Oh wow! I hope they can fix it!
Topic summary
A widespread Shopify bug has caused product category names to suddenly change from English to Chinese across multiple stores, affecting merchants with thousands of products and variants.
Scope of Impact:
- Multiple store owners report the same issue occurring simultaneously
- Affects stores with 2,000+ products
- Only product categories are affected; other site elements remain in English
- One merchant also reported concurrent Apple Pay checkout issues, though the connection is unclear
Troubleshooting Attempts:
- Users confirmed language settings still show English
- Clearing cache/cookies, switching browsers, and restarting computers did not resolve the issue
- The problem persists across different devices and browsers
Shopify’s Response:
- Support has confirmed this is a platform-wide issue, not user error
- Developers are actively investigating and treating it as high priority
- Affected merchants will be notified via email once resolved
- No timeline provided for the fix
The issue remains unresolved, with merchants unable to add new products confidently due to uncertainty about correct category assignments.
Same here and I have to launch some products tomorrow! 
Oh that is concerning, hopefully this doesn’t affect sales & customer experience. Not sure how something like this happens but surely it’s not a small error.
Same happening here too. Over 2000 products even i can add any new as i am not sure about the correct category
Us too!
Haha same here. Hope Shopify fix it quickly or I’ll have to look for another platform. No way I’m learning Chinese.
Also happening to my store.
Seeing this as well. At first I thought someone in our company changed this, but then realized you can’t change ONLY this product category language and nothing else. Hope this gets fixed soon. Definitely a Shopify issue.
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Same here what a nightmare… got to say its glad its not just me… sorry 
Same issue.
The same issue is occurring for three stores, but not all products are affected.
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This is happening to me as well.
Same thing is happening to me!!!
Ours did this exact same thing today. AI help search said “sounds like your (store’s translation/theme/something) needs a tweak”. Shopify Help Center | Translating themes
I have the same problem but the rest of my store is in English though. My store isn’t launched yet but if it was, would this issue be visible for others who visits my store?
We are also having the same issue. It was working fine for most of the day, and then suddenly it starting switching things I was working on to Chinese, which was strange. And then I noticed that it had changed much of what I had worked on today to Chinese. My assumption is that its original (english) word has just been translated. I checked out languages and it still said English. I tried to contact support and the AI kept telling me to check the language, checked it once again, and tried to explain further how it was just one particular thing that had been changed into Chinese. Eventually I was directed to try clearing my cache / cookies, and / or trying a different browser. I did all of that, checked on another computer with a different browser, checked with staff to make sure nobody had inadvertently done something to change the language; I was starting to assume that it must just be a glitch and then we found this page. Phew to it not being just us at the very least. I’d had to restart my computer because it was angry at me trying to clear all of the things, so now trying to get into contact with shopify directly to report the issue but waiting on a queue, so reporting it here.
In my case “Category” affects my taxes in check out. 
I tried to leave “Category” blank but keeps adding it in Chinese. I hope they fix this soon. 
I have multipe stores and they all recently changed to chinese charaters. Misspelled on purpose!
I’ll jump on the bandwagon… we have the same issue. This is a Shopify issue and should be fixed by Shopify… if they can mass change it to Chinese… they can change it back!