Is your purchase tracking still working after 26 August?

If you didn't touch your Thank you page this summer, your ads might be flying blind.

Orders still come in. Shopify still shows every sale. But Google Analytics shows fewer purchases than it used to, or Meta says your campaigns stopped converting around the end of August. Nothing on the store looks broken, so it's easy to miss.

The short answer: if your purchase tracking lived in the old Additional scripts box, it no longer runs on the new Thank you and Order status pages. Test it today, and move anything that's missing to an app pixel or a custom pixel under Settings → Customer events. If you're getting ready for Black Friday, it's one of the checks in our Black Friday store check.

What changed on 26 August

Shopify has been replacing the old Thank you and Order status pages (the pages a customer sees after paying) with new versions built on checkout extensions. It happened in two stages:

• Shopify Plus stores: 28 August 2025.
• Every other plan: 26 August 2026 was the deadline to upgrade.

Two things matter for tracking.

The Additional scripts box is view-only. Since 28 August 2025, you can't edit the Additional scripts section in your checkout settings. For years, that box was where people pasted the Google Analytics purchase code, the Meta pixel purchase event, affiliate tags and survey scripts. Shopify's upgrade guide says scripts used for tracking and analytics have to be replaced on the new pages. Anything you didn't replace doesn't run there.

Old app script tags stopped running. Some apps added code to the Order status page with script tags. Shopify's developer docs say script tags stopped running on that page for Plus stores on 28 August 2025, and for all other stores on 26 August 2026. Shopify points apps that track conversions to web pixels instead.

There's one more change from earlier that catches people out. As of February 2025, Meta pixels and Google tags that hadn't been set up through their apps were removed from Online Store → Preferences and converted into custom pixels. Shopify notes this "might result in a reduction in measurement performance and features". If you set up tracking a few years ago by pasting an ID into Preferences, it's worth checking how it's running now.

Check where your store stands

1. Go to Settings → Checkout and look at the Configurations section.
2. If you see a notice asking you to upgrade your Thank you and Order status pages, your store is still on the old versions. Click Review to open your upgrade guide.
3. The guide groups any Additional scripts it finds by purpose, such as order tracking. Use it as your list of what needs replacing before you upgrade.
4. If there's no notice, you're on the new pages. Anything that used to sit in Additional scripts needs to exist somewhere else now, which the test below will tell you.

Before you replace anything, copy the contents of the Additional scripts box into a document so you have a record of every tool that used to fire on purchase.

A two-minute test for GA4 and Meta

You don't need to read code to know whether a purchase is being tracked. Buy something and see who notices.

1. Look at your pixels

Go to Settings → Customer events. This page lists app pixels (added by apps like Google & YouTube or Facebook & Instagram) and custom pixels (code added by hand). Check that the pixels you expect are there and connected.

If you see both an app pixel and a custom pixel for the same platform, for example two Meta pixels, that can double count your purchases. Meta's setup in Shopify warns about exactly this.

2. Open the Pixel Helper

On the Customer events page, open the menu next to a pixel and choose Test. This opens your store with the Shopify Pixel Helper, which lists each event the pixel receives:

• A green dot means the event was received.
• A red dot means something went wrong.

If it says the pixel is awaiting consent, accept tracking in your cookie banner or click Give consent to continue test. In places that require consent, such as the UK and the EEA, pixels only run once the visitor allows them. That's expected, and it's one reason your numbers will never match Shopify's exactly.

3. Place a real order

Purchase events only fire when an order is completed, so you need one. Buy a low-cost product with your own card, then refund it. Shopify advises against using Shopify Payments test mode on a live store, because real customers can't pay while it's on.

In the Pixel Helper, look for checkout_completed. That's Shopify's purchase event, and it's what your app pixels pass on to Google and Meta.

4. Check Google Analytics

In GA4, open the Realtime report. The Event count by Event name card shows what fired in the last 30 minutes. Look for purchase, then click it to see the value and currency. It should match your order, in USD if that's your store currency.

GA4 also has DebugView, but it only shows devices with debug mode turned on. Realtime is the quicker check for this.

5. Check Meta

In Meta Events Manager, open your data source (your pixel) and go to the Test events tab. Look for a Purchase event with the right value. Turn off any ad blocker first, since it can stop the pixel from sending anything. If nothing appears within about a minute, refresh and try again.

If the order is in Shopify and the Pixel Helper shows checkout_completed, but GA4 or Meta shows nothing, the problem is the connection to that platform. If the Pixel Helper shows nothing at all, the pixel isn't running on the new pages.

Moving to Customer events and custom pixels

Once you know what's missing, fix it in this order. Apps first, custom code last.

Use the official apps first

Most stores only need two:

• Google & YouTube. Connect your Google Analytics 4 property in the app. Once the Google tag is set up, Shopify tracks ecommerce events automatically, including completed purchases. You don't add any code.
• Facebook & Instagram. In the app, go to Settings → Data sharing settings and choose a level: Standard, Enhanced or Maximum. Standard uses the pixel in the browser only, which ad blockers can stop. Enhanced adds Meta's Conversions API, which sends purchase events from server to server, so fewer are lost.

Other tools, such as affiliate networks, TikTok, Pinterest and post-purchase surveys, usually have their own Shopify apps that install an app pixel. Check the app's listing or ask the developer whether it supports the new Thank you page. Shopify's upgrade guide flags apps that need an update from their developer.

Then remove the old version. If you hand-pasted a Meta pixel into your theme years ago and you now use the app, you have two pixels sending the same purchase. Delete the old one.

Use a custom pixel only when there's no app

If a tool has no Shopify app, you can add its code as a custom pixel:

1. Go to Settings → Customer events.
2. Add a custom pixel and give it a name.
3. Under Customer privacy, check the Permission and Data sale settings. New pixels require marketing and analytics permission by default.
4. Paste the code into the Code window and click Save.
5. Click Connect to start tracking, then run the Pixel Helper test again.

Two warnings from Shopify's own help pages. Custom pixels need JavaScript knowledge, and Shopify doesn't support them, so you're responsible for the code, consent and updates. And old Additional scripts usually can't be pasted in as they are. Custom pixels run in a sandbox: they can't add anything to the page, and they listen for Shopify's events (like checkout_completed) instead of reading the page directly. The code often needs rewriting, which is a job for a developer.

Then compare a week of numbers

After the fix, give it a week. Compare orders in Shopify with purchases in GA4 and Meta for the same days. They won't match exactly, because of consent choices, ad blockers and how each platform counts. What you're looking for is the gap shrinking from "most purchases missing" to "a few".

If your conversion rate looks odd at the same time, that may be a different issue. Our guide to bot traffic and your conversion rate explains how bots and Shopify's 21 September sessions change affect the numbers.

What to do next

1. Check Settings → Checkout for an upgrade notice, and copy anything in Additional scripts into a document.
2. Check Settings → Customer events for the pixels you expect, and for duplicates.
3. Place a real order, refund it, and watch for checkout_completed in the Pixel Helper, purchase in GA4 Realtime and Purchase in Meta's Test events.
4. Reconnect Google and Meta through their official apps, and remove any old hand-pasted pixels.
5. Add a custom pixel only for tools with no app, and have a developer rewrite the code.

Tracking is only half the picture. If purchases are tracked but there just aren't many, start with traffic but no sales. And if you want a second pair of eyes on your store, talk to us.