Please someone help with this error

Topic summary

A user encountered a display error appearing above their Shopify store’s announcement bar. The error message shown in their screenshot appears garbled or reversed.

Likely Cause:

  • Missing or incorrect code syntax (such as < or / tags) in theme files
  • Recent code modifications without proper backup

Troubleshooting Suggestion:

  • Check the base.css file for hard-coded header CSS that may contain errors
  • Review recent theme file changes

Status: The issue remains unresolved with initial diagnostic guidance provided. The responder emphasized the importance of maintaining theme backups before making code modifications.

Summarized with AI on November 23. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Please see the error below! any help would be appreciated!

It shows on top of the announcement bar

Hello @steph499 ..

Welcome to Shopify community.

It seems like you were trying to do some code in the files somewhere and possibly left out a a small tag ( < or / etc) somewhere. Now that is showing up on the page.

Were you trying to do hard code header css in base.css file? Check it out.

This is the reason a theme backup is always recommended when changing the code in files.

Thank you.