Update a theme

Theme updates bring fixes and new features. Shopify delivers them in two ways, and neither can change your live store without you.

Two kinds of update

	Automatic updates	Updates you start
What they contain	Bug and security fixes only	New features and design changes
How they arrive	Applied for you	A notification on the theme’s version number in Online Store → Themes
What changes	Nothing about your look, content or settings	Whatever the release notes describe — on a copy, until you publish it

Updating step by step

If you or a developer edited the theme’s code, save a copy of those changes first (see Duplicate, back up and preview).
In Online Store → Themes, open the update notification and read the release notes.
Choose Add to draft themes. The update arrives as a separate draft — your published theme is not touched.
Open the draft and check the pages that matter most — home, a collection, a product, the cart and search — on a desktop and on a phone.
Publish the draft when you are happy with it.

What carries over

Everything you did in the theme editor is copied into the updated version: theme settings, templates, sections, blocks and app embeds.

Code edits are copied only when they do not conflict with the update. The theme card tells you whether yours were included; if they were not, re-apply them by hand from the copy you saved.

Which version am I on?

The version number is shown on the theme card in Online Store → Themes. Each theme’s guide says which version it describes.