Shopify server cache not clearing for commercial IPs

Online Store and Theme Development
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Short description of issue

Shopify server cache not clearing for commercial IPs

Reproduction steps

  1. Make any change to the theme, using theme editor or asset API.
  2. View the theme using a popular VPN - for example, NordVPN - Los Angeles location
  3. Open the site in incognito to clear browser cache. View source of the live site while connected to VPN - you won’t see the change for a long time, we’ve observed several hours plus

Additional info

Shopify is not refreshing the cache for certain IPs. So far, we’ve observed it on NordVPN’s LA location. Additionally, the PageSpeed audit tool is also served the cached version for far too long.

I assume this is to save on server costs when serving the site to bots. However, this impacts customers who use VPNs as they get the older version. Bug fixes end up taking hours to reach users, creating a poor experience. Our merchants who view their sites using VPNs or who run PageSpeed audits also do not see the fixes applied.

What type of topic is this

Bug report

1 Like
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The same issue has been reported by 2 other people with no replies from Shopify. @Liam-Shopify @KyleG-Shopify any insight here would be greatly appreciated!

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Hey @Alexander_Lam, thanks for the detailed report and for pulling those related threads together. We’re looking into the cache behavior you’ve described for commercial IP ranges. I’ll update here with what I find.