Unless I'm missing something.... It is impossible to clone a store (DEV or published)

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Central issue: a complete, one-click clone/backup of a Shopify store is not possible. Key blockers include inability to export/restore navigation via the Shopify API, which limits top apps like Matrixify from delivering a full clone.

Recent update/workaround proposed:

  • Use Matrixify and/or Rewind (including Rewind Staging) to back up most store data.
  • For navigation, export the menu structure (not the links’ targets) with a $10 Chrome extension (“Shopify Navigation Tool”: link provided).
  • After importing the structure into the new store, manually re-link each menu item/section.

Implications: this approach significantly reduces rebuild effort but still isn’t a true full clone; manual relinking remains required and some elements may still be missing due to API limitations.

Status: the poster plans to confirm results “in a day or two,” so the solution is partially validated but not fully confirmed. Longstanding community requests for full cloning capability remain unresolved.

Summarized with AI on January 28. AI used: gpt-5.
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I’ve read a lot over the past few days and I keep coming up with the understanding that

despite what you might hope for, A complete clone of a shop you’ve diligently worked on is impossible to completely back up and clone to another store (should you need to)

Things like navigation - which is an arduous process to do manually should be able to be fully backed up - retrieved / cloned

Working with other forms of IT. , VM’s etc. the ability to clone / duplicate / backup at the click of a button appears to be completely lost on spotify.

Even matrixify apparently practically the no.1 app for shopify can’t do it because its not part of the API. and i’ve just read 6 years worth of pleading from within this community. Wow. shopify - what does it take to make something happen ?

1 Like
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You’ll be glad to hear. after much trawling i think i have the answer and i’ll confirm in a day or two.

You can back up most of your system using matrixify and/or rewind or rewind-staging.

Then if you want to back up the navigation. You can back up the “structure” using a chrome extension that costs $10 USD and will download the structure only.

Once this structure is in place on the new store you need to re-link each of the sections.

Significantly better than having to rebuild from scratch

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/shopify-navigation-tool/albibfnhpoeopdpcpcpcgfeblcpmfcbb