Your Shopify Flow workflow won't turn on? Since October 28, check the staff member's permissions first

What changed on October 28

Until last week, Shopify Flow had one permission. If a staff member could open Flow, they could do anything in it: build a workflow that tags customers, cancels orders or edits inventory, test it, and switch it on, whether or not they could do those things themselves in the admin.

On October 28, Shopify changed that. Flow now uses the staff permissions you manage in Settings > Users > Roles. Access to Flow itself comes from two Flow automations permissions: "View, create, and delete automations" and "Manage connections and secrets." And Flow now checks every workflow against the person's other admin permissions. To test or turn on a workflow, they need the permission behind each of its steps. Shopify's own example: a workflow with the Add customer tags action needs Edit customers.

It's a good change. It also means that this week, somebody on your team is going to build a workflow and find a button greyed out. Here's how to read what they're seeing.

Symptom: they can build and save it, but not test it or turn it on

Cause. One or more steps in the workflow use an action their role doesn't allow in the admin. Flow lets anyone with access build, edit and save drafts. It won't let them test, turn on, turn off, apply changes, run manually, or retry or cancel runs on a workflow that needs a permission they don't have.

Fix. Flow shows them a message explaining what's missing, so start by asking for a screenshot of it. Then decide which of two things is true. Either this person should be able to do that action by hand, in which case add the permission to their role, or they shouldn't, in which case someone who has it reviews the workflow and switches it on.

The second answer is often the right one. A merchandiser who builds a workflow that tags VIP customers may not need permission to edit every customer record. Having a manager review it and switch it on is a reasonable step, not a workaround.

Watch for workflows with many steps. A workflow that checks an order, tags the customer, adjusts inventory and sends an internal email needs the permission behind every one of those steps, not just the first. The person may have three of the four. Go through the steps in order with their role open in another tab, and you'll find the missing one faster than by guessing.

One more pattern: the person who built the workflow last spring may not be the person editing it now. If a workflow someone else switched on needs a small change, the new editor can make it and save the draft, but applying it to the live workflow needs every permission the workflow uses. Plan for that before a busy weekend, not during one.

Symptom: test results, sample data and run history are blank

Cause. The same rule applies to reading. Staff missing a permission won't see data they couldn't view in the admin: sample data, test results and workflow run details. If a workflow touches orders and their role can't view orders, the run history looks empty to them even though the workflow is running. That's easy to misread as "the workflow stopped," and a well-meaning person might rebuild it, which leaves you with two workflows doing the same job.

Fix. Don't treat this as a fault. Check the workflow's runs from an account with full access before anyone concludes it's stopped. If the person who builds and maintains a workflow genuinely needs to troubleshoot it, give them read access to the data it touches, and think carefully before giving more.

Symptom: a workflow that calls another app or service won't save changes

Cause. Workflows that use a connection or a secret, like an API key for a shipping tool, a webhook to your warehouse or credentials for a messaging service, also need the "Manage connections and secrets" permission.

Fix. Keep this permission narrow. Secrets are the keys to other systems, and the person who can edit a connection can point it somewhere else. In most small teams one or two people should hold it: the owner and whoever looks after integrations. Everyone else can build the logic around a connection that someone else set up.

If a contractor or agency built your integrations, check whether their staff account still holds this permission. Their access carried over automatically on October 28 like everyone else's. If the project is finished, this is a natural moment to remove it.

What didn't change

Three things are worth telling the team so nobody panics. Workflows that are already on keep running. Staff who had access to Flow before October 28 keep it, because Shopify gave them the new Flow automations permissions automatically. And store owners always have full access.

New hires are the exception to the carry-over. Anyone you add from now on gets Flow only if their role includes the Flow automations permissions, so add them to the roles you use for seasonal staff before you hand out logins, or decide that seasonal staff don't need Flow at all.

So nothing stopped overnight. The change shows up the next time someone edits, tests or switches on a workflow, which is why it'll trickle in over the coming weeks rather than arriving all at once. If you've got changes planned for Black Friday automations, make them early, with the right person at the keyboard.

Use the change to tidy who can automate what

The automatic carry-over is convenient, but it means everyone who could open Flow before can still open it now. That's a good reason to spend half an hour in Settings > Users > Roles. The person who builds an automation should be allowed to do by hand everything the automation does. Where that isn't true, decide on purpose who reviews and switches it on.

While you're there, list your live workflows and write next to each one who owns it. We've written about why automations shouldn't all run on one person's login, and about sorting orders before Flow buys labels on its own. The same thinking applies here: an automation with no named owner is the one nobody notices when it stops.

If you'd like help reviewing your workflows and roles, or building automations that need more than Flow can do, that's the work our business automation team does. Talk to us before your busiest week.

Related work: Spin Market.