How to Reconnect Your Shopify Integration

Your Shopify store powers your sales tax calculations and filings in Kintsugi, so when that connection drops, it's understandable to feel a little uneasy. The good news is that a disconnected integration rarely means something is wrong with your Kintsugi account or your data.

In most cases, resolving the issue only requires a quick fix in Shopify or a simple reauthorization to get the integration back up and running. This guide walks through the most common reasons a Shopify connection disconnects, how to reconnect it step by step, and answers to the questions we hear most often about keeping your Shopify integration healthy.

Why Did My Shopify Integration Disconnect?

If you see the message "Shopify connection is invalid: Possible cause: store is closed" in Kintsugi, don't be alarmed. This wording is a generic, catch-all error and doesn't only mean your store is closed. It appears when Kintsugi's health check detects a connection issue with your Shopify store.

The most common causes are:

• Your Shopify store is paused, frozen, or closed. Usually due to a billing issue on Shopify's side. Until the store itself is reactivated with Shopify, no action in Kintsugi will fix the connection.

• Your authorization token expired or the reconnect wasn't fully completed. If you click "Activate" or "Reconnect" without going through the entire Shopify permissions screen and redirect, the old token stays in place and the connection fails again shortly after.

• The Kintsugi app was uninstalled and reinstalled on Shopify. Kintsugi doesn't get a real-time signal when this happens; this is only caught on the next scheduled sync, which can take a little while.

• Kintsugi was opened from inside the Shopify admin panel. This is a known issue: opening the Kintsugi app from within Shopify admin can silently revert your connection to an old, invalid token, even right after you've successfully reconnected. See the fix below.

• You have multiple Shopify stores connected. If you're reconnecting the wrong store, or a store's URL doesn't match what was previously connected, the connection will keep failing.

How to Reconnect

1. Check that your Shopify store is Active. If it's been paused or frozen due to a billing issue on Shopify's side, reactivate it there first because nothing in Kintsugi will resolve the connection until the store itself is in good standing.

2. Re-authorize the connection in Kintsugi. Go to Settings → Integrations → Shopify (or Data Sources → Inactive, then the three-dot menu next to your store) and click Re-authorize.

3. Complete the full permissions flow. Make sure you go all the way through the Shopify permissions screen and wait for the redirect back to Kintsugi. Clicking through partway, or just clicking "Activate" in Kintsugi without completing Shopify's side, won't refresh the token.

4. Always access Kintsugi directly, not through Shopify admin. After reconnecting, go to app.trykintsugi.com directly rather than opening Kintsugi from inside your Shopify admin panel. Opening it from within Shopify admin can overwrite your fresh connection with a stale token and disconnect you again. If your connection keeps reverting to inactive no matter how many times you reconnect, this is almost always why.

5. If you have multiple stores, make sure you are reconnecting the same store URL that was originally connected because reconnecting a different store under the same account can look like a "stuck" reconnect.

If re-authorization still doesn't resolve the issue, contact Kintsugi Support. In some cases, a backend session reset is needed before the connection can be restored.

FAQs

Q: Is it safe to re-authorize my Shopify connection?

A: Yes. Re-authorizing only refreshes your credentials. It doesn't affect data that's already synced.

Q: Why does my Shopify connection keep disconnecting even though I keep reconnecting it?
A: This is most often caused by opening Kintsugi from inside the Shopify admin panel, which can silently overwrite a valid connection with an old token. Reconnect, then always access Kintsugi directly at app.trykintsugi.com instead of through Shopify admin.

Q: I don't see my Shopify store listed under Data Sources at all. Does that mean it's disconnected?
A: Only active connections show by default. If your store isn't listed, check the Inactive tab; it is likely disconnected and needs to be reauthorized.

Q: Will I lose data if my store is disconnected for a while?

A: No, your historical data isn't lost. However, new transactions won't sync while the connection is down, and depending on timing, sales during the disconnected period may be picked up in a later filing cycle rather than the current one. Reconnect as soon as you can to keep your filings current.

Q: I sold my Shopify store, what should I do with the integration?
A: Disconnect and archive that store under Data Sources → Manage Integrations. This stops new data from syncing while keeping historical records for compliance. Since Kintsugi tracks data at the store level, archiving the sold store keeps its activity from affecting your other stores' liabilities going forward. If you need a final filing for that store up to the sale date, reach out to Kintsugi Support.

Q: I intentionally disconnected/archived a store I don't use anymore, but why do I keep getting reconnect reminder emails?
A: Let Kintsugi Support know which store you've intentionally retired, and we'll remove it from reconnect outreach. We're aware this can happen and are working on making that distinction clearer going forward.

Q: What if re-authorizing doesn't fix my connection?
A: Contact Kintsugi Support. Some cases need a backend session reset or further investigation on our end.

Need Help?

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