Two questions land in support that look unrelated and are the same fact from opposite sides: “why did my customer get the old artwork” and “why is my edit not on the store”. This guide explains the mechanism behind both. It is for merchants who edit a live product and want to know what moves and what does not.
Every save adds a version
Saving in the Design Studio does not overwrite the design. It adds a numbered snapshot beside the ones before it, holding the whole design as it was at that moment.
Nothing that already exists follows along. That is the design of it, not a limitation.
What an order keeps
When a shopper checks out, the order records the design revision that produced what they saw. From that point the order stops listening to the design.
That is why a re-render on a failed order uses the order’s saved revision rather than today’s artwork, and why fixing a design does not repair an order that already went wrong. See handle fulfillment errors.
It is also the answer to the uncomfortable version of the question. If a customer received artwork you have since changed, nothing malfunctioned. They received what they agreed to buy.
What your store keeps
A publication points at a revision too. Publishing takes the snapshot; the store keeps showing it until you update the publication. See what publishing does and, when an edit is not appearing, changes are not showing.
What you can and cannot do with versions
Versions exist so orders and publications can be exact. They are not a browsable history: the Design Studio has no version list to open and no way to restore an earlier one.
What you do have while working is undo and redo, and a recovery copy if you leave the editor with unsaved changes. The File menu is where the whole-design actions live.
Common questions
Can I roll a design back to last week?
Not from the editor. Keep a duplicate or an exported design file before a large change, and rebuild from that.
My customer got artwork I already fixed. Is that a bug?
No. The order is bound to the revision that was live when they checked out. It prints what they approved.
Does editing a design affect orders that are already placed?
No. Placed orders keep their own revision, including through a re-render.
Does editing a design affect my storefront?
Not until you update the publication. Until then the store keeps the revision you published.
Next
Read what the customizer is, or follow an edit all the way to the storefront in changes are not showing.
Every term used here has a one-line definition in the glossary.