Shopify Redirects Not Working: Common Reasons and Fixes 2026

Are your Shopify redirects not working as intended? Well, that can be cumbersome, as broken redirects not only frustrate shoppers who visit your store but also hurt your store’s growth. They affect site navigation, reduce customer trust, and lead to higher bounce rates. Additionally, inconsistent redirects also prevent search engines from indexing your site properly, which can result in lower rankings and numerous missed sales opportunities. 

Therefore, it is important to identify the common causes of non-functional Shopify redirects and fix them as soon as possible. 

If you don’t know how to do that, then don’t worry, you are at the right place. 

In this blog, we will discuss all the possible causes of your Shopify redirects not working, such as broken source URLs, third-party app conflicts, etc. And we will be guiding you through simple, effective, and proven solutions to deal with all such issues. 

So, buckle up as we deep dive into the specifics! 

Common Reasons Why Shopify Redirects Do Not Work (With Solutions) 

Let’s now look at the list of common reasons why your Shopify redirects may not be working and how you can deal with them. 

Note: In this blog, we use “Shopify redirects not working” as an umbrella term. That means we cover all possible issues, whether redirects fail after a rule has been created or whether you cannot even set up a rule in the first place. For example, if you’ve hit Shopify’s redirect limit, you may not be able to create a new redirect at all. While that isn’t technically a “redirect not working” issue, it still prevents redirects from functioning as intended. This blog brings all such cases together to give you a comprehensive guide to fixing redirect-related problems.

Source URL is Still Valid

If the source URL still points to an active and valid webpage, then Shopify redirects won’t work. This is because in Shopify, you can only create redirects for pages that return errors such as ‘404’, ‘Page not found’, etc. 

Note: The source URL is the original web page/link you want to redirect users from.

Example: If the path ‘/products/old-shirt/’ still loads to a valid webpage, and if you create a redirect rule in Shopify admin to send users to a new path like ‘/products/new-shirt/’, it won’t work. 

Solution 

Ensure that you delete or archive the particular Shopify page (which is no longer required) for which you are adding a redirect. Once the original page doesn’t exist, Shopify will ensure that the redirect takes effect. 

Pro tip: After deleting or archiving a page, confirm if it shows a 404 error. You can do this by manually searching the URL in your browser and checking if it is no longer loading.

Use of Disallowed URL Paths

Shopify doesn’t allow redirects from certain specific URL prefixes and fixed Shopify paths. These include:

• /apps
• /application
• /cart
• /carts
• /orders
• /services
• /shop
• /products
• /collections
• /collections/all

This is because these paths are important to Shopify’s platform and also help serve some of its built-in functions. Therefore, attempting to redirect users from these pages to other URLs using Shopify’s own redirects will fail. 

Solution

As such, there’s no plausible solution to such redirects failing. We recommend that you refrain from adding redirects for these types of pages. In an attempt to send users to other pages, you will break Shopify’s default functionality, which can have a serious impact on your store’s performance.  

Typo or Incorrect Redirect Target

One of the most common reasons why Shopify redirects don’t work is misspellings or typos in the redirect path. If the redirect target URL is invalid, users will land on a broken page, or the redirect will not work at all. 

Example: You create a redirect from ‘products/red-shirt’ to ‘products/yellow-shrit’. Due to the typo in “shrit,” the redirect doesn’t work, and shoppers continue to see a 404 error. 

Solution 

We recommend that, before creating the final redirect in the Shopify admin: 

1. You always manually check the target URLs for spelling and structure issues. 
2. You test the target URL yourself in a browser and confirm that it leads to a valid webpage.  

This will help ensure that you never worry about your Shopify redirects not working due to typos or incorrect URLs. 

Overlapping Redirects 

Shopify redirects will also fail if there is already an existing redirect for the same source URL. This is because Shopify does not allow you to create duplicate redirects. 

For example, if, for the source URL /products/pink-jeans, you are already sending users to /products/yellow-jeans, then you cannot later try to redirect the same /products/pink-jeans webpage to a URL like /collections/sale. It simply won’t work. Shopify will not allow you to create the redirect rule and show an error “Path has already been taken,” as visible in the image below. 

Solution

Before adding a new redirect, always check if the source URL already has existing redirects. 

To do this, go to your Shopify admin > Content > Menus > URL redirects. There, you will get a list of all source URLs under ‘Redirect from’ and their corresponding target URLs under ‘Redirect to.’ 

If a redirect exists for a particular URL, you must edit or delete it before creating a new one. 

Third-party App Interference 

If you are using third-party Shopify apps in your store, then there is a chance that your Shopify redirects do not function properly as intended. This is because many of these apps apply their own logic for navigation or page behavior. 

For example, a geolocation app might automatically send a German visitor to the European version of your site even if there is an existing redirect rule. 

Similarly, checkout or pop-up apps may also interfere with your redirects. A checkout app may direct a user to a special checkout page with custom payment options, thereby ignoring your Shopify redirect. Pop-up apps may trigger automatic actions, such as directing users to a discount page or sign-up form, which can disrupt the flow of your redirect.

Solution

Disable each app one by one and test your redirects to identify which one is causing the issues. Once you find it, adjust the app’s settings to ensure that it doesn’t affect your Shopify redirects. 

If adjusting the app’s settings doesn’t help, it is best to contact the app’s developer for support. Even if contacting the app developer doesn’t resolve the redirect issue, it’s wise to explore alternative apps. 

Shopify Platform or Server Issues 

In rare cases, your Shopify redirects can also fail due to Shopify’s own server configuration and platform issues. 

For example, a user shared an instance where their redirects involving .php file extensions or legacy paths didn’t operate properly and resulted in errors such as “400 Bad Request.” 

Initially, they thought that it was the file extension or legacy URL path that was causing issues. However, over time, the issue resolved on its own as Shopify fixed an underlying server configuration issue from their side. 

Solution

Generally, such platform-related issues resolve on their own, and there’s not much you can do as a merchant. 

However, we do recommend that you: 

• Check Shopify’s official status page whenever your redirects fail to determine whether it’s an issue with their system operability. 
• Contact Shopify’s support team and share the exact URLs and issues that you are facing if you don’t find any setup issues on your end. 

These two steps will help you determine whether your Shopify redirects are not working properly due to issues on your end or on Shopify’s end. 

Subdomain Issues

If you are trying to add a redirect for a URL from a subdomain that is not connected to your Shopify account, then it will not work. 

Let’s understand this better with an example. If your domain is example.com, and if you try to add a redirect from blog.example.com, it won’t work unless the ‘blog’ subdomain is connected to your Shopify account. 

Solution

To connect a subdomain to your Shopify account, follow these steps: 

1. From your Shopify Admin, go to Settings, and then Domains. 
2. Click on your root domain. 
3. Navigate to the Subdomains section and click on Add Subdomain. 
4. Then, enter the prefix you want to add for the subdomain.
   • If it’s an international subdomain, you will need to enter its two-letter country code. For example, ‘eu’ for Europe. 
   • For all other cases, add the exact text that you want to add as a prefix. 

5. Click on Save, and the process will be complete. 

After this connection, your redirects from that subdomain will work normally.

Caching (Browser, CDN, Server-Level)

Your Shopify redirects can also fail because of caching. When a page is cached, the URL’s old version may load instead of the new updated redirect. This often confuses merchants, as their Shopify redirect is set up properly, but the cache doesn’t allow it to appear immediately. 

💡 Cached data can come from your browser, a Content Distribution Network (CDN), or even server-level caching.

Solution

To fix cache issues and allow your redirects to function properly, follow these steps:  

• Clear the cache and cookies of your browser. 
• Hard refresh the redirect page. 

Pro tip: To hard refresh the page on a Windows computer, use the command Ctrl + Shift + R. For Mac, use Cmd + Shift + R.

• If you use a CDN like Cloudflare, clear the cache from its dashboard. 
• Allow your server-level cache to expire by waiting for a few hours. 

With these steps, you can clear the cache and check if your Shopify redirects are working properly or if the issue is stemming from another source. 

Maximum Redirect Limit Reached

Shopify has certain limits regarding the maximum number of redirects you can create in your store. These limits include: 

• 100,000 URL redirects for stores on the ‘Basic’, ‘Growth’, and ‘Advanced’ plans. 
• 20,000,000 URL redirects for stores on the ‘Plus’ plan. 

If you reach these limits, you will not be able to manually create or import new Shopify redirects. 

Solution 

There are several ways to deal with Shopify redirect limits and ensure that your operations don’t come to a halt:

1. Remove outdated and unnecessary redirects that are no longer required. Doing this will free up space in your redirect list and allow you to add new ones.
2. If you are on the ‘Basic’, ‘Growth’, and ‘Advanced’ plans, then you can upgrade to the ‘Plus’ plan. That will allow you to add 19,000,000 more URL redirects than your previous plan. 

Bonus: Shopify Plus vs Shopify Advanced: Which One Is Right For You?

HTML File Extensions 

Merchants often think that Shopify redirects are broken when they are trying to redirect URLs ending with ‘.html’. 

For example, when migrating from platforms like Adobe Commerce (Magento), etc., they try to set up a redirect like this: 

From: /products/abcbrand.html → to: /products/abcbrand 

However, in all such cases, the Shopify redirect won’t work. In fact, Shopify might not simply register the rule. This is primarily because Shopify treats both URLs (with and without .html) as the same. 

Solution 

Don’t manually create redirects for .html URLs. This is because Shopify will automatically resolve them to the cleaner version (without .html). 

Instead, update your menus, sitemaps, and internal links to ensure that none of the URLs include .html. This will help you maintain a consistent site structure, improve SEO benefits for your site, and avoid unnecessary redirect confusion. 

Query Strings and Special Characters 

If your source URL has query strings or special characters, then you can run into redirect issues. 

So, redirects for URLs like ‘/laptops/gaming?_sort=price&brand=acer’ may not work properly. 

Solution 

You should set up redirects only for the clean path (e.g., /laptops/gaming). If query parameters are genuinely required, we recommend handling those through apps, JavaScript, etc. 

International Markets and Subfolder Issues

If you create a redirect for one market, just know that it will not automatically apply to other market subfolders. 

This means that if you set a redirect from ‘examplestore.com/uk/sale’ to examplestore.com/uk/, only visitors browsing the UK version of your store will be redirected. Customers visiting the German version of your site at ‘examplestore.com/de/sale’ will still see the old (existing) broken page. 

Solution 

To deal with this challenge, you should create individual redirects for each subfolder. This will help ensure that shoppers in every region reach the correct destination. 

So, for the UK, you should set the redirect like /uk/sale → /uk/offers, and similarly for France, it has to be /fr/sale → /fr/offers. 

Also read: Shopify Collective: An Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Success Understanding Shopify Markets For Global Expansion [ 2025 ] Shopify Audiences: A Detailed Guide

Best Practices for Seamless Functioning of Shopify Redirects

Now, we will be discussing some best practices to follow for setting up redirects in your Shopify store.  

Set Up URLs Immediately After Changing URLs or Removing Content 

Whenever you archive or delete a product, or make changes to any URL on your Shopify store, we recommend setting up a redirect right away. Delays can cause customers or search engines to land on 404 error pages, which can harm your business reputation, increase bounce rates, and negatively impact your SEO. 

Leverage Shopify’s Bulk Import and Export Functionality 

We recommend using Shopify’s built-in bulk import and export feature if you have extensive redirect requirements. 

It is helpful for both importing and exporting hundreds of URLs in one go via CSV files. This becomes especially useful in scenarios such as: 

1. When you are migrating from another platform, such as WooCommerce or Adobe Commerce, to Shopify, and need to import a large number of redirects quickly. 
2. You need to export your current set of redirects for bulk editing, auditing, or just backup purposes. 

By using this feature, you can save a lot of time and effort. Moreover, it also helps to minimize the scope for errors that can occur otherwise during manual management. 

Use Shopify Redirect Apps

We also recommend that you don’t rely solely on Shopify’s native functionality when creating redirects. Instead, broaden your horizons and explore third-party Shopify redirect apps. 

This is because Shopify’s native functionality can fall short of many essential features, such as: 

1. Notifying merchants about broken (404 links) 
2. Allowing wildcard URL redirects, etc. 
3. Creating redirects for those pages that are still active.

Third-party apps excel in such areas and ensure that they go the extra mile to offer seamless redirects for 404 pages. 

One great example to consider is the Nabu Fast 301 & 404 Redirects app. It allows you to: 

1. Auto-detect 404 pages instantly across your store within your Shopify dashboard.
2. Seamlessly create redirect rules to send users to any page within or outside the Shopify ecosystem without any coding. 
3. Bulk import and export redirect URLs via CSV files.
4. Create wildcard redirects that help you redirect an entire group of patterned URLs in one go. For example, if your old product URLs were structured like /products/old-collection/, you can redirect everything under that path to /products/new-collection/ with just a few clicks! 

So instead of creating hundreds of individual redirects, you can simply create one wildcard rule and handle them all. This helps save time, preserve the SEO value of your site, and ensure customers always land on the right page. 

5. Get access to a unified dashboard that reflects key metrics related to the number of broken 404 links, broken 404 visits, and ignored links in the last 30 days. This makes it easy to stay on top of 404 errors and fix them before they impact your store’s growth.

And the best part? AdNabu’s Redirect Manager app is free, with no hidden costs. You can install it right away and start redirecting broken Shopify pages to active ones with ease. 

Avoid Creating Redirect Chains

Always ensure that users are taken to the final destination after adding a redirect to an old URL. It shouldn’t be the case where you redirect an old page to an intermediate page, which then takes a user to several different pages before finally leading to the final page. 

For example, if you redirect product A to product B and later, due to some reason, if product B is discontinued and redirected to product C, update product A’s redirect directly to product C. 

Avoid creating redirect chains like Product A → B → C. This will help reduce unnecessary hops, prevent slow page loading times, and errors due to caching. 

Test All Links Thoroughly After Changes 

After you create Shopify redirects, always ensure that you check the setup yourself. This means you should: 

• Enter the old URL in your browser’s incognito mode and check if it leads to the right new URL. 
• Test the redirect setup across multiple devices to verify that the redirect works consistently for all users across different operating systems. 
• Verify that the redirect takes place only once and doesn’t bounce through multiple pages. 

This will help you catch and fix any potential errors early and ensure that your customers never go through a poor user experience. 

Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Shopify redirects have a direct impact on customer experience and search performance. When they fail, shoppers encounter broken pages, search engines struggle to index your store, and conversions drop. Fixing redirect issues quickly ensures visitors find the right pages, SEO value is preserved, and your store continues to grow without interruptions.

The key takeaways from this blog include: 

• Redirects only work when the original page shows a 404 or page not found error. If the source is still active and leads to a valid page, Shopify redirects will not work.
• Some Shopify paths, like /cart or /orders, cannot be redirected. Attempting to do so breaks platform functions and leads to failed rules.
• Typos or invalid target URLs cause redirects to fail. Always test the target link in a browser before saving to confirm it leads to a valid page.
• Overlapping or duplicate rules are not allowed. If a redirect already exists for a URL, you must edit or remove it before creating another.
• Third-party apps often override Shopify redirects and cause issues with your setup.  Testing by disabling apps one at a time is the most effective way to identify conflicts.
• Caching at the browser, CDN, or server level can delay redirect updates. When this happens, old versions of pages load even though the redirect is correctly set up. Clearing the cache or waiting for it to expire (at the server level) ensures redirects display properly. 
• Subdomains must be connected to your Shopify account, and international market subfolders require separate redirect rules. If either is missed, redirects from those paths will fail, leading customers to broken or outdated pages.
• Redirect chains weaken user experience and SEO by creating unnecessary hops. Instead of sending traffic through multiple steps, always update the original redirect to point straight to the final page.
• Third-party Shopify redirect apps like ‘Nabu Fast 301 & 401 Redirects’ simplify redirect management. They automatically detect broken links, support wildcard rules for patterned URLs, and manage bulk imports or exports. By doing so, they reduce manual errors, save significant time, and help preserve both user experience and SEO performance.

Over to you! 

FAQs

1. Why are my redirects not working?

Redirects can fail for several reasons. If the original page is still active, Shopify will not apply the redirect. Reserved URL paths like /cart or /orders cannot be redirected at all. Typos or invalid target URLs also cause failures, while overlapping rules for the same source path will not be allowed by Shopify.

In addition, conflicts with third-party apps such as geolocation, checkout, or pop-up tools can override your redirects. Cache at the browser, CDN, or server level may delay updates and display old versions of a page even when the redirect is set correctly. Subdomains not connected to Shopify can also prevent redirects from functioning as expected. These are some of the main reasons, and checking them systematically helps fix most redirect problems.

2. How to set up redirects in Shopify?

To create a redirect, go to Shopify Admin, then Content → Menus. From there, click on URL redirects in the top right corner. Add the “Redirect from” and “Redirect to” fields. For bulk needs, upload a CSV file to manage multiple redirects efficiently.

3. Are Shopify redirects 301 or 302?

Shopify uses 301 permanent redirects by default. 

4. What should I do if a redirect works on one browser but not another?

This issue usually comes from browser caching or conflicting extensions. Try clearing cache and cookies, testing in incognito, or disabling extensions. If the problem persists, retest across different devices and networks to confirm the redirect functions consistently everywhere.

Check Out These Related Articles:

• How To Set Up Shopify 301 Redirects
• How to Create Shopify Redirects to External URLs