Shopify recently began sending out warnings of an upcoming forced migration that is affecting many stores. 

Once upon a time, installing Google Analytics & Facebook conversion tracking on a Shopify store was a breeze, those days are long gone.

Here’s the breakdown of what you need to know:

• You need to review your Shopify stores before February 2, 2025.
• You can easily check Online Store > Preferences to see if you are affected by the change
• If you are affected, you will need to take action ASAP to make sure your tracking doesn’t break, or potentially worse, experience double counting

Here’s an example of the warnings Shopify has been bombarding us with:

Check if you are affected by the Shopify forced migration:

To check if you are affected, simply go to your Online Store (under Sales Channels) and click Preferences in the submenu.

• Under “Google Analytics”, check to see if you have a UA (Universal Analytics) Google Analytics ID present.
• Under “Facebook Pixel”, check to see if you have a Pixel ID present.

There is also a chance that there is some extra JavaScript in the “Additional Google Analytics Javascript” section.

If any of these things are true, keep reading to find out how you can preserve your tracking.

What to do if there is a UA ID present:

You cannot leave the UA ID in place or else Shopify will attempt to migrate this to Shopify Pixels (customer events). DO NOT TRUST SHOPIFY TO HANDLE THIS FOR YOU.

If there is a UA ID present in these settings, what to do next will depend on how you installed GA4.
Most users have GA4 installed in one of 3 ways:

• Google & YouTube app (Easiest and most common)
• A different 3rd party app
• Shopify Pixels (customer events)

If you have installed using one of these methods then good news, just remove the UA ID and no further action is required. (If you do nothing, when Shopify creates a custom Shopify pixel for you it will result in double counting)

Be careful here!

Some store owners completed their migration to GA4 by continuing to fire UA events and simply told their GA4 properties to listen to UA events. If this is how your store is tracking GA4 events, then removing the UA ID from this field would actually kill your conversion tracking.

You can check if this is how your GA4 property is receiving data by logging into Google Analytics and click Admin in the bottom left.

Click “Data Streams” under “Property Settings” 

Select your data stream and under “Google tag” select “Configure tag settings”

Under “Settings” look for the setting called “Collect Universal Analytics events”

If this is enabled, we recommend disabling it.

After that, remove the UA tag from Shopify settings and install the Google & Youtube app from the Shopify app store. Walk through the steps to set up conversion tracking and you should be good to go.

What if I have JavaScript in the Additional JavaScript for Google Analytics section?

Shopify won’t let you remove the UA ID without removing this custom JavaScript. This JavaScript will stop firing after the migration deadline so you will need to assess the importance of the script.

At Digital Position, we have seen all sorts of random JavaScript stuffed into this section. Some stores had a full GTM with datalayer set up here. 

You’ll have to consider if this JavaScript is important to your store or not. If it’s related to UA then you can delete it and go about your day. If it seems important then you’ll need to determine the best way to migrate it using a method supported by Shopify (usually Shopify Pixels).

If you’re not sure, feel free to book a call with one of our conversion tracking experts and we can help you walk through the process

What to do if there is a Facebook Pixel ID present?

Facebook also has an app that you can install from the Shopify App store which should fully handle conversion tracking for you. There are no “gotcha”s with this one like with UA. 

If you don’t have the Facebook app installed yet, make sure you do that first, then you can go ahead and remove the pixel from this setting.

Make sure to do this before the deadline so that Shopify doesn’t create any extra pixels for you.

Conclusion:

It might seem trivial, but taking the time to migrate properly could mean the difference between a seamless transition and a potential disruption to your business. A rushed or poorly executed migration can lead to data loss, downtime, and customer dissatisfaction. 

By following the steps in this article you’ll be able to handle the required steps and make sure you’ve done everything you need to before Shopify auto-migrates you and causes a mess.

If you need help or want to verify that your tracking is set up correctly, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of seasoned veterans. We helped our clients migrate and we can help you too!