Shopify site not updating with Edit Code liquid changes

Store Design

Topic summary

Multiple Shopify users report that changes made to .liquid theme files are not reflecting on their live sites, despite saving successfully. Purple dots in the code editor indicate files have been modified, but updates remain invisible on the frontend.

Common scenarios:

  • Editing .liquid files (collection.liquid, page.about.liquid, cart-template.liquid, theme.js) with no visible changes
  • Affects various themes including Envy, Minimal, and Prestige
  • Issue appears widespread across different stores and default Shopify themes

Identified solutions:

  • Wrong theme preview: One user discovered they were editing one theme while previewing another. Ensuring the correct theme is both selected and not in preview mode resolved their issue.
  • Force refresh workaround: Adding a temporary <h1> tag to trigger recognition of changes, then saving/refreshing and deleting the tag worked for one user.
  • Wrong file: Initial poster found they were editing list-collections.liquid instead of collection.liquid.

Unresolved issues:

  • Several users still cannot get changes to appear despite trying multiple themes and development stores
  • No official Shopify support response noted
  • Discussion remains open with no definitive solution for all cases
Summarized with AI on November 14. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I’m trying to make a simple change to my site in my list-collections.liquid page. However, no matter what I change and Save, I’m not seeing the changes reflect on the site. At first I thought maybe there was a built-in delay, but changes made with the higher level template editor are instantenous, so what’s the deal?

For clarity, I’m just trying to change the following collection.title output to be an href tag that a customer can click on to navigate to the respective collection page

<div class="col-md-12">
			   		<h3 class="custom-font">
						{{ collection.title }}
					</h3>

I’ve messed around with duplicating the output, so there’d be two or three collection.titles, changing the header tags, etc. but nothing is reflected on the site :frowning:

Thanks so much for any help!

(Also, does anyone know what the purple dots next to certain .liquid files signify?)

2

The dots indicate a changed file.

I would assume that you’re not changing the right seciton of code. A bit more context would help - a link to the page and name of the theme in use would be good starting places.

Also knowing what file you’re making those changes to would also help.

(moving this to the design section as this post doesn’t related to the Script Editor)

1 Like
3

Hey Jason, thanks so much for the reply!

The website is soltribecollective.com and we’re using the Envy theme.

You were right - I was looking at the wrong code. Turns out I needed to be looking at the collection.liquid section, not list-collections.liquid. However, I’m running into a strange issue that perhaps is arising out of my ignorance about how things work together.

I’ve managed to change the section header on the main page to a link:

      <div class="title-bar custom-font">
        <h2><a href="{{ section.settings.link }}" title="{{ section.settings.link | escape }}">{{ section.settings.title | escape }}</a> </h2>
      	<div class="clear"></div>
      </div>

However, the url that populates is blank, which means the section.settings.link isn’t being grabbed from my settings_data.json file (I’ve added a ‘link’ attribute for each of the collections):

​
      "collection": {
        "type": "collection",
        "settings": {
          "title": "Sunnies",
          "show-vendor": false,
          "hover-effect": "second-image",
          "collection": "sunnies",
          "grid": "4",
          "rows": 3,
          "link": "[https://soltribecollective.com/collections/sunnies](https://soltribecollective.com/collections/sunnies)"
        }

​

The page source reveals that the href which is populating is just an empty string for some reason. Any suggestions as to what’s going on? I’ve tested it by directly putting in the string for the desired site, and that works fine, but of course I want each section link to be different.

Thanks!

2 Likes
4

I’m also experiencing it not updating. I’m editing the code for ‘page.about.liquid’ and the code hasn’t updated. Could you help me with this?

Site is klatch roasting.com using an edited version of ‘minimal’ theme.

1 Like
5

I’m experiencing the same problem. This issue seems to have been around a while.

6

I am experiencing the same problem.. Shopify is not updating no matter what I do. I already deleted and the file and it still not updating my site despite the .css file is deleted already.

7

I’m too having the same problem, one way around i found was simply add an

tag to the html just so it knows something changed besided css and save/refresh. Then just delete the h1 u just created. It fixed for me!

8

Hi

I use Prestige theme.

I have edited code and even taken it out from theme.js and cart-template.liquid without seeing any changes on the homepage. This is the first time that I have tried where code changes were not reflected.

Is it because of the theme, Shopify or me:)?

1 Like
9

Judging from the replies in this thread, this seems to be a somewhat common issue. Anyone found a solution?

I’m operating two shops. In one, I can make changes to all the .liquid files in the code editor, and they take immediate effect, in the other one, I can change anything… no effect at all to the front-end. No plugins, default Shopify themes…

Anyone have an idea what might be the issue?

1 Like
10

Same issue. Trying to update customer.login.liquid register link

11

Just in case anyone else is making the same mistake I made: Make sure you are viewing the same theme that you are updating. I had been previewing another theme in the morning, then came back later in the day and neglected to turn that preview off. It was perplexing that I could not observe the changes I was making to the liquid files. Then I noticed that I was previewing a different theme!

1 Like
12

Thank u soo much gb2world.

I made the same mistake but didn’t notice what’s the issue.

You just save my day.

1 Like
13

Same issue here. This is horribly frustrating.

1 Like
14

Same. I’ve tried making multiple different development stores, trying different themes, and making basic changes in each and I do not see them live on my site…there seems to be no Shopify support for this and it’s very concerning.

15

I’ve been updating the correct theme’s liquid files but am still not seeing the changes.