Frequent issues

Explanation of frequent issues in Shopify or Shopify Plus implementations.

Shopify apps can’t modify theme code directly. To integrate Autocomplete and InstantSearch, use the Algolia AI Search & Discovery app’s App Embed and App Blocks.

For more information, see:

• Manual theme configuration
• Shopify Algolia configuration

The configuration file is out of date, or configuration changes aren’t applying

The root cause is the algolia_config.js file being out of date. This can happen if the theme isn’t configured within the Algolia AI Search & Discovery app or if the configuration file is overwritten.

To confirm that the theme is configured within the app, check that it shows up in the list in the Search options tab.

If the theme doesn’t show up and if it already contains an algolia_config.js file, you can synchronize the themes by clicking on the Synchronize button:

If the theme shows up in the list and the configuration is still not updated, you can force the app to push the latest version of this file to the theme. Do this by updating any Algolia setting, then revert it. On any update, Algolia pushes the latest version of algolia_config.js file to your theme.

The configuration file gets overwritten when using Slate (or similar)

When using a versioned theme or a toolkit like Slate, the algolia_config.js file might get accidentally overwritten. To prevent this from happening, ignore assets/algolia_config.js.liquid in your version control system. For example, when using Git, you can add it to your .gitignore file.

Products don’t get updated when marking them available/unavailable

When updating products from the Shopify’s Admin section using the batch Make available or Make unavailable action, Algolia doesn’t update. This is because Shopify doesn’t send the proper webhook.

Update the availability of the products using the Availability field in the Bulk Editor:

1. Select the desired products.
2. Click Edit products.
3. If you don’t see the Availability field, add it using the Add fields button.
4. Mark the products as available or unavailable.

This action triggers the correct webhook from Shopify, which triggers an Algolia indexing.

This might be slower than using the batch action.

Products getting duplicated across multiple shops

If you have multiple shops using the same Algolia application, and see overlapping or duplicate products across them, this might mean the shops are sharing the same index. Ensure that different shops have different index prefixes. You can update prefixes by going to the Settings tab of the Algolia plugin.

Updating the prefix triggers a full reindex of your products, which might take some time.

The Algolia Autocomplete or InstantSearch isn’t visible

If you’ve installed the Algolia AI Search & Discovery app for the first time, or moved to a new theme, and the Algolia autocomplete or InstantSearch isn’t visible, then:

1. Make sure the Autocomplete and InstantSearch options are selected.

   • The InstantSearch option is available on the Search Options tab in the Search Page category.
   • The Autocomplete option is available on the Display tab in the Autocomplete category.

2. Ensure that the CSS selector for both these options is targeting the correct element.

3. Go to the Active Installation section on the Display tab, and select the Install to a new theme option.

After this, the Algolia autocomplete or InstantSearch should work as expected.

Invalid Algolia credentials during installation

If you see the error message “There was an error with your Algolia credentials” when entering your credentials, then:

• Make sure you’ve entered the correct credentials.

Further support

If your Algolia plan includes commercial support, contact the Algolia Support team. Otherwise, visit the Algolia community.