The 2026 Migration Deadline: A Complete Guide to Switching to Shopify's New Customer Accounts — From Built-in Features to Migration Steps

On February 26, 2026, Shopify officially deprecated legacy customer accounts. This is not something you can put off until later. New stores can no longer choose the legacy version, and every store will be forcibly migrated to the new system during 2026. In this article, we draw on Shopify's official documentation to walk through the technical specifications of new customer accounts, how they differ from the legacy version, and the migration steps builders should start on right away. The heart of this migration lies in two things: automating operations and offloading security. Reordering and returns become built-in features, and you are freed from password management. Understood correctly, this migration is not a defensive chore — it is an offensive opportunity to improve how you run your store.

What Are Shopify's New Customer Accounts?

New customer accounts are a next-generation customer account system that eliminates passwords and authenticates customers with a one-time code (OTP) sent by email. They run on the same robust infrastructure as the checkout and integrate with B2B features and Shop Pay out of the box. The legacy system will be fully retired during 2026, and it is confirmed that every store will be consolidated onto the new system. With new customer accounts, Shopify has replaced the traditional email-plus-password login with authentication via a six-digit one-time code (OTP) delivered by email, Shop Pay, or social login through Google, Facebook, and others. With legacy accounts, the store indirectly managed customers' login credentials (passwords). With new accounts, Shopify's infrastructure handles the entire authentication process. As a result, the risks of password leaks and credential stuffing attacks are completely removed from the store's side. Technically, new accounts are built on the same foundation as Checkout Extensibility. They run as dedicated pages hosted by Shopify rather than as Liquid files inside your theme. Customization moves from direct Liquid editing to app-based UI extensions — a design that eliminates the risk of customizations breaking with future Shopify updates.

The Bottom Line: The Migration Schedule and Key Deadlines Through 2026

Legacy accounts were deprecated on February 26, 2026, and can no longer be selected for new stores. In step with the Checkout Extensibility migration deadline in August 2026, the switchover of account pages to the new system will accelerate as well. Existing customer data (order history and so on) is preserved, but the login method changes fundamentally from passwords to OTP. The bottom line: legacy customer accounts will be fully retired during 2026. "It still works, so we're fine" is the wrong read — new feature development and technical support have already stopped. The confirmed milestones are as follows.

Event	Date (planned)	Applies to
Legacy customer accounts deprecated	February 26, 2026	All merchants and all developers
Legacy version no longer selectable for new stores	February 26, 2026	Newly opened stores and stores not yet using it
Restrictions on creating new legacy custom apps	January 29, 2026	Custom apps created directly from the admin
Checkout Extensibility migration deadline	August 26, 2026	Stores on all plans using additional scripts
Full retirement (sunset) of the legacy version	During 2026 (details to follow)	All stores still using the legacy version

Note that the Checkout Extensibility migration deadline is set for August 26, 2026. Since the checkout, thank-you page, and order status page must move to the new system by that date, it is reasonable to expect restrictions on account pages to tighten on a comparable schedule. Shopify's official documentation explicitly states that existing merchants are "strongly encouraged" to upgrade early.

How Much Is Handled Out of the Box? Localization Features That Keep Evolving

Name order (family name first) and address ordering are automatically optimized under the Japanese locale setting. The manual "Japanese-style formatting" adjustments you used to make on the theme side are no longer needed. Login sessions persist for up to 90 days, dramatically reducing the friction of logging back in for repeat purchases.

Automatic Localization of Names and Addresses: No More Reordering in Liquid

With legacy customer accounts, displaying names in family-name-first order on a Japanese-language store required editing Liquid templates. The common practice was to reorder fields manually — {{ customer.last_name }} {{ customer.first_name }} — or rewrite theme code directly. With new customer accounts, name order and address formatting are localized automatically based on the store's locale setting (Japanese). Concretely, names are displayed automatically in family-name-first order under the Japanese locale, and addresses are automatically formatted Japanese-style: prefecture, then city, then street address. The practical impact of this change is significant. Checking whether name ordering broke after every theme update, maintaining Liquid conditionals that switch the display per language — all of that becomes unnecessary. In addition, login sessions now persist for up to 90 days, which ties directly into repeat purchases. Previously, sessions depended on the browser's settings, and customers were frequently logged out within a few days. Under the new system, if a customer returns to your store within 90 days, they can access their account page without logging in again.

The Benefits of Built-in Reorder Buttons and Self-Serve Returns

Implementing a reorder feature with the legacy version meant installing a third-party app (roughly $5–$15 per month) or writing custom Liquid code to add items from the order history to the cart. Self-serve returns likewise required a dedicated app or a custom-built form. With new customer accounts, both the reorder button and self-serve returns ship as standard features. Simply enable the toggles under Settings > Customer accounts in the admin. The reorder button appears on the customer's order history page and adds the same items from a past order to the cart in one click. For returns, once you configure a return policy in the admin, customers can submit return requests from their account page and the merchant approves or declines them in the admin — the entire flow is completed without an app. Stores that were paying monthly fees for third-party apps can cut that cost. If you built the feature yourself, the maintenance burden for that code drops to zero.

A Technical Shift in Customization: From Liquid to UI Extensions

Direct code editing in Liquid is retired, replaced by app-based UI extensions built from Shopify's components. You lose some freedom for fully custom designs, but in exchange you gain a lighter site, stronger security, and resilience to upgrades. You only extend with UI extensions when you need to capture customer attributes that are not standard fields, such as furigana or birthdays.

When You Need UI Extensions: Adding Custom Fields (Furigana, Membership Tiers, and More)

You only use UI extensions when something is not covered by the standard features of new customer accounts. Put the other way around: stores for which the standard features are enough have no need to adopt UI extensions. The typical cases that call for UI extensions are as follows. Capturing customer attributes (furigana, birthday, gender, etc.): Many Japanese ecommerce stores collect furigana for shipping slips and phone confirmations, along with attributes such as birthday, age, and gender at registration for birthday coupons and age-based recommendations. Shopify's standard fields, however, do not include these items. You can handle this by installing apps such as Howdy, MF Account, or AL CustomerMetaSync and placing custom fields in the profile extension target. Collected data is stored in Shopify metafields and can also be used with Shopify Flow and Klaviyo integrations. Displaying membership tiers and points: To show point balances or membership rank on the account page, place a compatible app such as MR. POINT inside the account as a full-page extension. Links to external services: If you need pathways to a subscription management portal or a review submission page, add links via a menu block or an app block. The main apps for the Japanese market and their pricing are below.

App name	Developer	Highlights	Pricing (approx.)
MF Account	MeeFa, Inc.	Covers the essentials; strong Shopify Flow integration	$5.99/month
Howdy	EC PENGUIN	Conditional display by customer tag; banners for VIP customers, etc.	$4.99–$9.99/month
AL CustomerMetaSync	AL Inc.	Can also collect data on the thank-you page, for higher completion rates	$9/month
MR. POINT	Loglizard	Integrated points features suited to Japanese commerce practices	Varies by plan

One technical constraint: UI extensions have a bundle size limit of 64KB after compilation. You cannot write raw HTML tags (<div> or <script>); only the React/Preact components Shopify provides are available. Overriding the design with your own CSS is not possible either.

Design Customization: Branding Kept in Sync with Checkout

The design of new customer accounts inherits your checkout branding settings, not your theme's CSS. The logo, fonts, and brand colors configured under Online Store > Themes > Customize in the admin are applied to both the checkout and the account pages at once. In other words, once your checkout branding is in order, the account page design is unified automatically. Individual CSS adjustments are unnecessary — or rather, impossible. Customizations from the Liquid era, such as giving the account area its own bespoke layout or placing an original banner in the footer, can no longer be done. This is a clear constraint on design freedom, but in exchange Shopify guarantees page load speed and compliance with accessibility standards. Luxury brands and others who want their brand experience carried through to the account pages in full will need to work creatively within the range of currently available extension targets.

Hands-On: The Concrete Migration and Setup Steps for Builders

Start by enabling the new accounts under Settings > Customer accounts in the admin. Update the legacy login links in your theme to point to /account and clean up the Liquid files you no longer need. When you migrate, send customers a positive message: no more passwords to manage. Shopify officially recommends proceeding through the following eight steps. Here we walk through them from a builder's practical standpoint, focusing on the points that require judgment calls. Step 1: Audit your existing customizations. Review every customers/*.liquid file in your theme. List the custom fields that have been added (birthday, company name, etc.), external links (subscription management portals, etc.), and tracking scripts (GTM, LINE integration tags, etc.). This list becomes your inventory of items that need to be recreated with apps in Step 4. Step 2: Duplicate your configuration. From Settings > Checkout in the admin, duplicate your current configuration. Applying the new account settings to this duplicate lets you test without affecting production. Step 3: Check your branding settings. Your logo, fonts, and brand colors will be applied to the new account pages. Confirm they match your checkout settings. Step 4: Recreate features with app extensions. Based on the list from Step 1, rebuild the features you need with UI-extension-compatible apps. If an app you used with legacy accounts does not support the new accounts, you will need to migrate to an alternative. Step 5: Configure your domain and email. Set up a subdomain such as account.yourstore.com. To ensure OTP emails are delivered, complete domain authentication (SPF/DKIM) for your sending email address. Because of the deliverability risk with Japanese mobile carrier email addresses, this step cannot be skipped. Step 6: Publish the configuration. Publish the duplicated configuration. Legacy accounts remain active at this point; no switchover occurs yet. Step 7: Run the upgrade. Click Upgrade under Settings > Customer accounts in the admin. Legacy account URLs are redirected automatically to the new accounts. Step 8: Use the 30-day testing window. You can revert to legacy accounts within 30 days of upgrading. Use this period to verify the login flow, app behavior, and email deliverability.

Theme-Side Fixes: Liquid Files to Delete and Links to Replace

After the upgrade, the following theme files stop functioning. The files that need to be deleted (or disabled) are customers/account.liquid, customers/login.liquid, customers/register.liquid, customers/order.liquid, customers/reset_password.liquid, and customers/activate_account.liquid. Leaving them in place causes no errors — all traffic to legacy account URLs is redirected to the new accounts, so the code is never executed. To avoid confusion, though, it is best to delete or comment them out. Links inside the theme also need to be fixed. Update the "Log in" and "My account" links in your navigation menu and header from /account/login or /account/register to /account. With the new accounts, /account is the single entry point.

Communicating with Existing Customers: How to Frame the Passwordless Announcement Email

What confuses customers about a passwordless transition is the mistaken impression that they "can no longer log in." It is a problem you can prevent with advance notice, and the announcement comes down to three points. First, state the fact that passwords are no longer needed, adding "to improve security" as the reason. Second, explain the new procedure: simply enter the six-digit code sent to your email. Third, offer reassurance that order history and points carry over unchanged. As for timing, the practical approach is to announce the change one to two weeks before the upgrade via your newsletter or an on-site banner, then send a confirmation email on the day itself: "As of today, we have switched to a new login method." No password migration is needed for existing customers whatsoever. They switch to OTP authentication automatically at their next login. There is no need to send password reset instructions either.

Plus Plan Only: Advanced Integrations with the Customer Account API (SSO and More)

Merchants on Shopify Plus can connect an OpenID Connect-compatible external identity provider to implement single sign-on (SSO). Legacy Multipass authentication is not available with new customer accounts, so if you need SSO, migrating to an external identity provider connection is mandatory. In headless environments built with Hydrogen/Oxygen, you use the Customer Account API (OAuth2-based). The legacy storefrontCustomerAccessTokenCreate mutation is deprecated; instead, access tokens obtained from the Customer Account API are used with the Storefront API. Shopify's official guidance clearly directs headless builders to migrate to this API as well. Authentication works via a redirect to a dedicated Shopify-hosted page, so you cannot give the login screen a custom design. You can, however, add functionality to the post-authentication account pages with UI extensions.

Legacy vs. New: Feature Comparison

Item	Legacy customer accounts	New customer accounts
Login method	Email + password	One-time code (OTP) / social login / Shop Pay
Session persistence	Depends on browser settings	Up to 90 days
Name and address order	Manual adjustment in Liquid required	Automatic localization (adapts to Japanese conventions)
Reorder and returns	Custom build or third-party app	Built in as standard features
Customization method	Free-form editing via Liquid and CSS	UI extensions (app-based)
B2B support	No native support	Fully supported (company profiles, price lists, etc.)
Saved payment methods	Not supported	Can be saved for faster checkout
Social login	Required separate implementation	Shop Pay, Google, Facebook, and more out of the box
Domain structure	Multiple domains available per market	Single subdomain across the entire store
Password migration	Reset/migration sometimes required	Not needed (passwords themselves disappear)

What This Update Means for Shopify Merchants Going Forward

This migration is not merely a change in authentication method — it is the starting point for a structural change in how stores are operated on Shopify. Here is how the technical changes translate into strategic shifts on the merchant side. Outsourcing authentication creates a zero-maintenance operational foundation. The password management, reset support, and security patching that stores had implicitly shouldered move entirely to Shopify's infrastructure. This reallocates builder resources from maintaining authentication to initiatives that directly drive revenue. For small and mid-sized merchants without external engineers in particular, this change means a structural reduction in operating costs. The shift to app-based customization accelerates the escape from theme dependency. An account area built in Liquid had to be re-verified every time the theme was changed or updated. Because UI-extension-based customizations run independently of the theme, refreshing the theme no longer affects account functionality. As a result, decisions about selecting and changing themes become freer, and store renewal cycles should get shorter. Native B2B integration lowers the barrier to entry for B2B commerce. Managing corporate customers and serving differentiated price lists used to require a Plus plan and heavy customization. The new account foundation integrates B2B natively: company-level management, permission settings, and invoice payment all work through standard flows. For merchants who have been considering B2B ecommerce, this should lower the bar to adoption. On the other hand, there will be situations where differentiating on design becomes harder. Because every store uses the same account page foundation, there is less room to differentiate the brand experience within the account area. You can create distinction through combinations of app blocks and branding settings, but the fully bespoke UIs of the Liquid era are out of reach. The point of differentiation shifts from account page design to the design layer above it — what customer experience you deliver within the account (points program design, content, support pathways, and so on). The essence of this change is a turning point: from an era where builders who could write code had the advantage, to an era where the ability to design customer experiences is the competitive edge.

FAQ: Putting Builders' and Merchants' Concerns to Rest

Q1: New stores can't choose legacy accounts — won't that be inconvenient?

It won't. The new accounts ship with reordering, returns, and B2B support as standard, so features that required third-party apps in the legacy version are available from the start. Design freedom is lower than in the Liquid era, but operational convenience improves.

Q2: Will the name ordering I used to adjust in Liquid break under the new system?

It won't break. The new accounts automatically localize names and addresses based on the store's locale setting. In the Japanese locale, names are displayed automatically in family-name-first order, so manual adjustments in Liquid are no longer needed.

Q3: Are the reorder and returns features free on every plan?

The reorder button is available on all plans. Self-serve returns can be used once you configure a return policy in the admin. Neither requires additional apps or separate fees.

Q4: What should I do with files like customers/account.liquid in my theme?

After the upgrade, these files are no longer executed. Delete them or comment them out to disable them. Leaving them in place causes no errors, but cleaning them up is advisable to avoid confusion during maintenance.

Q5: What should stores using SSO (single sign-on) watch out for?

Multipass is not available with new customer accounts. As the alternative, you need to use the Plus plan's external identity provider connection (OpenID Connect-compatible). Because the authentication flow must be redesigned and verified before migrating, stores currently using SSO are advised to start early.

Official Documentation Referenced

• Customer accounts and legacy customer accounts - Shopify Help Center
• Migrating from legacy customer accounts to new customer accounts - Shopify Help Center
• Legacy customer accounts are now deprecated - Shopify Developer Changelog
• Customer account UI extensions - Shopify Dev Docs
• Using the Customer Account API with Hydrogen - Shopify Dev Docs
• Customer accounts - Shopify Help Center