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Adding, previewing, and buying themes

To help you get started, the Themes page of your admin has a default theme set up when you open an account with Shopify. If you want to customize a different theme for your online store, then you need to add one to your admin.

You can add a theme in a few ways:

  • You can describe your business in your own words and generate a free personalized theme with AI.
  • You can add a free theme from your Shopify admin.
  • You can try a paid theme from the Shopify Theme Store. You can preview any theme and customize it using the theme editor. You need to purchase a theme before you can publish it to your online store.
  • If you already have a theme in a ZIP file on your computer, then you can upload it.

If you're a developer, or you're working with a Shopify Partner or agency, then you can also add a theme to your store in the following ways:

You can add multiple themes to your account to try out any new themes, keep seasonal versions of your published theme, or test changes to a copy of your published theme. You can preview any of these themes, but only one theme can be published at any time. When you switch to a new theme, you can still access your old theme on the Themes page in Shopify.

After you add a theme, you can create a link so that you can share a preview of any unpublished theme with others. This can be helpful if you're looking for feedback before you publish a new theme or launch your online store. You can't share a preview of your published theme.

On this page

Theme eligibility requirements

Review the following eligibility requirements for adding themes to your store or organization:

  • The maximum number of themes that you can add depends on your pricing plan:
  • Stores on the Starter plan can only add the Spotlight theme.
  • Stores and organizations on the Basic, Shopify, and Advances plans can add up to 20 themes.
  • Stores and organizations on the Shopify Plus plan can add up to 100 themes.

If you reach your plan's theme limit, then you need to remove a theme before you can add a new one. Expansion stores need to have a theme license for each live expansion store.

Generate a free theme with AI

You can use AI to generate a free personalized theme from the Themes page of your Shopify admin. Help with customizations for free themes is supported by Shopify.

Steps:

Desktop

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.

  2. In the Design your store in seconds section, write a description of your business, and then click Generate themes to generate up to 3 free personalized themes.

  3. Click the theme that you're interested in, and then click Try theme to apply the theme to your store.

  4. The theme will be added to the Theme library section of your Themes page of your admin.

iPhone

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Horizontal menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. In the Design your store in seconds section near the bottom of the page, describe your business and tap Generate themes to generate up to 3 free personalized themes.

  5. Tap the theme you're interested in and tap Try theme to apply the theme to your store.

  6. The theme will be added to the Theme library section of your Themes page of your admin.

Android

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. In the Design your store in seconds section near the bottom of the page, describe your business and tap Generate themes to generate up to 3 free personalized themes.

  5. Tap the theme that you're interested in, and then tap Try theme to apply the theme to your store.

  6. The theme will be added to the Theme library section of your Themes page of your admin.

Add a free theme from the admin

Free themes are developed by Shopify. Help with customizations for free themes is supported by Shopify.

Free themes are developed by Shopify. Help with customizations for free themes is supported by Shopify.

Steps:

Desktop

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.

  2. In the Popular free themes section near the bottom of the page, view the top free themes from the Shopify Theme Store or click Visit theme store to browse all available themes.

  3. Click the theme name to view details about a theme in the Shopify Theme Store.

  4. Click the Add button for the theme. The theme will be added to the Theme library section of your Themes page of your admin.

iPhone

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Horizontal menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. In the Popular free themes section near the bottom of the page, view the top free themes from the Shopify Theme Store or tap Visit theme store to browse all available themes.

  5. Tap the theme name to view details about a theme in the Shopify Theme Store.

  6. Tap the Add button for the theme. The theme will be added to the Theme library section of your Themes page of your admin.

Android

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. In the Popular free themes section near the bottom of the page, view the top free themes from the Shopify Theme Store or tap Visit theme store to browse all available themes.

  5. Tap the theme name to view details about a theme in the Shopify Theme Store.

  6. Tap the Add button for the theme. The theme will be added to the Theme library section of your Themes page of your admin.

Try a paid theme from the Shopify Theme Store

Before you make the commitment to buy a paid theme, you can try it by previewing the theme in your Shopify admin. You can use your theme editor to customize a previewed theme, such as by changing it to use your brand colors, brand style, and products. If you purchase the theme, then any customizations that you make are saved.

You can preview up to 19 paid themes at the same time, which lets you to compare different themes before buying one. Paid themes that you're trying have a Theme trial label.

To get support for a paid theme, contact the theme developer.

Steps:

  1. Visit the Shopify Theme Store and choose a paid theme.
  2. Click Try theme to add the theme to your online store.
  3. In your Shopify admin, click Online Store > Themes.
  4. In the Theme library section, click the horizontal menu button to open the actions menu next to the theme that you want to preview.
  5. Click Preview.

You can also customize a theme that you're previewing. If you're happy with the theme, then you can buy the theme. Any customizations that you made to the theme are saved.

Buy a theme from the Shopify Theme Store

Only users with all of the following store-level permissions can buy a theme from the Shopify Theme Store:

  • Themes
  • Manage and install apps and channels
  • Approve app charges

After you've tried a paid theme in your online store, you can choose to purchase it. You can only publish themes to your online store that you've purchased. When you purchase a theme from the Shopify Theme Store, that theme is licensed exclusively to the store where the purchase was made. If you want to use your theme in a different store, then you might be eligible to transfer it.

Paid themes are created by third-party theme developers. General support and updates for third-party themes are provided by the theme developer. If you need advanced customizations, but don't have experience developing websites with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then consider hiring a Shopify Partner.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.

  2. Click Add themes > Visit Theme Store.

  3. Search for a theme that you want to purchase, and then click Try theme.

  4. In the Theme library section, click Buy on the theme that you want to purchase to begin the transaction.

Upload a theme file from your computer

If you have a theme in a ZIP file on your computer, then you can upload it to the Themes page of your Shopify admin.

Before you upload, make sure that your theme files are compressed into a single ZIP file.

After you upload the ZIP file, the theme will be added to the Themes page of your Shopify admin.

Steps:

Desktop

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.

  2. In the Theme library section, click Add theme > Upload zip file.

  3. In the Upload theme dialog, click Choose File to select the ZIP file that you want to upload.

  4. Click Upload.

iPhone

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Horizontal menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. In the Theme library section, tap Add theme > Upload zip file.

  5. In the Upload theme dialog, tap Choose File to select the ZIP file that you want to upload.

  6. Tap Upload.

Android

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. In the Theme library section, tap Add theme > Upload zip file.

  5. In the Upload theme dialog, tap Choose File to select the ZIP file that you want to upload.

  6. Tap Upload.

Switching themes

When you add new themes to your store, they display in the Theme library section of the Themes page in Shopify. You can switch to a new theme by publishing it to your online store. When you publish a new theme, your old theme is still available in the theme library (and you can switch back to it if you want).

If you update your theme manually, then the updated version of your theme displays as a separate version in the theme library. When you switch to the updated version, the old version of your theme is still available in the theme library. To learn more, refer to Updating themes.

Preparing to switch themes

When you add a theme to your theme library, you can customize it before you publish it. This is a good opportunity to review the new theme, and adjust the settings and content to reflect your business, before you replace your existing theme. You can also switch between multiple themes that you've prepared without needing to set them up again.

Your store's products, collections, menus, pages, blog posts aren't changed or deleted when you switch to a new theme, because they're managed in the Admin, separate from the theme. However, the content and settings that are managed using the theme editor, theme code editor, and language editor are unique to each theme and theme version that you upload.

The following parts of your online store are associated with the theme. You must customize these parts of your online store for each theme you want to use:

Not all themes support all Shopify features. You should review the theme's feature list to make sure that it has the features you need.

Theme preview

You can preview any theme in the Themes section of your online store. The preview displays the previewed theme on your online store in a browser tab with the online store preview bar.

The online store preview bar displays the following information about your theme:

  • The theme name.
  • The theme's status. Your published theme has the Live status. Unpublished themes have the Draft status.

You can customize the preview with the following actions:

  • In the view icon View as section, you can select a different country or language to preview. Learn more about international markets and adding additional languages to your theme.
  • Click the link button to share a preview of your theme.
  • Click Close preview to close the preview and display your published theme.
  • Click Customize theme to open the theme editor and customize the theme.
  • Click near the top of the preview bar to collapse it. You can click it again to expand it.

Share a theme preview with others

If you're about to launch your online store or planning to change your store by publishing a new theme, then you can seek feedback from others by sharing a preview of your theme.

You can create a link that others can use to access a preview of any theme that you've added in your Shopify admin. The theme doesn't have to be published to be shared.

A preview link allows others to explore your online store, but prevents them from accessing the checkout. After you create a preview link, it remains active for 2 days. You can create new links as often as you want, and creating a new link won't affect old preview links.

Steps:

Desktop

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.

  2. For the theme that you want to share, click the horizontal menu button to open the actions menu, and then click Preview.

  3. Optional: Select a different country, language, or both to change the preview.

  4. Click the link button to copy the link to your clipboard.

iPhone

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Horizontal menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. For the theme that you want to share, tap the horizontal menu button to open the actions menu, and then tap Preview.

  5. Optional: Select a different country, language, or both to change the preview.

  6. Tap link to copy the link to your clipboard.

Android

  1. From the Shopify app, tap the Menu button.

  2. In the Sales channels section, tap Online Store.

  3. Tap Manage themes.

  4. For the theme that you want to share, tap the horizontal menu button to open the actions menu, and then tap Preview.

  5. Optional: Select a different country, language, or both to change the preview.

  6. Tap link to copy the link to your clipboard.

Theme preview troubleshooting

There are different circumstances that might cause your theme preview, or the theme preview bar, to not display correctly. If you're still having issues with your theme after reviewing the steps in this guide, then you might need to contact your theme's support team. Learn more about getting support for themes.

The preview bar displays on your live store

This usually happens when your theme is incorrectly adding a parameter called preview_theme_id to your online store URLs. This parameter is meant for internal previewing only, but if it's present on live URLs, then it will force the preview bar to display for all visitors.

Visit your online store and check for the preview_theme_id parameter in the address bar of the browser. You can also ask your customers to forward you the link address that the preview bar displays on.

If the preview_theme_id parameter is included in your online store's URL, then contact your theme's developer for support and explain the issue. Your theme's developer

If you're comfortable editing theme code, then you can search your theme files for preview_theme_id, and then remove the code that's adding it to URLs. The layout files and files that contain Javascript (ending in .js) are most likely to contain this type of code. Edit the code for a theme only if you know HTML and CSS, and have a basic understanding of Liquid, Shopify's templating language, JSON, and Javascript.

This issue has been reported on themes purchased from outside of the Shopify Theme Store, such as the Lumia theme from ThemeForest.

Previewing a draft theme redirects to the live theme

If you click Preview on an unpublished theme, and are redirected to your live theme, then it is almost always related to Cloudflare caching.

If you use Cloudflare in front of your Shopify store, then you might have caching settings that interfere with Shopify's preview mechanism. Shopify also uses Cloudflare for caching, and these layers can sometimes conflict. We do mention potential conflicts with external caching in our documentation.

To ensure the preview bar works correctly, turn off caching on Cloudflare for all requests for Shopify.

Preview bar is completely missing

If the preview bar doesn't display when you preview a theme, then this is likely because of custom code or a third-party app modifying your theme's default scripts.

This issue is likely caused by modifications that affect the Liquid object, usually found in your theme's `theme.liquid` file in the layout folder of your theme. The preview bar script requires the object to load correctly. Modifying this object can prevent the script from loading, resulting in a missing preview bar, and other issues with Shopify features and apps.

You can check your theme and apps for the source of the modification. Learn how to troubleshoot your theme.

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