What is up with the new Editor

Store Design
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Topic summary

Shopify recently redesigned its backend editor, causing significant frustration among merchants trying to perform routine tasks.

Main Issues:

  • Simple asset file edits (like adding product swatches) now take hours instead of minutes
  • Frequent error messages requiring support intervention
  • Poor UX design that appears to lack merchant input
  • Confusion about editing capabilities and permissions

Current Workarounds:

  • Theme app extensions and local development offer alternative paths for customizations
  • Right-clicking asset files to upload images may help bypass some issues
  • Support teams are reindexing sites to resolve editing errors

Status: The discussion remains open with no resolution. Merchants express concern about efficiency heading into Q3/Q4, with some considering alternative platforms. The hope is that Shopify will respond to mounting feedback and support tickets to improve the experience.

Summarized with AI on October 26. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Yesterday I went into the back end to add in swatches to the assets files and OMG what an awful mess. Shopify redesigned to what I don’t know. Who the heck is in charge of this mess and do the have any UX experience at all? Two days in a row I have needed to go to support because error messages are coming up.

Today the customer service person said we can no longer edit our back end sites which I would would be illegal you can’t just take away peoples editing rights to their own property. Just awful from Shopify on every level.

Makes you look to see if the grasser is greener.

2

That backend change caught a lot of folks off guard. Digging into the asset files used to be straightforward, and now it’s… well, let’s just say not super fun.

I’ve had moments where even simple edits turn into full-blown support journeys. And yeah, the UX shift definitely feels like it was designed without a lot of real world merchant feedback in mind.

That said, you can still make a lot of the same customizations just in slightly different ways some through theme app extensions or local development. Not ideal, I know.

If you’re still trying to get those swatches working, I’ve helped others work around some of the new setup happy to share what’s worked. Might make things a little less painful while we wait for Shopify to hopefully listen to some feedback.

And you’re right though changes like this really make people start looking over the fence.

3

Thanks for replying. To be honest I don’t think I have seen such a bad UX experience as this. The asset finally worked after 2 hours what normally takes me 3 minutes. I was getting an error loading a swatch color. They are supposed to reindex my site so that I can edit and not get errors. I hovered over the asset file and right clicked my mouse to upload the image not sure how you were doing it?

Hoping shopify see all the feedback and customer service calls to make changes especially as we start to head into Q3 and Q4. Wasting 2 hours on something that should take me minutes is not an efficient use of my time or anyone else’s.