Updating the theme

Shopify tells you when a new version of Munich is available, and updating happens in the theme library. You do not reinstall anything by hand, and your settings and content carry over.

Before you change any code

Duplicate the theme first. Updating replaces the theme’s files. Any edit you made directly in the published theme is overwritten and cannot be recovered from within Shopify.

The safe order is always:

1. Duplicate the theme in Online Store → Themes → … → Duplicate.
2. Make your changes on the duplicate.
3. Preview the duplicate, and publish it only when it is right.

Changes made through the theme editor (settings, sections, blocks, content) are not code changes. They are stored separately and survive an update untouched.

Before you reach for code at all, check whether a Custom Liquid section or a Custom Liquid block does what you need. Both accept your own HTML and Liquid, live inside the theme’s normal update path, and are covered by support. See Custom Liquid.

Custom code and support

Standard support does not cover custom code. Once a theme file has been edited by hand, we can no longer tell whether a problem comes from the theme or from the change, and supporting modified code is outside what a theme licence includes. See Support for what is covered.

If you need a change the theme settings cannot make, we recommend hiring a Shopify Partner to do the work on a duplicated theme. Ask them to keep a list of the files they touch. You will need it at the next update.

Applying an update

1. In Online Store → Themes, the theme card shows Update available when a new version exists. Choose Add to theme library. Shopify installs the new version as a separate, unpublished copy and carries your settings and content across. Your current theme is not touched.
2. Open Customize on the new copy and check the home page, a product page and the cart. Everything you set in the editor should be there.
3. If you had custom code, reapply it on the new copy from your list of changed files. This is the only manual step, and only if you changed code.
4. Publish the new copy. Keep the old one in the library until you are sure.

Some updates add settings or blocks. New settings arrive with their default value, so a page never changes without you touching it; new blocks appear in the Add block list and stay out of your pages until you add them.