MIGRATION PREPARATION
Moving a catalog to Shopify? Keep product rows and URL decisions separate.
A product file describes what you sell. A redirect map decides where an old address should lead. Cleaning one does not validate the other.
For product-file preparation, start with the current Shopify product CSV guidance. For a small, local check of new-product data, the free Catalog Rescue diagnostic can flag its supported issues and export a candidate file when those checks pass.
A tidy redirect spreadsheet can still contain the wrong destinations. Before a migration, give every old URL a status: confirmed match, needs a decision, or excluded with a reason.
Consider a fictional shop with two products called “Oak tray.” One old URL appears twice in the proposed map, each time pointing somewhere different. Keeping the first row makes a tidy file. It does not establish which destination is correct.
Keep two lists
- Confirmed map
- One old path, one approved destination, and the evidence used to match them. A stable product identifier is stronger evidence than a similar title, but a conflicting instruction still needs a decision.
- Decision queue
- Duplicate sources, missing successors and uncertain matches. Include the exact question the store owner needs to answer. Do not conceal uncertainty by sending unmatched products to the homepage.
A small example
| Old path | Proposed destination | Decision |
|---|---|---|
/product/linen-napkin | /products/linen-napkin | Same supplied identifier; request approval |
/product/oak-tray | Two different destinations | Hold until conflict is resolved |
/product/winter-box | No successor supplied | Ask owner; exclude from import for now |
This is fictional data, not a customer result or a live-store check.
Check the platform, not just the file
Shopify redirects only work from broken URLs; an active old page can prevent a redirect. Reserved paths are restricted, query strings can behave unexpectedly, and locale subfolders may need separate entries. Check the current Shopify URL redirect documentation for the complete rules before importing. A file that looks right does not prove that the live redirect works.
Before you hand it to the person deploying
- Count input rows, unique old paths, approved pairs and unresolved paths separately.
- Check for duplicate sources, loops, self-redirects and chains within the supplied map.
- Record why every excluded path is absent.
- After deployment, test the old addresses and their final destinations on the live store.
The useful handoff is not just two columns. It is two columns plus a record of what was confirmed, what remains unknown and who needs to decide.
Inspect your product rows
The free diagnostic checks supported new-product CSV issues on your device. Redirect analysis is outside its scope. Exporting a candidate CSV does not place an order.
Open the free CSV diagnostic