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Bulk Content Migration assumes that the destination store or storefront is empty. It is the path to replicate a source Shopify store into a fresh staging, UAT, or development sandbox in a single coordinated run. If you need to update existing records in a destination store rather than create new ones, use Selective Migration instead (covered in Onboarding).

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How to start a bulk migration

  1. Select your source environment (Store and Storefront).
  2. Select your destination environment (Store and Storefront).
  3. Choose the entities you wish to migrate.
  4. Click Start the Migration.
  5. Monitor progress in Migration history.
Anonymise customer data option

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Available entity types for bulk migration

The following entity types can be selected for bulk migration. The full per-field reference for each is in Field mapping and data.

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Catalogue data

  • Products (with variants, images, inventory, metafields)
  • Collections (manual and smart, with product associations)

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Customer data

  • Customers (with addresses, tags, marketing consent)
  • Orders (with line items, transactions, shipping)
  • Discount Codes (percentage, fixed, BXGY, free shipping)
  • Gift Cards

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Content data

  • Pages
  • Blogs and Articles
  • Files (images, videos, documents, 3D models)

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Store configuration

  • Themes
  • Navigation Menus
  • URL Redirects
  • Store Policies (refund, privacy, terms, shipping)
  • Locations

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Commerce and markets

  • Markets
  • Delivery Profiles (shipping zones and rates)
  • Catalogs and Price Lists

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Metaobject data

  • Metaobject Definitions
  • Metaobjects

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Entity selection notes

  • If you select Collections only, the app migrates collections only.
  • If you select Products only, the app migrates products only.
  • Products are associated with Collections only when both Products and Collections are selected and migrated together.
  • Metaobject Definitions must be migrated before Metaobjects.
  • Locations should be migrated before Products if using multi-location inventory.
To perform a bulk migration, select the data entities you want and click Start the Migration. New products are added to the destination store from the source. Existing products in the destination are not changed.

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Conflict resolution options

When migrating, choose how to handle existing data in the destination:
  • Ignore. Skip entities that already exist in the destination (default, safe option).
  • Delete and Recreate. Delete existing entities in the destination and re-create from source.
The destination store cannot be a production environment for the Delete and Recreate option, because bulk deletion of products is not permitted in production. Select the appropriate option and click Continue Migration.

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Additional notes for bulk migrations

  • If products already exist in the destination and you migrate again, they will not be updated.
  • If products are not present in the destination and only collections are migrated, the product count shown against collections will appear as 0.
  • Only inventory items with a non-zero quantity are migrated from the source to the destination.
  • Missing locations are automatically created in the destination store.

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Important note before Orders and Customers migration

Before migrating Orders or Customers, disable notifications on the target store. This avoids triggering customer emails from the destination environment during testing. In Shopify Admin, go to Settings, Notifications, and ensure the Recipients option is turned off (or off for the relevant notification types). Re-enable after the migration completes.

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Customer and order data anonymisation

Vortex Staging gives you the ability to anonymise data on Customers and Orders. This only works if orders do not already exist in the destination store, so use this option when migrating to a clean environment. While migrating Customers or Orders, select the checkbox “Anonymise Customer Data”. This scrambles customer data from the source environment before migrating it to the destination, ensuring data security for testing purposes. This is especially important under privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, the UK Data Protection Act) where developers and QA staff should not see real customer PII during routine testing.

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Real-time progress tracking

Migration progress is updated in real time with:
  • Overall migration progress percentage.
  • Per-entity status (In Progress, Completed, Failed).
  • Downloadable log files for error investigation.
Track progress in Migration history.

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What we migrate, in detail

For the per-entity field reference (which Shopify fields transfer, which require extra handling, and which cannot be migrated), see Field mapping and data.

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FAQ

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Will products that already exist be updated?

No. Bulk migration treats the destination as empty. If a product with the same handle already exists, it is skipped and logged as successful (the destination already has it). Use Selective Migration to update existing records.

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Why is the product count for a collection zero?

If you migrate Collections without Products, collection product counts will read zero in the destination because the products themselves do not exist there. Re-run including Products to populate them.

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Why is the Delete and Recreate option greyed out for my Production destination?

Bulk deletion of products is not permitted on a Shopify Production store. Vortex Staging blocks the Delete and Recreate path on Production by design. Use a non-production destination if you need a clean slate.

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Can I cancel a bulk migration mid-run?

Yes. Open Migration History, find the in-progress run, and click Cancel. Already-migrated records remain in the destination; the run stops at the current entity.