How Customer Accounts Work After Migration
When customers are migrated to Shopify, their customer information (name, email, address) and order history are transferred. However, Shopify does not allow any migration app to transfer customer passwords — this is a platform-level security restriction.
This means customers will need to log in using one of the methods below, depending on your store's account settings.
Legacy vs New Customer Accounts
Shopify has two customer account systems. Which one your store uses determines how your customers log in after migration:
New Customer Accounts (Recommended by Shopify)
Customers log in using a 6-digit code sent to their email — no password needed. This is Shopify's recommended approach and works seamlessly after migration since no password is required.
Legacy Customer Accounts (Deprecated)
Customers log in with email and password. Since passwords cannot be migrated, customers must reset their password or be invited to create a new account.
⚠️ Important: As of February 2026, Shopify has officially deprecated legacy customer accounts. They are no longer available to new stores and will eventually be sunset for existing stores. We strongly recommend upgrading to New Customer Accounts.
You can switch in your Shopify Admin under Settings → Customer Accounts.
How to Invite Customers to Create an Account (Legacy Accounts)
If your store is on legacy customer accounts, you can invite customers to set up their account:
Go to the Customers page in your Shopify Admin Dashboard.
Select the customer.
Click "Send account invite" at the top to send an account creation email.
Some merchants add a note to their storefront to let customers know they need to register with the same email they used on the old site:
Until customers create an account, their details and order history are visible only in the Shopify Admin Dashboard.
Troubleshooting: Common Login Issues After Migration
"Customer not receiving password reset emails"
If your store is using New Customer Accounts, there are no password reset emails — login works via a 6-digit code sent to the customer's email. If your store is on Legacy Customer Accounts, make sure the customer is using the exact email address that was migrated. Also check the customer's spam/junk folder.
"Customer not found in admin search"
In rare cases, Shopify's admin search index can become out of sync after a large data import. The customer data is there, but the search doesn't surface it. If this happens:
Try searching by the customer's email in the Orders section — you may find them there.
Contact Shopify Support and ask them to reindex your customer data. This usually resolves within 48 hours.
Contact our support team — we can help escalate this with Shopify directly.
This is a known Shopify platform issue and is not related to how the data was migrated.
"Email has already been taken" when adding a customer
This means the customer record already exists in your Shopify store (it was migrated successfully). The customer may just not be appearing in search due to the indexing issue above. Try searching in the Orders section or contact Shopify Support for a reindex.
Our MigrationPro Support Team is here to help!
Feel free to contact us via email at [email protected] or use the Live Chat available in the bottom-right corner of the page!