Shopify keeps some records, but not one page that shows a product's fields before and after each edit. Its help pages describe an activity log of actions, a stock adjustment history for inventory, and a timeline on discounts. To see the old and new value of a product field, you need to have captured it, by exporting a file or by using an app such as Actorly, which records changes from the day you install it.
What Shopify does keep
These are the records Shopify's help pages describe. None of them is a field-by-field history of a product.
- The activity log. Date and time of recent actions by the owner or a user, each with the name of the person, app or channel. It is view-only, it cannot be exported, it shows at most 250 results, and it cannot show actions older than a set number of days. See how to see who changed a product.
- Inventory adjustment history. For a product or variant with inventory tracking on, you can view the last 180 days, with a Created by column naming the staff member, app or sales channel.
- The discount timeline. For a discount, it shows when the discount was created and when it is active or expired.
Shopify's help page on adding and updating products does not describe a product change history. In its "Edit a product" section it notes that changes can affect your reports, and it says you can change product details at any time.
What is not in those records
The activity log tells you an action happened. Shopify's page describes the entries as a date, a time, an action and a name, and it does not describe old and new values. If a product's title, vendor or tags were edited, you can read what they say now, and the log may tell you someone touched the product, but the earlier text is not on that page.
Deleting is the sharper case. Shopify says that when you delete a product it is permanently removed and deleted products can't be restored. Archiving is the route Shopify suggests when you want to stop selling something without removing it.
The workaround people use: export a file
Shopify lets you export products to a CSV file from the Products page, and says the file can be used for creating a backup of your products. A file is a snapshot of the day you made it. Two exports can be compared in a spreadsheet, which works if you remember to export before the edit that matters. Shopify notes the export does not include product images.
What Actorly records
Actorly is a Shopify app that keeps a searchable record of what changed in your store. For products it records title, description, status, vendor, type, tags, handle, SEO, category, publish state, options and images, with the value before and after each change. Variants are recorded separately, so a price change shows on its own rather than as a change to the whole product.
Each change shows the time and the old and new value. For product changes it also shows who made the change when Shopify reports it, beside a confidence word (Likely or Possible) or Unknown. It does not claim a name when Shopify has none to give.
The record starts when you install. Actorly cannot show what a product said before that. It is also not a copy of your store: it keeps changes, not a snapshot of every product. If you are weighing that against a backup app, read Is Actorly a backup?.
How long the history is kept
On the free plan, Actorly Watch, three months (90 days) of history is kept. On Actorly Restore, history is kept for as long as the store stays on Restore and Actorly stays installed. If a store moves from Restore to Watch, history older than 90 days is deleted after a 14-day notice, and upgrading again does not bring it back.
A routine until you have history
If Actorly is not installed yet, a habit helps: export your products to CSV before a big round of edits, and keep the file with a date in its name. When something looks wrong, open Shopify's activity log to see which actions happened recently and who they name, then compare the product with your last export. It is manual, and it is as good as your last export, but it costs nothing.
Search it
Search covers the change summary, the item's name, field names and values. A person's name is not a search term unless it appears in the text of the change; to find changes by person, use the Who filter. The docs show how.
What is tracked besides products
Actorly tracks 25 parts of a Shopify store, such as collections, discounts, themes and menus, and the Coverage page says which are recorded when Shopify sends a notice and which are checked on a schedule. Pages, blogs, articles, menus, URL redirects, price lists, policies and files are checked weekly on Watch and daily on Restore.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see what a product looked like last week in Shopify?
Not from a page of its own. The help pages describe an activity log of actions and some narrower records, not a field-by-field history. A CSV export taken last week would hold last week's values.
Does the activity log show the old value?
Shopify's help page describes each entry as an action with a date, time and name. It does not describe old and new values.
Can Actorly show history from before I installed it?
No. The record starts at install.
Does Actorly cost anything to see history?
Seeing is free. The free plan keeps three months of history. Pricing lists both plans.