- Short answer
- Tick Track quantity in the Products bulk editor for single-variant products (our October 2026 test); untick it in the Inventory bulk editor to stop.
- Products bulk editor
- Ticking Track quantity turned tracking on for two single-variant products in our October 14, 2026 test.
- Untracked variants
- They don't appear on the Inventory page, so you can't select them there.
- CSV import
- Inventory tracker set to shopify tracks a variant; select overwrite, or matching handles are ignored.
- Greyed-out checkbox
- The variant is in an unfulfilled order or an active inventory transfer.
How do you turn tracking on for many products at once?
- Products
- Bulk edit
- Columns
- Track quantity
- On the Products page, select the single-variant products and click Bulk edit.
- Under Columns, add Track quantity.
- Tick the box for each product, then click Save.
Our October 14, 2026 test used two untracked single-variant products: after saving, both were tracked, back on the Inventory page and showing their earlier quantities. No Help Center page we read describes this column, so check a few products before a large batch.
For a product with several variants, Shopify documents a per-product route: open it, select variants in the Variants section, click Open bulk editor, add the Track quantity column if it isn't shown, and tick it.
Shopify also documents a product CSV import: set Inventory tracker to shopify on each variant's row, fill in Continue selling when out of stock and Fulfillment service, or their defaults apply, and import with Overwrite products with matching handles selected, or products with matching handles are ignored. With overwrite selected, a blank non-required column overwrites that value in your store as blank.
For one product, its Inventory card has an Inventory tracked switch; developers can use the Admin API mutation inventoryItemUpdate.
How do you turn tracking off for many variants at once?
- On the Inventory page, select the products and variants to change, then click Bulk edit.
- In the Inventory bulk editor, add the Track quantity column through Columns.
- Uncheck the box on each variant, then save.
A greyed-out checkbox means the variant is part of an unfulfilled order or an active inventory transfer.
What stops working while tracking is off?
- The variant doesn't go out of stock on its own: Shopify counts out of stock only for tracked inventory at zero or below.
- Continue selling when out of stock can't be selected.
- Collections can't hide it as out of stock.
- It drops out of bundle quantity calculations.
- POS troubleshooting lists an inactive Track quantity as a reason a product is missing from POS.
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