Tags Item Empty

Shopify Plus

Topic summary

Issue: A Shopify Flow automation that updates a product metafield based on a tag (e.g., “Round Crewneck”) isn’t firing as expected for products published from Printify. The Flow trigger is “Product created.”

Observation: A workflow run log shows “Tags Item” empty at execution time, so the condition didn’t match and the metafield wasn’t updated. The product’s tags do appear later in Shopify, and they are correctly set in Printify.

Likely cause: The product is created in Shopify without tags initially; tags are added shortly afterward by Printify. Flow evaluates tags immediately on creation, before they exist.

Suggested fix: Add a short Wait step (e.g., ~1 minute) after the “Product created” trigger to allow time for tags to populate before checking conditions.

Notes: The timing discrepancy may be due to how Printify publishes (not a single “payload” with all fields). This behavior differs from a previous print provider used by the poster.

Status: Tentative resolution via adding a delay; remaining question about unified publish behavior is likely a Printify-specific matter.

Summarized with AI on December 20. AI used: gpt-5.
1

I have some flows that are setup based on tags. I am publishing products from a third-party (in my case, Printify).

I have all of the tag information saved in Printify. As one example, I have a tag called “Round Crewneck” saved under the product in my account, ready to publish. The flow is that the app checks if a tag equals “Round Crewneck”, then it updates a metafield value for the product, which helps with search filtering.

I noticed the metafield didn’t have the value that is supposed to be updated when the flow runs. I see this:

rdykes0715_0-1725566508457.png
rdykes0715_0-1725566508457.png461×373 10.3 KB

If I am reading this right the Tags Item should not be empty, I have the values saved on the Printify side.

When I look at the published product in my Shopify account I see that all the tags I specified are there.

Was hoping someone could help explain what’s going on. Is it because it took some time for Shopify to receive all the tag information, and meanwhile the flow ran? Would it help to add a delay to the flow? Or some other explanation?

Any insight is appreciated. Thank you. I used to use another printing service and I never saw this happen until now. Edit: Also I should add that the trigger is for the flow to run when a product is created, which is what happens here.

2

What is the trigger you have specified in the workflow? Maybe the trigger is firing (and the workflow is running) before Printify has added the tags to the product.

3

The trigger is for the flow to run when a product is created, which is what happens here.

4

Ok. That screenshot tells me that Flow asked for the tags on the product at the time of the workflow run and none were present. So I bet the product was created without tags and then (maybe immediately, maybe later, but definitely after the workflow ran) the tags were added to the product.

You could try adding a Wait step (for a minute or something short) to the workflow after the trigger event to wait for tags to be added before progressing through the rest of the logic.

5

Okay, thank you for your help. I don’t really understand why it didn’t publish together in one…payload I think it’s called? But I guess that is probably a Printify question.