View deactivated store 3 month trial is finished

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A merchant with several deactivated Shopify stores after a 3‑month free trial wants to view what was set up without starting a paid plan. Reactivating prompts the first monthly payment, and they cannot see the store content beforehand.

Key info: Shopify retains deactivated store data for up to two years. This means prior setup likely still exists and can be recovered.

Suggested steps:

  • Use Shopify’s Store Recovery Tool to list all stores tied to the email address.
  • Log in to a candidate store via its myshopify.com URL with /admin.
  • While logged in, contact Shopify chat support; advisors can only access the store you’re currently logged into.
  • Authenticate via pin.shopify.com by providing the generated code to support.
  • Repeat with other store URLs until the correct store is identified.

Outcome/status: No confirmed resolution from the original poster. Guidance centers on locating the correct store and working with support; direct viewing of a deactivated store without reactivation is not indicated as possible in the thread.

Summarized with AI on December 12. AI used: gpt-5.
1

I started the free 3 month free trial, a few times… (no judgement, adhd) lol
the last store I started I got quite a few things set up, however I really forget… how I set it up or what info I have on there. I want to start again, and make the most of the free trial (I have only put in maybe 5 hours all up and 3 months is over, my own fault i know)

If i go to Reactivate store - theres about 5… and if I click on one, I cannot view the store, it prompts me to make the first monthly payment.
Is there a way I can view my old, deactivated stores? Thank you in advance!

2

The Store information is saved on their servers for Two Years as per this article here: Deactivated Store

What you can do is use this Recovery Tool: Recovery Tool

This will allow you to get all the list of Stores associated with your Email.

This is just to get you ready when you contact Support. Once you are logged in to any Store, you can then contact Chat Support. As long as you are logged in and depending on the Store Status, they will be able to help you out with the correct Store that you would like to access. They will only have visuals on the Store that you are currently logged in. If the current one is not the Store that you need, you can login to another Store by using the Store URL plus /admin. Like this one here: https://store.myshopify.com/admin then you can go to https://pin.shopify.com and give the generated code to the advisor. That would allow the Store to be authenticated. You can continue doing this till they help you find the correct Store.