and the theme developer to confirm whether it can be safely deferred or optimized without affecting layout and functionality.
I did contact Shopify support but they said they cant help with coding. I need to pay extra and hire external partner to code 
You may try pushing in this direction – https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/theme-support#free-themes-from-shopify
Shopify Support assesses customization eligibility on a case-by-case basis. If you’re looking for a customization that isn’t listed in the supported customizations for your theme, then Shopify Support might still be able to assist.
May still cover your case, but … may be they still refuse.
Anyways, based on the following, I’d say that even if you fix all blocking request issues, this would only amount to 800ms of savings which would not fix your “15 seconds LCP” by itself.
Also, keep in mind that you can’t really make stylesheets non-render-blocking – this most likely will damage other metrics.
And you may want to try it first on other culprits, like base.css – at least this file is controllable via theme code while styles.css is not (not as easy at least).
If you’re really worried about LCP, I’d rather look to speed up loading of the LCP image – use preload, etc…
Thanks, I’ll check it out though I am still not sure who can help me as I’m not tech savvy enough to do it myself.
Hi @OneOfe ,
compiled_assets/styles.css is a core theme stylesheet and is expected to be render-blocking. Shopify Support typically can’t safely defer or modify this file because it may cause layout and styling issues. A 15s LCP is usually caused by multiple factors (large images, apps, JavaScript, third-party scripts, etc.), not just the stylesheet itself. Sharing your store URL and PageSpeed report would help identify the actual bottleneck.
HI @OneOfe ,
How are you doing today?
This is mainly a theme developer issue, not something Shopify Support can fix directly.
Since compiled_assets/styles.css is generated by the balance theme build process,
not shopify core.
Contact the Baance theme developer; they control how
that CSS is compiled and advise on safe deferring.
How to contact Balance theme developer directly?
Your theme is not a Balance – someone has renamed it in your store.
Balance is a quite different paid theme.
You’re using Horizon, and this is a theme developed by Shopify.
You can see the original theme name from this drop-down:
the person above has no idea what they are talking about, the file you want to touch is generated by the shopify theme engine – JavaScript and stylesheet tags
I am pretty sure that making this file “non-blocking” would not improve your pagespeed metrics and that there are lower hanging fruits at your store with better ROI.
Like fixing your facebook link or providing better contact methods than gmail address to improve trust factors?
Thanks everyone for your input. However now I have more confusion than clarity. Everyone is speaking a different language. Does anyone know or can suggest what is the way to resolve the page speed issue? Or share any contact number that I can reach out to for 1:1 assistance. I am a shopify customer and hope i do not have to reach out to external partners for this one. Is changing the theme a solution or can this be worked upon? My current page performance score on mobile is 64 with lcp 9.9. Please suggest with some concrete action points if possible. thanks
Here’s an interesting find. I switched to Horizon theme to test if it improves the performance score. But the homepage mobile performance score hovered at 62 with lcp 10.1 which is similar to Balance. Does that mean its not a theme performance issue?
I have been running pillar to post for the last 7 days without any resolution and spending hours in it.
Really frustrated now. Need some urgent help or contact in getting to the root cause and resolve the issue asap as I am not that tech savvy. Its impacting my conversions. Real help please Shopify. Thanks in advance.
Honestly, Pagespeed Insights score is not the goal. It’s a diagnostic tool. It will not tell you step by step fixes. It only points to potential issues.
Here is a great video on the subject for non-technical folks. This is specifically in the Shopify admin side, but it should show you the basics. https://youtu.be/lv1CFYklxqk?si=DdH_c-rs3VUtOrMM
Also, check this out -
Right now, with your Horizon theme, there isn’t much going on, except for Facebook.
Imo, you would do well to stop chasing this score, unless there is significant layout shift or things are taking too long to load. Remember, the Pagespeed Insights uses a bot to test at a slow 4G connection with a big throttle. That means it doesn’t necessarily represent real-world conditions. Google has moved into putting more weight on CruX, Chrome User Experience Report, when ranking, and less weight on this bot generated score. Pagespeed should be just another diagnostic tool. There’s nothing major wrong. I would stop chasing.
I am not chasing Pagespeed score alone. Well, all this started when I started meta ads. The link in ads will not open and was awfully slow.Then I looked up data and it showed landing page views and links clicks metric are at 315 : 1516. This was the starting point when i got in touch with shopify support tean and they suggested to take certain steps which did not improve anything.
When I run my store on mobile, the connection works fine but significantly different in meta ads. And yes I have checked meta pixel firing etc and all smooth in there..