Changes are not syncing to the storefront

When you save an element in LinkSpot, the change goes into LinkSpot's database immediately. But for your storefront to show that change, LinkSpot also has to write the element's data into Shopify metafields. That second step happens in the background, not at save time.

This article explains why, and what to do if a change seems stuck.

The two-step model

1. Save in LinkSpot (instant). Your changes are stored in the LinkSpot database. The admin UI shows them right away. This is what makes saving fast and reliable, even if Shopify is briefly slow.
2. Sync to Shopify metafields (background). LinkSpot queues a job to write the saved element data to product or shop metafields in Shopify. Those metafields are what the storefront reads to render the elements.

The storefront reflects the change once step 2 completes.

Why the sync runs in the background

Shopify limits how many API calls an app can make per second. If LinkSpot synced every save immediately and synchronously, large changes would either hit Shopify's rate limit (which would block the save) or be very slow.

Instead, LinkSpot:

• Queues each change as a job and processes them in order per shop.
• Coalesces multiple changes to the same product into one job, so saving five elements on the same product produces fewer API calls than five separate syncs.
• Tracks Shopify's API cost budget and paces itself to stay within it.
• Retries with backoff if Shopify rejects a request, so a temporary blip does not lose work.

For most merchants, a save shows up on the storefront within seconds. Occasionally, after a large batch of changes, it can take a minute or two.

What to do if a change is not on the storefront

• Wait a minute and refresh. Most syncs complete in seconds. If you just saved, give it a moment.
• Hard-refresh your storefront. Browser cache may be showing an older version of the page. Reload with cache cleared.
• Confirm the element is enabled. A disabled element will not render even after sync.
• Confirm the targeting matches. See Elements are not showing on the storefront for the full checklist.
• Save again. If the queue dropped the job (rare), saving the element again puts a fresh job on the queue.

When to wait versus when to retry

What you do not need to do

• You do not need to manually republish or sync anything. LinkSpot handles syncing automatically.
• You do not need to clear app caches. There is no merchant-facing cache control to flush.