Troubleshooting

The problems merchants actually hit, in order of how often they hit them — and the fix for each.

The short list of things that go wrong, roughly ordered by how often they come up. If your problem isn't here, email hey@pixelwrangler.io with your shop domain and an order number — that's usually all we need.

The Customise button isn't showing

Three causes, in order of likelihood:

  1. The product isn't linked to a template. Open the template, check Linked products. If the product was linked and the button shows disabled with a tooltip, the template assignment has been removed — the app dashboard shows a warning banner listing affected products.
  2. The theme block isn't added. The button is a Customise Button theme block. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize, open the product page, and check the block is on the product template this product uses (Add block → Apps → Customise Button). Steps in Installing Pixel Wrangler.
  3. The template is in the trash. Soft-deleted templates stop powering their products. Restore from Trash or link a different template.

A render failed

Failed renders show in the Orders tab with a failed status, and the order gets the px-artwork-failed tag. Common causes:

  • A sticker, background, or font was deleted from your library after a customer used it
  • The customer's upload was corrupt
  • A custom font URL went offline

Fix the underlying cause, open Order files, and click Regenerate on the affected line. The tag flips to px-artwork-ready when it succeeds. If it keeps failing with no obvious cause, that's one for support — include the order number.

A side is missing from the print files

Almost always an output mapping problem, not a render failure. Every side must be mapped to an output file in the template builder's Output panel. An unmapped side renders nothing — silently. Check the mapping, then Regenerate the order.

The customer's upload was rejected

Uploads are capped at 10 MB by default, JPG or PNG. You can tighten or loosen the limits — file size and minimum/maximum dimensions — in Settings → Image Upload Limits. If customers routinely hit the cap with phone photos, raise it.

Low-resolution uploads aren't rejected — the customer gets a quality warning and can proceed. If you're seeing prints from images that were too small, that warning is doing its job at checkout; consider a minimum-dimensions rule instead.

The cart isn't showing the design thumbnail

First check the theme editor: the cart page needs the Cart Design Preview block on the cart template, and drawer or mini carts need the Cart Preview (Global) app embed switched on under Theme settings → App embeds.

If both are in place, the preview hooks into your theme via the selectors in Settings → Theme Cart Integration (blank means auto-detect). Two failure modes:

  • Theme update changed the markup. If your theme's cart structure changed, the selectors point at nothing and the preview silently disappears. Re-check Cart Item Selector against the new markup.
  • Cart drawer doesn't refresh. If your theme uses an ajax cart drawer, Pixel Wrangler needs to know when it re-renders — that's the Cart Refresh Events setting. Your theme's documentation (or developer) can tell you which JavaScript events it fires.

A customer typed emoji and it disappeared

Emoji, right-to-left scripts, and unusual symbols are blocked at input with a warning — they don't render reliably in print files. This is deliberate. The customer sees the warning at the moment they type.

Surcharge settings are greyed out

Surcharges need Shopify's cart transform function, which is Shopify Plus only. On other plans the settings show but stay disabled. Details and the variant-based workaround.

I edited an order but fulfilment printed the original

Check the timing: exports and downloads always serve the current artwork, so if fulfilment pulled files before you saved the edit, they have the originals. Edited files carry an -edited-v2 suffix in the filename — if the printed file's name has no suffix, it was pulled early. Re-send from Order files or have your integration re-pull the order.

Still stuck?

Email hey@pixelwrangler.io. Include:

  • Your shop domain
  • The order number or template name involved
  • What you expected, and what happened instead

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