Rewrite one product description, and you've just made it outdated in every other language your store speaks.
That's how translation has worked in Shopify until now. You updated the original, then went back into Translate & Adapt and translated it again. Most teams didn't, at least not every time. So the German storefront drifted. The French one drifted further. And customers landed on product pages that no longer matched what you actually sell.
On October 9, Shopify fixed that for European stores. Translate & Adapt can now keep your translations up to date automatically, in up to eight languages.
What's new in Translate & Adapt
Auto-sync. Turn it on for a published language, and Shopify translates new and updated content automatically, once a week. No more chasing every product edit across every language.
Eight languages instead of two. Shopify's built-in automatic translation used to stop at two languages. Eligible stores now get eight, plus your default language.
Translate now. The old Auto-translate button has a new name. Use it when you want content translated straight away instead of waiting for the weekly sync.
Your own translations stay yours. Anything you've translated or edited by hand is never overwritten.
Who gets it
This depends on the country your store is located in. Auto-sync and the eight-language limit are available for stores in:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Notice who's missing. Stores based in Norway and Finland aren't on the list. Neither are stores outside Europe. They keep the old limit of two automatic languages and no Auto-sync. Shopify does say that if you see the Translate now button in the app, you have the new features regardless of country, so it's worth checking.
How to turn it on
1. Open the Translate & Adapt app.
2. Select a language.
3. Switch on Auto-sync.
It's off by default, and you can turn it on or off per language at any time.
One thing to expect: Auto-sync doesn't run the moment you switch it on. The first sync can take up to a week. If you need translations now, use Translate now*first, then let Auto-sync take over.
Four things to know before you switch it on
1. Language slots are permanent. Using Auto-sync or Translate now for a language uses one of your eight slots. Once a slot is used, you can't move it to another language. Removing a language from your store doesn't free the slot either. So choose your eight with your market plan in mind, not just this quarter's.
2. Manual translations won't follow your changes.*Shopify never overwrites a translation you've written by hand. That's good for your carefully worded German tagline. But it also means that if you later change the original text, those hand-written translations won't update. Keep a short list of what you've translated manually, and review it when the source changes.
3. Some content is excluded. Legal policies can't be translated automatically, so your terms, privacy and refund policies still need a manual (and ideally professional) translation. Theme default text only gets missing translations filled in. Existing ones aren't updated.
4. Machine translation still needs a human eye. Shopify recommends reviewing automatic translations before you rely on them. We'd go further. Check your top-selling product pages, your navigation and your checkout-adjacent content in each language, ideally with a native speaker. Brand voice rarely survives translation untouched.
Our take
For brands selling across Europe, this is one of the more useful updates Shopify has shipped this year. Outdated translations are a quiet conversion killer. Nobody complains. They just don't buy.
Auto-sync won't replace a proper localization strategy. Your Swedish copy shouldn't just be your English copy in Swedish. But it removes the most common failure: content that falls behind because nobody had time to re-translate it.
We'd set it up like this. Use Auto-sync for the bulk of the catalog, where speed matters most. Hand-write the pages where brand voice matters most, like your homepage, campaign landing pages and hero products. And review both on a regular schedule.
If you sell in several markets and aren't sure how to split your eight languages, or which content deserves a human translator, we're happy to help you plan it.
