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This page walks through the recommended setup so your environments and workflows are organised from day one. Exact features depend on your Vortex Staging licence tier; the steps are the same on all tiers.

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Step 1. Plan your environments

Vortex Staging is available in three licence tiers, each providing a defined number of connection slots for linking non-production environments to Production:
  • Standard tier. Production plus 2 connection slots.
  • Plus tier. Production plus 3 connection slots.
  • Premium tier. Production plus 5 connection slots.
Before linking stores, plan environment names and intended purpose. Clear naming prevents mistakes and helps teams communicate accurately. Suggested best-practice naming:
  • Production (reserved name; cannot be changed)
  • Staging
  • UAT
  • Integration1
  • Integration2
  • Integration3
It is helpful to prepare a simple reference table for your own records, for example:
Proposed environment nameStore IDDescription
Productionprod-appLive store
Stagingstage-appPre-deployment store for smoke tests
UATuat-appUser acceptance testing store for production builds
Integrationinteg-appSystem integration checks
Planning upfront helps you confirm the correct environment names during linking and avoids mixing production and non-production stores.

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Best practice testing guidance

As a general rule, perform early testing and trial migrations in non-production stores first. This helps you understand the tool safely and keeps live customer operations protected. Only after comprehensive testing and validation should you migrate data into a live Production environment.

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Step 2. Confirm Vortex Staging is installed on each store

After signing the subscription licence agreement and the app is installed on the relevant Shopify stores, share the store IDs with the Vortex IQ Helpdesk if you would like them to complete the linking. Provisioning typically completes within 2-3 working days. If you are linking environments yourself, continue with Step 3. The Helpdesk can complete linking for you as part of provisioning. If you are linking environments yourself, the steps below outline the expected flow.
  1. With Vortex Staging installed on the Production store, locate the Production store ID (sometimes referred to as the production hash ID) shown on the dashboard. Production hash ID location
  2. Open the Vortex Staging interface in your destination sandbox store. Enter the Production store ID into the ID field and click Save. Use the production hash ID only in the ID field of the respective sandbox store. Enter production hash ID in sandbox
  3. An invitation request will appear on the destination sandbox store. Invitation request shown on sandbox
  4. Open Vortex Staging on the Production store and refresh the page. You will see the invitation request and must accept it to complete linking. Invitation accepted on Production
  5. Click Approve, enter a target environment name (for example, Staging), and click OK. Approve invitation and name environment
  6. Refresh the dashboard. You should now see Production and the newly linked environment listed as connected. Linked environments on home dashboard
Production is a restricted, reserved name used by the application and cannot be renamed. To access all areas of your store’s Shopify Admin (including sandbox stores), you typically need Store Owner access.

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Step 4. Add GitHub accounts (optional)

If you plan to use Vortex Staging for theme deployments via GitHub, follow GitHub deployment. The setup includes:
  • Creating an organisation-type GitHub repository (not personal account).
  • Adding the README file at repo creation.
  • Inviting vortexiq as an Admin collaborator.
  • Linking the repository under Settings, Connect Repository in Vortex Staging.
  • Adding team members so per-developer branches are auto-created for each linked environment.
If you only plan to use Vortex Staging for data migration (no theme deployments via GitHub), this step is optional.

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Step 5. Set up notifications

Configure notifications so the right people are alerted when migrations or theme deployments complete or fail. Three channels are supported: See Notifications for the full setup steps for each.

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Step 6. Run test migrations

Once setup is complete, run a content migration first, then a product catalogue migration. Perform comprehensive testing and validation in non-production environments first. Only after validation should you migrate data into Production. Some data elements (for example, Promotions) may automatically migrate related data due to dependencies. Review Known issues and Release notes before running the test migration.

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Migration types: Bulk vs Selective

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Bulk migration

Bulk migration creates records in an empty destination store. Vortex Staging assumes the entities do not exist on the destination and will create them. If entities already exist, the migration logs errors. Bulk migration does not update existing records. When Products are selected, product stock inventory count migrates by default. This depends on having the same locations already created in the destination store. If no destination location has been created, inventory will be stored in the default location. New product IDs may be linked to orders during a bulk content migration.

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Selective migration

Selective migration is intended for updating records in an existing destination store. Products. If products already exist on the destination store, they can be updated during a selective migration. Products with multiple variation items may be deleted and recreated on the target store as part of the update process. Selective Product Migration includes a Copy All Products option, which runs a selective update across all products as an on-demand task. By default, product stock count does not migrate unless you enable the checkbox in the popup: “Migrate Product Stock inventory count to target store.” If you delete product images on the source store and run a selective product migration, the corresponding images are not removed from the destination SKU. Delete them manually in Shopify Admin if you want them removed. Themes. Themes can be migrated selectively. Select the theme you want and use Copy Theme to start the migration. Additional data entities such as Collections, Files, Discounts, Pages, and others are planned for inclusion in Selective Migration in a future sprint.

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Time taken for data migrations

Migration duration varies. It depends on data volume, dependencies, Shopify API throttling, connection speed, and other factors. Some migrations complete in seconds; larger migrations can take hours, and in extreme cases days.

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Support

  • Helpdesk portal, the recommended channel for any support ticket. You can track all tickets and search the knowledge base.
  • Email: helpdesk@vortexiq.ai. Email creates a ticket; the portal is preferred.
  • StagingPro support phone: +44 20 4547 9292.
For support troubleshooting, the Vortex Staging tech team may request access mainly to sandbox stores, with temporary Production access if appropriate. Items on the target sandbox store may need to be deleted before a test migration. Do not store important, business-critical, or development-essential data on a sandbox store; sandbox stores are for test migrations only. Keep your configuration settings safe elsewhere.

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FAQ

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Can I rename Production?

No. Production is reserved and cannot be renamed.

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What happens if I exceed my tier’s connection slots?

You will not be able to link further environments until you upgrade your tier or unlink an existing environment.

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Can the Helpdesk do the linking for me?

Yes. Share the store IDs with helpdesk@vortexiq.ai. Provisioning typically completes within 2-3 working days.