Shopify theme detector: which theme, which version, how far behind.

What the detector shows

Theme Store data refreshed on 26 Sep 2026. App embeds are shown by their technical handle, which usually but not always matches the app's name. Apps added only through code or the checkout do not appear.

Find a Shopify theme by hand

1. Open the store in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari on a computer.
2. Right-click an empty part of the page and choose View page source (or press Ctrl+U, Option+Command+U on a Mac).
3. Press Ctrl+F (Command+F) and search for Shopify.theme.
4. Read the line that follows. It looks like this:

Shopify.theme = {"name":"Sept 10, 2026","id":135654604855,
  "schema_name":"Dawn","schema_version":"10.0.0",
  "theme_store_id":null,"role":"main"};

• schema_name and schema_version: the theme the store was built from and its version. Here, Dawn 10.0.0.
• theme_store_id: the Theme Store number. A number means the theme was installed from the Theme Store. null is common and proves little: copies uploaded as a zip and custom themes have it, and so do some stores running an untouched Theme Store theme.
• name: the merchant's own label in the admin. Here it tells you when the theme was last duplicated, not what it is.

If the search finds nothing, the store is either headless or not on Shopify. A headless Shopify store usually still loads images from cdn.shopify.com and sends a powered-by: Shopify, Hydrogen header.

Why theme detectors get it wrong

• They read the admin name. "Release: 2026-S-2" or "DO NOT DELETE" is not a theme. The detector above reads the schema name, which stays the same when a theme is renamed or duplicated.
• They read a missing Theme Store number as "custom". Many stores publish no number, including stores that downloaded Dawn, edited it and uploaded it again. The schema name still says Dawn, and underneath it is Dawn, with Dawn's structure and Dawn's missing updates.
• They miss vendor renames. Some agencies rename the schema too, for example "Taylor Stitch Retail Web". Nothing public links that back to a Theme Store theme, so the honest answer is "custom theme".
• They guess on headless stores. Hydrogen and Next.js storefronts have no theme. Any theme name reported for them is wrong.

What "releases behind" tells you

Theme developers publish updates for new Shopify features, fixes and speed. A store that installed a theme and never updated keeps the version it started with. The detector lists every version the developer has published in the Theme Store release notes since the one the store runs, with the date and a one-line summary.

For a competitor's store, it tells you how actively the store is maintained. For your own store, it is the list of what you have not received yet. Some versions never appear in the release notes. When the store runs one of those, the detector dates it by the closest older release.

How to update a Shopify theme

1. In the Shopify admin, open Online Store › Themes. If an update exists, the current theme shows a notice with the new version.³
2. Add the update. Shopify installs it as a new, unpublished theme and carries over your theme settings and content.
3. Preview it and check every page type: home, product, collection, cart, and any page you customised.
4. Publish it. Keep the old version unpublished for a while so you can switch back.

Edits made to the theme's code do not carry over and have to be made again. If the store runs a copy with no Theme Store number, there is no update notice; the new version has to be installed from the Theme Store and set up again.

Frequently asked questions