Why doesn't the sort order in Collection Manager match my live shop site?

There are a few different reasons why this might happen. What we usually see is that there's another app installed that's overriding the sort order set within Collection Manager. One of the apps we see quite commonly is called "Product Filter & Search by BoostCommerce". There's nothing wrong with Product Filter & Search, but sometimes users are confused by the way this app and Collection Manager work together. There may be others that have a similar effect but this is the one we see the most often.

If you think of your shop from the front (i.e. what the customer sees) to the back (what Shopify and Collection Manager see), it sort of looks like this:

What this diagram shows is:

1. Collection Manager communicates with Shopify to read and update collection information (mainly sorting information)
2. Your live shop communicates with Shopify for product information including product position information.
3. The Shopify Admin (the middle) is the "source of truth".
4. Collection Manager does not work directly with your live shop site.

The reason this is important is that it illustrates that Collection Manager does not interact directly with the live shop site; it only interacts with the Shopify Admin via Shopify's APIs.

For this reason, we always ask one initial question when customers see their product sort orders aren't matching Collection Manager which is:

"Does the sort order you see in Collection Manager match what you see in the Shopify Admin?"

If the answer to this question is "Yes", then it means that something else other than Collection Manager is causing the problem. In other words:

As long as the sort order in Collection Manager matches the Shopify Admin, Collection Manager is working correctly.

Do you have the Product Filter and Sort app installed?

If you do, try logging into that app, and head to the "Home" screen. It should look similar to this:

You'll see a "Sync" button on that screen. Go ahead and click that, and things should start to sync up. If not, please reach out to the BoostCommerce support team at BoostCommerce Support for assistance.

Still not working?

If for some reason the sort order you see in Collection Manager does not match what you see in the Shopify Admin, then please go ahead and create a ticket because this should never be the case.

Happy sorting!