Shopify Function behavior after app uninstall and reinstall

Functions
1

Hi everyone,

I recently encountered an issue with some merchants who uninstall our app and then install it again later.

As far as I understand, after an app is uninstalled, our app should no longer have access to the store data, and any app-side data or configuration should no longer affect the merchant’s store unless the app is reinstalled and reconfigured.

However, a few merchants have reported that some functionality related to one of our Shopify Functions still seems to behave unexpectedly after uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

Has anyone else experienced similar behavior with Shopify Functions after an app uninstall/reinstall cycle?

Specifically, I’m trying to understand:

  1. Are Shopify Functions or their related configurations fully removed when the app is uninstalled?

  2. Is there any delay or caching behavior that could cause a Function-related behavior to remain active temporarily?

  3. Are there any recommended cleanup steps we should handle during app uninstall to avoid this situation?

Any insights or similar experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks!

2

I found the root cause and wanted to share the update here.

After an app is uninstalled, Shopify automatically removes the app’s theme extensions and Shopify Functions from the merchant’s store. However, if the app has previously created or updated metafields, those metafields may remain on the store after uninstall.

In our case, when the merchant installed the app again, the newly deployed Function was able to read the existing metafield values and apply the related functionality again. This made it look like some Function-related behavior had survived the uninstall, while the actual issue was the remaining metafield data.

To handle this, I added a cleanup option before uninstall. If a merchant wants to remove the app completely and start fresh later, they can use this option to clear the app-related metafields before uninstalling. Then, if they reinstall the app, everything starts from a clean state.

In my opinion, since Shopify already removes app-related theme extensions and Functions during uninstall, it would be helpful if Shopify also provided a standard way to automatically clean up app-owned metafields, or at least made this behavior more explicit in the uninstall flow.

Hope this helps anyone who runs into a similar issue.

3

@Shahram_Foroozan did your app create merchant-owned metafields? App-owned and app-data metafields are automatically cleaned up when an app is uninstalled.

For reference, here are the different metafield types: About metafields