- Short answer
- Templates belong to each theme — recreate each custom product template under the same name in the new theme, then check your products.
- Unchanged
- Products, collections, menus, pages and blog posts — they're managed in the admin, separate from the theme
- Missing template
- Help pages we read on October 30, 2026 describe the default-template fallback only for a deleted template
- Theme template menu
- Shows only the live theme's templates, so reassign products after you publish
- Bulk reassignment
- Products and collections in the Bulk editor; pages and blog posts one at a time in the admin
What happens to the product and its template?
Your products, collections, menus, pages and blog posts aren't changed or deleted when you switch to a new theme. A template is assigned on the product but belongs to the theme: Shopify lists Available theme templates among the parts you customize for each theme you want to use.
Shopify's help pages on templates and on adding, publishing and updating themes, and its Product object, alternate and JSON template docs, read on October 30, 2026, don't say what a product shows when the new live theme lacks its template, or what its Theme template field displays. The nearest documented case is a deleted template: its products show the default template until reassigned. Don't count on that for a switch.
How do you carry custom templates to the new theme?
Order matters: when you change a template, the admin offers only your live theme's templates, so you can pick the new theme's templates only after publishing it.
- While the old theme is live, note each product's template in Products › Bulk edit (Columns › General › Template).
- In the new theme, create a product template with the same name — the part after
product., without the extension (the theme editor can't do this in a Vintage theme). - Publish the new theme; the old one moves to Draft themes with no changes lost (for Horizon, see the other migration steps).
- Products
- Bulk edit
How do you check and reassign templates after the switch?
Add ?view= and the template name to a product's storefront URL, which renders that template. Look for what only that template shows: in our development-store check on October 31, 2026, ?view= with a name the live theme lacked still showed the default product page, with no error, so a normal-looking page doesn't prove the template exists. Then reassign where needed:
- Products: the Theme template field (Online Store template in the Shopify app), or the Bulk editor's Template column, then Save.
- Collections: their own Theme template field, or the same Bulk editor.
- Pages and blog posts: one at a time in the admin; their Bulk editor is no longer available.
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