Testing and Troubleshooting

How to test a customer experience template before you launch it, and how to fix the most common things that look wrong. Almost everything comes down to a variant's status, its stock, or where the customer experience template is scoped, all of which you can check yourself in a couple of minutes.

Before you go live

Run through this quick checklist on any product you are about to launch:

• The customer experience template has the functionality you want, and that functionality shows as Active on the Functionality tab.
• The product is attached to the customer experience template (from the Products section), and its Start Date has been reached.
• The product is Active (published) in Shopify, not Draft or archived. A Draft product has no live storefront page, so no functionality can appear on it, publish it first, then check the storefront.
• The variant reads Active where you expect the functionality to show, not On standby. Active means it is live now, On standby means the customer experience template is set up but its stock condition is not met yet.
• The variant's Shopify stock matches the When Pre-order shows mode you chose (see the per-functionality notes below).
• If you use Specific countries, Shopify markets, or Specific locations, your store is on the PRO plan, those need it.
• If you added a language, it is published in Shopify and the customer experience template's text is translated in Translate & Adapt.

How to test

1. Preview in a fresh session

Open the product page in an incognito or private window. This skips any cached session and shows the storefront the way a real shopper sees it.

1. Check each variant

What shows is decided per variant, so the button depends on the selected variant. Open the product, then switch between variants (sizes, colours) and watch the button and badge change. You can also jump straight to a specific variant by adding its ID to the URL, for example /products/your-product?variant=1234567890.

1. Know what each state should look like

• Active variant: the functionality button and message appear (plus the badge or timer, if you turned them on).
• On standby variant: the storefront still shows the normal Add to Cart or Sold Out, because the stock condition is not met yet.
• A variant with no functionality attached: normal Add to Cart or Sold Out, untouched.

This is all expected. A product that mixes Active and On standby variants will change appearance as you switch variant.

1. Place a test order

Confirm the whole flow, including checkout, with a real test order. Two easy ways:

• Shopify's Bogus Gateway, which simulates payment with no real charge. Remember to turn test mode back off afterwards, customers cannot place real orders while it is on. See Shopify's guide: Shopify test orders.
• Or, on your live store, create a 100% discount code and use it to place a real checkout at no cost, then delete the code afterwards. Handy when you do not want to switch your payment provider into test mode.

1. Check the order

After the test order, open it in Shopify and confirm the pre-order or functionality applied as expected, then check Analytics for the recorded event. Cancel and refund any test order you placed through a real provider.

1. Test notifications

If you use Built-in emails, open the notification and click Send Test. If you route through Klaviyo or Shopify Flow, use their own preview and test tools.

1. Test per market (if you scope by market)

If a customer experience template is scoped to specific countries or Shopify markets, test from that market, for example with your store's country or market selector, so you see the version a shopper there gets.

Troubleshooting

The button does not change to the functionality button

• Likely cause: the variant is On standby, not Active, so its stock condition is not met. Or the product is not attached to the customer experience template, the Start Date has not been reached, or the shopper's market is not in the customer experience template's scope.
• Fix: open the product in the Products list and check the variant's status. For a functionality that turns on when out of stock (Pre-order in that mode, Coming Soon, Back in Stock), the variant's stock must be 0. For Low Stock, the available quantity must be at or below your Quantity threshold. For Pre-order set to "regardless of levels," it should be Active straight away. If stock looks right and it is still On standby, check that the inventory location scope is reading the location that actually holds the stock.

No button shows at all on my pre-order product

• Likely cause: the Pre-order button replaces your theme's standard Add to Cart button, so that button has to be on the product page. If your theme hides or removes Add to Cart (for example a layout that sells through Buy it Now only, or a custom product template), there is nothing for us to take over and no button renders. Buy it Now cannot stand in for it, it is an accelerated checkout button that skips the cart, which is where pre-order terms attach, so we hide it on pre-order products.
• Fix: in Shopify, Online Store → Themes → Customize, open the product template and make sure the standard Add to Cart button is shown, then re-check the product in an incognito window. If your page uses a custom purchase button, send us the product link and we will map the Pre-order button to it.

The Pre-order button shows Sold Out, or the item won't add to cart, even though the variant is Active

• Likely cause: for the out-of-stock pre-order modes, a variant at 0 stock stays buyable only because Shopify's "Continue selling when out of stock" is switched on. Timesact turns this on automatically when the pre-order activates, but another inventory or fulfillment app, or a manual edit in Shopify, can switch it back off. When it's off, Shopify treats the 0-stock variant as unavailable, so it shows Sold Out or errors on add to cart, even while Timesact still reads the variant as Active.
• Fix: in your Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product, then select the affected variant. In the variant's Inventory section, tick Continue selling when out of stock, and save. Re-check the storefront in an incognito window, the Pre-order button should now add to cart. If it keeps switching off, an inventory or fulfillment app is most likely turning it back off after each sync, so check that app's settings. Avoid disabling "Continue selling" store-wide to fix a single variant, since that affects every active pre-order variant. If you're not sure which app is responsible, reach out to us with the product link and we'll help track it down.

My bundle product will not take a pre-order

• Likely cause: a component inside the bundle is out of stock and cannot be sold while out of stock. With Shopify's native bundles the bundle product holds no inventory of its own, Shopify works out how many bundles are sellable from the products inside it, and the component with the lowest stock sets the availability of the whole bundle. If one component hits 0 without Continue selling when out of stock switched on, Shopify treats the bundle as unavailable, and the pre-order button has nothing it can add to the cart. This is decided on the Shopify side before Timesact is involved, which is why a bundle can behave differently from the individual products you have already set up.
• Fix: in your Shopify admin open Products, open the bundle product and note its components. Open each component, select each variant that is part of the bundle, tick Continue selling when out of stock in the variant's Inventory section and save, for every component that could reach zero during your pre-order window. Do the same on the bundle product itself. Then in the Timesact app open Products and confirm the bundle is attached to your customer experience template and reads Active rather than On standby, and re-check the product page in an incognito window. If it still will not add to cart, send us the bundle's product link and the components it contains.

The badge is not showing

• Likely cause: the badge is off by default on every functionality.
• Fix: open the customer experience template, go to Product page (and Collection page too, if you want it there), open the Badge section for that functionality, and turn it on. The badge only appears on Active variants, so also confirm the variant's status as above.
• On collection pages specifically, the badge appears only when every variant of the product is Active. If one variant is still On standby, the collection badge stays hidden even though the product-page badge can show. See Pre-order → Collection page.

A pre-order product disappeared from its collection page after it sold out

• Likely cause: with "Only when out of stock", the variant hits 0 stock and correctly becomes a pre-order, but if "Continue selling when out of stock" is not on for it, Shopify still reports the product as unavailable, and many themes hide unavailable products from their collection grids. So the product can sell out, switch to Pre-order properly, and still drop off the collection page.
• Fix: make sure Continue selling is on for the pre-order variants. In the Pre-order functionality's Continue selling setting, turn on Auto-enable (it sets this for you when pre-order activates and reverts it when it deactivates), or tick "Continue selling when out of stock" on the variant in Shopify. Once the product reads as available again, your theme keeps showing it in the collection. If it still does not appear, your theme may be filtering sold-out products in a way we can adjust, reach out with the collection link.

The button does not update when switching variants

• Likely cause: switching to a variant that is On standby or has no functionality attached correctly shows the normal button, that part is expected. If the button does not change at all on any variant, it is usually a theme compatibility issue with how your theme swaps variants.
• Also likely on newer themes: some themes, including Shopify's Horizon, redraw the product section when a shopper switches variant instead of reloading the page. When that redraw lands after Timesact has applied its button, the theme's own markup is what you end up seeing, so the button can switch correctly for a moment and then revert to Add to Cart or Sold Out. It can behave differently on a custom theme block than on the default layout of the same theme.
• Fix: first confirm the variant you switched to is actually Active (in the Timesact app, open Products and expand the product to see each variant's status). If an Active variant still does not show the functionality button after switching, or it shows it and then reverts, this needs a small theme-side adjustment on our end, reach out to us with the product link, the variant you're testing, and your theme (a preview link is fine).
• If you're a developer and want to read a variant's pre-order state directly from your own code, tell us what you're building and we'll share the storefront configuration object and the best way to hook into it.

The Pre-order or Notify Me button does not appear in Quick View or Quick Add (or a custom collection layout)

• Likely cause: Quick View and Quick Add pop-ups, and some custom collection or featured-product layouts, are built by your theme and often use different markup from the standard product page. The Timesact button, whether it is the Pre-order button or the Back in Stock / Notify Me button, can work on the product page while a Quick View pop-up still shows Add to Cart or Sold Out, or it appears blank and unresponsive there.
• Fix: first confirm the variant is Active and the button works on the full product page (open it in an incognito window). If it works there but not inside Quick View, Quick Add, or a custom collection block, this needs a small theme-side adjustment on our end, reach out to us with the product link, the functionality involved (Pre-order or Back in Stock), and where you want the button to appear.

I see two buttons, or a duplicated badge or timer

• Likely cause: something other than the app is also rendering the element, usually a leftover script from a previous pre-order or back-in-stock setup still in your theme, or another installed app showing its own button, badge, or timer for the same product.
• Fix: think about what changed just before the duplicate appeared. If you previously used another pre-order, back-in-stock, or timer app, uninstalling it does not always remove the code it added to your theme. Disable or remove the extra source and the duplicate goes away. If you cannot find it, reach out to us with the product link and we will locate and remove it, theme-side clean-up is handled on our end.

The functionality is set up in admin but nothing shows on the storefront

• Likely cause: the product is in Draft (or archived) in Shopify so it has no live storefront page, the product is not attached to the customer experience template, the Start Date is in the future, the variant is On standby, or the shopper's market is outside the customer experience template's scope.
• Fix: work through these in order. First, in Shopify open Products and confirm the product's status is Active, not Draft or archived (a Draft product has no public page for the functionality to appear on), and that it is available on the Online Store sales channel. Then confirm the product is attached to the customer experience template in the Products list, that the Start Date is today or in the past, and that the variant reads Active, not On standby. Attaching the product, publishing it in Shopify, and reaching the Start Date are the most common misses.

It works on one variant but not another

• Likely cause: status and stock are per variant, so each variant is judged on its own.
• Fix: check the status of the specific variant that is not working, it is likely On standby while the working one is Active.

It stopped working right after editing variants in Shopify

• Likely cause: editing or recreating variants in Shopify can change their variant IDs, which breaks the link to the customer experience template.
• Fix: often you can fix this yourself, in the Timesact app open Products, remove the product, and add it again with all variants selected to rebuild the link, see Adding Products. If it still isn't behaving, reach out to us with the product link so we can relink it. Where possible, avoid recreating variants on a live pre-order product.

The Pre-order button shows, but the shipping date or message is missing on some products

• Likely cause: the product's saved settings and the storefront have fallen out of step, so the button renders while the shipping date and message it should carry do not come through. It usually affects a few products rather than the whole catalogue, and the setup looks correct in the app, because it is. This is not something you have done wrong.
• Fix: first confirm the date is set where it is read from, in the Timesact app open Experiences, open the customer experience template attached to the product, go to Functionality settings → Shipping, check the option you want is selected (Exact date, Period, Interval, or As soon as possible) and save, then re-check the product page in an incognito window. If it is still missing on that product while others show theirs, rebuild that product's settings, in the Timesact app open Products, remove the product, then add it again with all variants selected and its customer experience template ticked, see Adding Products. If the product is live and already taking pre-orders, reach out to us with the product links instead and we will refresh them from our side so the button stays up the whole time.

Translated text is not appearing

• Likely cause: the language is not published, or the customer experience template's text was not translated and saved for that language.
• Fix: in Shopify, Settings → Languages, confirm the language is published, then translate the Timesact entry for it in Translate & Adapt and save.

A pre-order email did not arrive

• Likely cause: the notification is set to Draft, the channel is routed elsewhere, or, for a custom sender domain, the DNS records are not verified.
• Fix: open Notifications, confirm the notification is Live, confirm the functionality's channel is the one you expect, and if you use a custom domain, confirm its DNS records show as verified.

A PRO option is locked

• Likely cause: Specific countries, Shopify markets, and Specific locations need the PRO plan.
• Fix: upgrade to PRO, or use Global market scope and All locations, which work on every plan.

Some pre-orders come through at full price, with no pre-order terms, when customers use "Buy it Now" or Shop Pay

• Likely cause: the pre-order terms attach when a shopper adds the item with the normal Add to Cart button and moves through the cart to checkout. Shopify's native dynamic checkout buttons, Buy it Now and the Shop Pay accelerated checkout, send the order straight to checkout and don't carry the pre-order terms, so those orders come through as a normal purchase: charged in full, with no pre-order discount and no deferred or shipping terms.
• Fix: the clean fix is to hide the dynamic checkout buttons on pre-order products, so every pre-order goes through the cart. Reach out to us with your store link and we'll set this up on a copy of your live theme first, so you can preview it before it goes live. Your in-stock products keep their Buy it Now / Shop Pay buttons as normal. Prefer to do it yourself? In your Shopify admin you can turn off dynamic checkout buttons in the theme editor (Online Store, Themes, Customize, the product template's buy-buttons block), or per product template. Note this hides them for that whole scope, not only for pre-order products, so if you only want them hidden while a product is on pre-order, tell us and we'll scope it to pre-order products for you. After the change, place a test order from the product page and open the order in Shopify to confirm the pre-order terms are applied.

The Pre-order button works, but the order comes through at full price with no pre-order terms

• Likely cause: the button is what shows on the product page, the pre-order terms attach to the item as it goes into the cart. If your theme's product form carries a duplicate empty field for the pre-order purchase option after the real one, the browser sends the empty one and the terms are cleared, so the item is added as an ordinary purchase even though the button said Pre-order. Page builders and customised product templates are the usual source.
• Fix: check it in about two minutes. Open the product page in an incognito window, click Pre-order, open the cart, and look at the line: a working pre-order shows your cart label and, if you set a discount, the pre-order price rather than the full price. If it looks like an ordinary product, reach out to us with the product link and the variant you tested, we will capture a real add to cart on your store, confirm which field is being submitted, and correct the form on a copy of your theme first. If the shopper used Buy it Now or Shop Pay instead, see the entry above.

A cart or order looks wrong for an item that was added before the pre-order was set up

• Likely cause: the item was already sitting in a shopper's cart. Shopify keeps each cart line exactly as it was when it was added, and neither Shopify nor Timesact can update or remove what is already in someone's cart. So an item added before you set the pre-order up, or before you last edited your cart wording, keeps its earlier state: it can check out on normal terms without the pre-order tag, or show wording you have since changed. This is the ordinary explanation for a few orders slipping through on a store where everything else works, and carts can sit for weeks.
• Fix: open the product page in an incognito window, so a fresh empty cart, and add the item again. If the line is right there, your setup is fine and what you saw was an older cart. To clear the cart you were looking at, remove the item, refresh the page, and add it again. Orders that already came through on normal terms cannot be retagged retroactively, tag or note them in Shopify so they stay with the rest of the campaign. If it keeps happening on new carts, it is one of the two causes above instead.

Known limitations

• Cart settings (cart label and cart pop-up) are available for Pre-order only. Other functionality has no cart configuration.
• Some functionality is display-only and has no notifications yet, for example Coming Soon and Low Stock.
• Some functionality cannot be combined, for example Pre-order and Coming Soon cannot both apply to the same product.

Still stuck?

If something is not working after these checks, reach out to us with the product link and which variant you are testing, and we will take a look. Theme-level adjustments, like a button that will not swap on variant change, are handled on our side.

Updated on: 08/11/2026