Website updates not showing in preview mode.

Topic summary

Shopify theme edits made in the customization area appear correctly in the backend but do not show in the live preview. The issue centers on updates to main.css and theme.liquid not reflecting when previewing the theme.

Observed symptoms: the footer in preview shows font inconsistencies compared to the editor view, and the copyright message remains visible despite being removed in the editor.

Troubleshooting already attempted: cleared browser caches, restarted the laptop, and opened the preview link in incognito/private mode; none resolved the mismatch.

Evidence: side-by-side screenshots comparing the editor (backend) and the preview (frontend) are provided and are central to understanding the visual discrepancies.

Status: user is requesting support; no solution or confirmed cause yet. The discussion remains open with unanswered questions about why preview is not updating.

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

Hey everyone, I’m running into an issue with my Shopify theme. Recently certain changes I have been making are showing on the back end in the customisation area, however when I preview these on the front to check how they look there are no updates shown at all. Image references below.

I have cleared my caches and restarted my laptop, plus tried viewing the preview link in incognito mode just incase but nothing is working and I can’t see any changes being applied to the front of the website. All the changes I’m trying to make are main.css and theme.liquid related.

Struggled to find more advice or guidance as to why this might be happening, so any support would be appreciated.

How the footer looks in the customise section (website backend) –

How it looks in preview mode, as you can see there are font inconsistencies and the copyright message still shows –