Resolving conflicts

How to read the conflict screen and decide what happens to each change.

A conflict is a place where your customization and the new theme version changed the same code. Everything else is resolved automatically — conflicts are the only places that need you.

The screen at a glance

• Files with conflicts (left) — every file with its remaining conflict count. A resolved file gets a checkmark.
• Conflict area (top) — one conflict at a time, side by side: Current shows this area with your code kept, Updated shows the same area with the new version's change. Current is read-only; Updated is the side you can edit.
• Full file preview (bottom) — the whole file, so you can see each conflict in its context. The Merged result tab shows the file as it stands, with your decisions applied — in conflicts you haven't decided yet, it shows the new version's code. The Before update tab shows what your customizations were — see below.

Deciding a conflict

• Keep my current — keep your code in this area.
• Keep updated — take the new version's code.
• Apply as edited — edit the code on the Updated side first — for example, to combine your change with the new one — then apply your edited version.

If you've edited the code on the Updated side, apply it with Apply as edited. Keep updated takes the new version's original code — any edits you made in the panel are discarded.

Every decision is explicit and visible: each conflict shows its status, and once a conflict is decided, Mark as unresolved becomes available — so you can revisit any decision and make it again, right up until you finish the update.

When your decisions change the file's code (Keep my current, Apply as edited), Shopify's Save / Discard bar appears — press Save before closing the screen; Discard undoes only the changes made since you last saved. Decisions that keep the new version's code don't change the file, so the bar may not appear — your progress is still saved.

Seeing what your customizations were

If you don't remember what you changed in a file, open the Before update tab in the Full file preview. It shows two versions of the file, both from the theme version you're updating from — Original vX.X, the file exactly as the theme vendor shipped it, and Your vX.X, the same file with your customizations — so the highlighted additions are exactly your customizations. The tab is read-only.

The tab highlights all your customizations in the file, not just the ones related to the current conflict. A highlighted change may already be carried over automatically — the highlighting is a reference for understanding what was yours, not a list of things to act on.

Previewing and finishing

The preview reflects your choices; in conflicts you haven't resolved yet, it uses the updated theme version's code. Preview theme isn't always available: right after the merge, the preview theme is still being created in your Online Store; some conflicts block the preview until they're resolved — those files carry the Blocks preview badge on the update summary; and any rejected files must be fixed first.

While you work, notices can appear above the file list — for example, when a file is rejected by Shopify. They tell you what happens next: rejected files are fixed after the conflicts are resolved, on a dedicated screen — see Fixing rejected files.

When every conflict is decided, close the screen to return to the update summary — that's where you finish the update. Your live theme stays untouched until you publish the result yourself — see How theme updates work.