How do I update my theme?

Updating your theme

We will consistently strive to provide the best possible experience for our customers, and will regularly release theme updates to offer new features, design enhancements, and bug fixes. We'll keep everything up to date with the newest Shopify features and requirements, and will continue to develop new features while keeping your underlying codebase modern, lean, flexible, and well-documented.

Manual theme updates in your Shopify store admin

To ensure your Align theme is up to date, you can easily check its status in your Shopify Admin. Simply click on the version number under the Align theme, and if you see a green check mark icon with the message "This theme is up to date," you're all set!

If an update is available for Align, a notification will replace the version number in your Shopify Admin.

Click on the notification to open the details pop-up, where you can choose to add the updated version to your theme library or view the release notes to learn about the new enhancements.

Any customizations you've made to your theme using the Theme Editor will be preserved. This includes changes to theme settings, page layouts, sections and blocks, app integrations, translations, and more.

Larger themes may take a few minutes to complete the update process. Once the update is finished, you'll find the updated Align theme in your library. It will be indicated by a "Just added" badge and the title will be prefixed with "Updated copy of".

Take your time to review the changes and ensure that your online store looks and functions as expected before publishing the updated version of Align.

Adding an update to your theme library

To add an updated version of the Align theme to your online store library, follow these steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, navigate to Settings > Apps and sales channels.
2. Click on Online store.
3. Open the sales channel.
4. Select Themes.
5. Locate the Align theme you want to update and click on the version notification.
6. Click on Add to theme library. This will create a copy of your original Align theme (named [theme name]), download the updated version, and automatically apply your customizations made through the theme editor.
7. Once the updated Align theme is added to your library, click on Review theme to ensure everything looks and functions as expected. If you have added custom CSS, please double-check that the selectors you targeted still exist in the latest version and that your CSS is applied correctly.
8. When you are ready to make the new version of Align live, simply click on Publish!

Automated updates

As part of our commitment to delivering a seamless experience, Company XYZ provides automated updates for the Align theme. These updates are designed to fix bugs and address security issues without altering the appearance, content, or settings of your theme. You can always check the release notes to stay informed about the improvements included in these updates.

Updates not supported

Please note that only themes installed through the Shopify Theme Store are eligible for updates. If you have purchased a paid theme from a third-party designer, we recommend reaching out to them directly for updates and support.

Additionally, it's important to know that only Online Store 2.0 themes support updates. If you are using an older version of a Shopify theme, it has been sunsetted and is not supported by Company XYZ. We encourage you to consider upgrading to an Online Store 2.0 theme or seek the assistance of a theme expert to take full advantage of the latest Shopify features.

Other recommendations

Practice good renaming habits

It's important to be mindful about naming or renaming your themes — these can quickly get confusing if you let them!

We recommend using a standard naming convention and sticking to it. We like to rename the new updated theme first to something like "Align v1.2 (updated)"; then we'll rename the current (old) version to something like "Align v1.1 (pre-update)". This way it's crystal clear which version you were using before the update and which version you need to test.

Align theme