Why isn't my full abandoned cart history visible?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Merchant reports large gaps in abandoned cart (abandoned checkout) history, especially in 2022–2023, and asks about recovery and prevention.

Support clarifies Shopify’s retention policy: abandoned checkouts are kept in the admin for only three months, and every Monday any that exceed this window are removed. Items subject to removal include:

  • Checkouts created more than 3 months ago
  • Not updated in 1 month
  • No transaction or completed order attached

Workaround to preserve specific records: create a draft order with the same details and leave it open in the admin (guidance link provided).

Outcome: The observed gaps are consistent with the standard purge process. No recovery method for already purged data was provided. Preventive step is to convert important abandoned checkouts to draft orders before the retention window expires. Discussion effectively resolved with policy explanation and a preservation workaround.

Summarized with AI on December 30. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hello,

We’ve been on Shopify since 2015 and have never had any issues with viewing and downloading our abandoned cart history until recently. There are huge gaps in ABC history especially in 2022 & 2023. Is there a way to recover this and/or keep this from happening in the future?

2

Hey, @flyrides !

Thanks for getting in touch.

For context, Abandoned checkouts are saved in the Shopify admin for three months. Every Monday, abandoned checkouts that are older than three months are removed from your admin, this includes;

  • Checkouts created more than 3 months ago
  • Not updated in 1 month
  • No transaction or completed order attached to them

If there’s a particular abandoned checkout you want to retain, then you can create a draft order with the same details and leave it open in your Shopify admin. More information on that here at this link.