Out of the Sandbox's Shopify Theme Updater app is an exclusive tool developed and maintained by Out of the Sandbox.
View our full list of Theme Updater FAQs here.
For Out of the Sandbox themes: if you are upgrading from Parallax 3.0+, Retina 4.0+, Mobilia 5.0+, Responsive 6.0+, Turbo 2.0+, or Artisan 1.0+, basic custom code may be able to get carried over to the updated theme.
For Pixel Union themes: if you are upgrading from Atlantic 10.0+, Editions 8.0+, Empire 1.0+, Grid 2.0+, Handy 1.0+, Launch 2.0+, Pacific 2.0+, Reach 1.0+, Startup 7.0+, and Vogue 1.0+, basic custom code may be able to get carried over to the updated theme.
If the app finds any custom code or modifications to the original files, it will attempt to replicate them in your new updated version. If the customizations are complex and the app is unable to carry them over fully intact, it will identify the files in question and notify you, so that you have the opportunity to apply your past customizations to the updated templates manually.
For Out of the Sandbox themes: unfortunately if you are using a version older than Parallax 3.0+, Retina 4.0+, Mobilia 5.0+, Responsive 6.0+ or Turbo 2.0+, custom code will not be carried over.
For Pixel Union themes: unfortunately if you are using a version older than Atlantic 10.0+, Editions 8.0+, Empire 1.0+, Grid 2.0+, Handy 1.0+, Launch 2.0+, Pacific 2.0+, Reach 1.0+, Startup 7.0+, and Vogue 1.0+, custom code will not be carried over.
Although Theme Updater App does have the ability to transfer over customized code, customizing code can still result in some issues:
- The higher the number of customizations you’ve added to your theme, the longer the app will take to process your updates.
- Themes with high customization counts are also more likely to fail or have blocks of code that cannot be carried over automatically.
- Complex code customizations may be unable to be transferred over automatically.
- The theme updater app won’t be able to address conflicts with the default theme code and your custom code in current or future theme versions.
- The Out of the Sandbox team generally doesn’t troubleshoot someone else’s custom code; if it’s causing issues our advice will be to remove it, so best to keep it to a minimum and be prepared to work only with your own developer to address specific issues that come up with customizations you’ve made.
- Finally, please note that we never guarantee that the app will be able to carry over all customizations.
We always recommend customizing theme code as little as possible. If you or your developer have made extensive or complex customizations directly to the theme files then these customizations will need to be manually transferred to the updated theme.
If you need help with this transition and need to hire a developer, we have a list of recommended Shopify Experts here.