I’m hoping someone from Shopify or anyone who has experienced this can help.
Three days ago, I purchased the Zest theme. The payment was successfully processed, and Shopify generated a paid invoice. However, the theme is still showing as Trial instead of Purchased.
Over the past three days, I have spent several hours with multiple Shopify Support advisors. My case has been escalated to the Billing Team, Theme Team, and specialists, but the issue still remains unresolved.
The Zest theme support team has also reviewed my case and confirmed that the issue is not on their side. They informed me that the payment is successful, but the Shopify theme license has not been activated for my store.
During support, I was repeatedly asked to go through the Buy Theme process again. I don’t think this is a reasonable solution because I have already paid for the theme and have a valid invoice. I shouldn’t have to risk another transaction to resolve a licensing issue that originated after a successful payment.
This delay has now affected my client’s project, and after three days, I still cannot use the premium theme that has already been paid for.
Has anyone else experienced a premium theme remaining in Trial after a successful payment? If so:
How was it resolved?
How long did it take?
Is there any way to have the license activated without attempting another purchase?
If your purchase is successfully registered in the system, then you should be able to go to the Theme Store and get a new fully licensed copy of the theme rather than trial.
I do not remember seeing this kind of problem reported in the forum previously.
But I am a bit confused about the whole situation – you’re working for a client, but the theme was paid by you?
Could this license be registered to a wrong store then?
The purchase was made on the correct Shopify store. Shopify successfully processed the payment and generated a paid invoice. There is no wrong store or account involved.
Over the last 3 days, I’ve spoken with more than four Shopify support advisors. Every single one has given me the same answer: “Try buying the theme again. If you’re charged a second time, we’ll refund you.”
My question is simple: Why should I wait for another charge to happen when Shopify already has the complete payment record, and I’ve also provided the paid invoice? If you can clearly see that the payment was successful, why can’t you simply activate the license?
I have already spent hours explaining the same issue to multiple advisors. Instead of resolving the licensing problem, I keep getting the same response to attempt another purchase. That is not a reasonable solution for a customer who has already paid.
If Shopify cannot activate the license using the existing successful payment, then please refund the full amount immediately. I’ll purchase the theme again after the refund is completed. At this point, I just want this issue resolved.
Have you tried removing the theme and re-installing it? If the store bought and owns the license it should recognize the purchase. If not, then you’re still dealing with the same issue. There’s no downside.
Other things you can do is log out, hard refresh, cache/history clearing, etc. Sounds like a store/account/purchase/sync issue, which you already have been in the correct place (Support) for fixing.
That definitely sounds frustrating, especially since you already have a paid invoice. In most cases, once payment is successful, the theme license should activate automatically, so if it’s still showing as Trial after several days, it does sound like a licensing sync issue rather than a payment issue.
Since both Shopify Support and the theme developer have confirmed the payment was successful, I wouldn’t recommend attempting to purchase the theme again unless Shopify explicitly guarantees you won’t be charged a second time.
If you haven’t already, I’d ask Shopify Support to verify the theme license status associated with your store and confirm that the payment transaction has been linked to the correct store. Sometimes a manual review is needed if the licensing service doesn’t complete the activation.
At this point, keeping the existing support ticket open and requesting updates from the escalated team is probably the best course of action. Hopefully someone else in the community who has experienced a similar licensing issue can share how long it took to resolve, but this doesn’t sound like something that can be fixed from your side.
Thank you for confirming that this is a known licensing sync issue. That makes this situation even more frustrating because it’s already been 4 days, and despite providing my payment confirmation, paid invoice, screenshots from the Zest team, and explaining the same issue to multiple Shopify advisors, my theme is still showing as Trial.
If this is a known issue and the license can be manually linked to my store, I don’t understand why this has still not been resolved. I’ve done everything that has been asked of me. There is nothing more I can provide. The delay is entirely due to an internal licensing issue, not because of anything on my side.
At this point, I’m no longer looking for more explanations or further investigations. I’m requesting Shopify to manually activate my theme license within the next 12 hours. If that isn’t possible, then I expect a clear explanation of why a paid theme cannot be licensed despite a confirmed payment and valid invoice.
Four days is far beyond a reasonable timeframe for a licensing issue. I expect this case to be treated as a critical priority, and I sincerely hope the next update I receive is confirmation that my theme license has been activated—not another request to wait.
More like a very rare fringe case than a “known issue”. I think if it was an issue, more people would ask about it. I found this from 6 years ago.
And this from 4 years ago.
I would not expect Shopify to treat this as a priority. There are millions and millions of stores and one merchant’s demands don’t usually pan out well. I would also reiterate doing your own troubleshooting, including removing and adding the theme again, buying again, doing it from a different device, etc. It’s very likely the solution lies in your own actions.
There is a proper route to follow – take this to support and work with them.
Of course, if you do not do what support tells you – this is your decision.
But there is absolutely no point to demand anything here – Shopify does not monitor this forum and does not act on complaints published here.