Show custom product types in the product list instead of the mandatory categories

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Issue: Merchants want the Product list in Shopify Admin to show their custom Product Type instead of the new mandatory Category field introduced with Shopify Magic. Older products (with Category formerly blank) still show Product Type, but new or edited products default to “Uncategorized,” and the Category field can’t be cleared.

Key details:

  • The Category column cannot currently be removed from the Product list view.
  • The Category field cannot be left blank; it reverts to “Uncategorized” on save.
  • Staff suggested a workaround: create a saved view that adds the Product Type column so it’s visible in the list. Category must remain (often as “Uncategorized”).
  • CSV behavior: category predictions don’t export. On import, Shopify Magic will predict categories for review/approval. A user noted difficulty bulk-editing “Uncategorized” since it lacks a taxonomy number.
  • Screenshots (admin product list and product detail) were shared to illustrate the display and the non-clearable Category field.

Status/outcome:

  • No direct way to revert to showing only Product Type or to clear Category.
  • Staff will forward feedback internally; discussion remains unresolved. Some users are holding off edits to avoid triggering “Uncategorized.”
Summarized with AI on December 27. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi,

Clearing the category field used to show my custom product type in the back office product list, but apparently that has been changed.

Old items are still displayed with my custom product type, but any newly added items are showm with the new ‘category’, and I don’t want that.

Is there a way to show my custom product types in the back office, instead of the categories?

Thanks for reading,

Marcel

2

Hi @Marcelb7 ,

Can you please provide me preview url so that I can assist you on?

Thank you

3

Hi, there! Do you have any screenshots showing the issue you’re experiencing? I just want to make sure I’m fully understanding so I can give you helpful advice.

4

Hi Erin,

Here are a few screenshots.

  1. overview of my latest products. The items from The Cold Stares have my preferred category, and the items from Kenny Wayne Shepherd have ‘uncategorized’. I don’t want to see the Category field with its generic descriptions in my product list. I want to see ‘Product Type’, which used to be shown until a recent update.

Categories 1.jpg
Categories 1.jpg1244×306 33.6 KB

  1. Product details of one of The Cold Stares items. ‘Category’ field is empty. My preferred Product Type is in the green box.

Categories 3.jpg
Categories 3.jpg936×289 33 KB

  1. Product detail of one of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd items, which were created later. It’s not possible to clear the Category field in the red box.

Categories 2.jpg
Categories 2.jpg943×327 37.1 KB

Hope you can help out.

Cheers,

Marcel

Mascot Label Group

5

I just noticed the exact same issue this morning. I don’t have any solutions, but I’m following to hopefully find one. I was going to try to use Hextom’s Bulk Edit app, but ‘Uncategorized’ doesn’t have a taxonomy number. So I can’t export a csv with only ‘uncategorized’ as a category name.

6

Hi there, @Marcelb7 . Thanks for taking the time to follow up on this thread, and for providing those screenshots!

It appears that you’re experiencing this change as a result of a rollout of some new Shopify Magic features, such as generating pre-determined product categories (if you choose to use them) to assist with product management. At this time, it doesn’t appear to be possible to remove that ‘product category’ column from the Product page there in the Admin. I will happily pass some feedback along internally about this so we can make the developers aware that some folks would like to be able to remove this column for management purposes.

With that being said, you can leave the ‘product category’ section of the product’s settings blank, and then add your desired ‘category’ in the ‘product type’ field. You can also try adding a search filter to your product page to add a column for ‘Product Type’, though I suspect leaving the ‘product category’ field blank, and adding information to the ‘product type’ field, will allow for the product type information to be shown in stead, as you’ve highlighted in your first screenshot.

As for CSVS, @JFrank , product category predictions will not appear in CSV files. However, when you import products via CSVs, categories will be ‘predicted’ for your products by Shopify Magic, and then you can review and approve those predictions manually.

7

Thanks for your reply, @Imogen_1

Unfortunately it’s not possible to leave the ‘product category’ section blank. If I clear that field of an existing product, and press save, it automatically reverts to ‘Uncategorized’. Same with creating a new product.

If I could leave the field blank, I wouldn’t have had to create this discussion :wink:

Cheers,

Marcel

8

Hi, @Marcelb7 . You’re correct that you can’t leave the ‘Category’ field completely blank, but you can leave it uncategorized if you don’t want to use this field. It’s also not possible at this time to remove ‘Category’ from the view of your product list, but if you’re hoping to set up your products list to display ‘Product type’, you can add this field to a new saved view. You can then pull up this specific saved view when you want to view your product list to see the information you need. You can find the steps to save a filtered product list here.

9

@Marcelb7 Were you ever able to reach a workable solution to this? I am having this issue and it is screwing up a lot of back end things in my shop by not having my Type correct on the Product List Page. I have contacted support and they so far haven’t been able to get a solution for me.

10

No, I haven’t received a workable solution at all. I’m not going to make any changes to my existing products, because then the ‘uncategorized’ category will be activated. Not very pleased with this, as you can imagine.