Product category language changed to Chinese

Shopify Discussion

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.

Summarized with AI on November 9. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
41

My categories are back to English

42

Came here to say the same thing but noticed it just resolved a minute ago. Seems like they had to perform a patch. That said, I notice Shopify has been a bit buggy lately. A few weeks ago, our product preview emails were sending a bunch of wrong links.

2 Likes
43

Us too! It was bizarre. our 3 staff members each were like “i cant get category tags done” separately the last two hours.

44

I just got off Shopify Chat and this is what they said:

Following conference with our developers, it appears they may need some time to resolve this issue. However, I want to assure you that issues like this that is affecting many of our merchants are treated as a high priority by our development team.

So definitely a Shopify issue and they are working to fix it as quickly as possible.

45

Looks like mine are back to English as well.

46

Here is the response I received from a Shopify support advisor in the chat:“I see here you are seeing Chinese characters on your product pages. This is an ongoing issue. Our developers are currently investigating it. I will email you once this issue is fixed. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

47

And as I just posted that… I refreshed the page and my product categories are back to normal! Hope everyone’s will get fixed here soon.

48

What bothers me reading a few posts is tech support isn’t following up. I
would think they would notify people “we are investigating this”.

49

Note to all: I have heard back from Shopify Support:

"We are currently experiencing an ongoing issue that is affecting all merchants’ access to the some section in the Settings of your Shopify account. We understand the inconvenience this may cause and want to assure you that our team is actively working to resolve this matter as quickly as possible. Our dedicated developers have been notified about this issue and are diligently working to identify and rectify the underlying cause. We understand the impact this may have on your business operations, and we sincerely apologize for any disruption caused. We are committed to providing you with the best possible service, and we appreciate your patience and understanding during this time. While I don’t have an exact timeline for the resolution at this moment, I want to assure you that this is our top priority"

50

It looks like the fix has been applied; product categories are now displayed in English. Thanks to everyone involved!

1 Like
51

Shopify fixed issue. Thank you for your prompt service! Very much appreciated!

3 Likes
52

Glad to hear. Thanks for the update.

53

Oh maaaan, i was just putting the chair away and go to the pub but it came back. Now everyone go back to work!!! :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
54

Awesome!

Thank you, Shopify, for the speedy fix! We appreciate you very much. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
55

Same here, did anyone else lose sales? Our sales where tanked yesterday and wondering if this Shopify issue has something to attribute to that. We are checking with our SEO & PPC team for more insight as well.