Shopify tracking is broken: who to contact, and what to send them

Why it happens

Each part has a different owner. Shopify records the order. An app or a sales channel sends it to the platform, from the shopper's browser, from a server, or both. The platform receives it and decides how to count it. Your theme, your cookie banner and your checkout apps sit in between. Shopify's help says most apps are built by third-party developers, not by Shopify, and that for help with such an app or sales channel you contact the developer directly.

The symptom shows up far from the cause. A drop in Ads Manager can come from the app, an expired token, a theme change, a consent setting or a change in how the platform attributes purchases. Whoever you ask first sees only their own part.

Nobody has the whole record. Without a record of what was sent for each order, when and what the platform answered, every side can say its part looks fine.

Check it yourself

1. 1Write down the day it started, your store's time zone and two or three order numbers that should have reached the platform but did not.
2. 2Look at the platform's own count first. In Meta Events Manager, open Datasets, choose your dataset and open Overview. Click the Purchase row, then View Details, and read the Event breakdown with Data source picked. A line that stops on one day points to its sender: Total browser events received is the browser pixel, Direct Conversions API the server.
3. 3If Direct Conversions API stopped, the server sender is the place to ask: the tracking app, or whoever runs your server container. Send them the day, the order numbers and a screenshot of that Event breakdown.
4. 4If Total browser events received stopped, check Settings > Customer events in Shopify for a pixel that shows Disconnected, and think back to theme, checkout or cookie banner changes on that day. A pixel that belongs to an app is the app developer's to fix; a custom pixel, theme code or a cookie banner is yours or your developer's.
5. 5If both lines run at their usual level but Ads Manager shows fewer purchases than before, the gap is in attribution, not delivery. That is the platform's side: check the ad set's attribution setting and the dataset the ad tracks, and ask the platform's help.
6. 6If orders themselves are missing or wrong in your Shopify admin, that is Shopify's side, and Shopify support is the place to ask.
7. 7Whoever you write to, send the same short pack: the day it started, the time zone, the order numbers, what you see on each side (Shopify, the app, the platform) and what changed on the store that week.

For server events that stop without a warning, see Server-side tracking stopped and nobody noticed. For a pixel that shows Disconnected, see Shopify says your app pixel is disconnected.

Run the free diagnosis

FAQ

The app says the platform is at fault, and the platform says the app. Who is right?

Look at the platform's count by source. If the purchases never arrived, the sender is the place to fix it. If they arrived and are not attributed to your ads, it is attribution, on the platform's side.

Can Shopify support fix my Meta or Google tracking?

Shopify's help sends you to the app's developer for apps and sales channels built by third parties. Shopify can help with what Shopify itself records, such as orders.

What should I send so I get a useful answer?

The day it started, your time zone, two or three order numbers, screenshots of the platform's count by source and what changed on the store that week. Order numbers matter most: they let anyone trace one order through each part.

Can I get the missing purchases back once it is fixed?

Only inside each platform's limit. Meta accepts events up to 7 days old. A sender that kept the orders can send those still inside the window.