Test send fails silently for any notification with saved custom code (default template sends fine)

Shopify Discussion
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I’m unable to get test emails to arrive for any customer notification once I’ve saved custom Liquid code into it — even when that code is functionally identical to the default template. Default (never-edited) notifications send and arrive normally. This happens consistently across multiple different notification types, so it doesn’t seem tied to one specific template.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open a notification in Settings → Notifications that has never been edited, click “Send test email” → arrives normally within a couple of minutes.
  2. Edit that same notification’s code (even a trivial change — see below), Save, then click “Send test email” again → no email ever arrives, even after waiting 10+ minutes.
  3. Click “Preview” instead of “Send test email” on the edited version → renders perfectly, full correct HTML/CSS output, no Liquid errors of any kind.

What I’ve already ruled out:

  • Content/syntax isn’t the cause. I tested a change that swapped {{ shop.email_accent_color }} for the literal hex value it would have resolved to anyway (e.g. #111111) — a functional no-op with zero rendering difference — and it still failed to send. Heavier customizations (custom CSS, fonts, colors) fail the same way, and also preview flawlessly.
  • Not a sender authentication issue. Reverted Sender Email back to the original working default and confirmed default notifications send fine from it; only the edited/customized notifications fail.
  • Not the “disabled notification” toggle bug (a separately known issue where a toggled-off notification reports “sent” but doesn’t deliver) — most of the notifications I’m testing don’t even have an enable/disable toggle available.
  • Not delivery latency — waited well past the delay seen on working default sends (10+ minutes, nothing).
  • Not spam filtering — sent a copy to mail-tester.com; nothing arrived there at all (i.e. it appears the email never leaves Shopify’s outbound pipeline for these notifications, rather than being filtered on the receiving end).

Expected behavior: A notification with saved custom Liquid code (that compiles and previews correctly) should send exactly like a default one.

Actual behavior: Any notification with saved custom code silently fails to send a test email, with no error shown anywhere in the admin — the UI reports success but nothing is delivered.

Has anyone else run into this, or does Shopify staff have visibility into backend send logs for “customized” vs “default” notification states? Happy to provide store details/screenshots via private channel if needed.

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This is a known behavior: once a notification template has been customized, Shopify routes its “Send test email” through a different path, and if any Liquid object in the saved code references order/customer data that doesn’t exist in a bare test send, the send can silently fail while Preview (which uses sample data) still renders fine. Two things worth checking: 1) In Settings → Notifications, open the edited template and confirm the top “Email” sender is still a verified/authenticated domain — customized templates are stricter about SPF/DKIM than defaults. 2) Try duplicating the default template into a fresh one and adding your code in small chunks, testing a send after each save, to isolate the exact object that breaks delivery. If it keeps failing on a functional no-op, it’s most likely a backend send-log issue that only Shopify Support can see — open a ticket and ask them to pull the outbound send logs for the customized vs default state, which is the fastest way to get it escalated.

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Hey @Casby

hope you’re doing well!

This sounds like a Shopify notification pipeline issue rather than a Liquid problem, especially since Preview works and even a no op changes breaks test delivery. The fact that the UI repost success with nothing arriving makes backend send logs the key things to check.

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I’ve spoken to support, and the cause of this is that I’m still in my free trial period, and my emails were being put on low priority, which caused a delay. Thank you all f
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