A Shopify merchant cannot directly type a new password for a customer. Instead, you trigger a password reset email from the Shopify admin and the customer sets the new password themselves by clicking the link in that email. The full path is Shopify admin > Customers > click the customer’s name > More actions > Send password reset email. The customer receives a Shopify-branded email with a secure reset link valid for several hours.

This guide walks through the exact steps in the current Shopify admin, covers the difference between classic customer accounts and the new customer accounts, and includes troubleshooting for the most common issues (email not received, wrong customer matched, accounts not yet activated). It also clears up the very common mix-up between resetting a customer’s password and resetting your own merchant login.

how to reset customer's password

Key Takeaways
1
Shopify never lets you set or view a customer’s password; you only trigger the reset email.
2
Find the customer in Shopify admin > Customers, then use More actions > Send password reset email.
3
Customers using new customer accounts get a one-time login code by email instead of a password reset link.
4
If the customer never activated their account, send an account invite instead of a reset email.
5
Resetting your own merchant login is a separate flow done from Shopify accounts.shopify.com, not the customer record.

Customer Password vs Merchant Password (Read This First)

A lot of people searching for “reset Shopify password” or “forgot Shopify password” actually want to reset their own admin login, not a customer’s account. These are two different flows:

  • Customer password reset (this guide): you, the merchant, trigger an email to the customer from the Customers section of Shopify admin. The customer clicks the link and chooses their new password.
  • Merchant/admin password reset: done at accounts.shopify.com by clicking “Forgot password” on the login page. Shopify emails the store owner or staff account a reset link. You cannot do this from inside the admin (because you can’t log in).

If you’re trying to change your own Shopify admin password while already logged in, go to your account icon in the top-right of admin > Manage account > Security > Change password. The rest of this article covers the customer-side flow.

Step 1: Open the Customers Section in Shopify Admin

Log in to your Shopify admin at admin.shopify.com. In the left sidebar, click Customers. This shows the full list of customers who have ever placed an order or been added manually, with columns for name, email, orders, and amount spent.

If you have a large customer list, use the search bar at the top of the page to find the right person. Search by email address when possible because names can match multiple people. Be careful with similar email addresses (e.g. [email protected] vs [email protected]) so you don’t reset the wrong person’s password.

Step 2: Open the Customer’s Profile

Click the customer’s name to open their profile. You will see their order history, contact details, default address, customer tags, and an Account section showing whether the account is invited, active, or disabled.

Before triggering a reset, verify the customer’s identity if they contacted you by phone or chat. Ask for the email address on file plus one detail from a recent order (order number or shipping address). Shopify gives anyone with access to the inbox of that email full control of the account, so identity confirmation matters.

Step 3: Send the Password Reset Email

In the customer’s profile, click More actions near the top of the page. In the dropdown, choose Send password reset email. A confirmation modal appears with the email address that will receive the link; click Send password reset email to confirm.

Shopify immediately sends an email titled “Reset your password” to the customer. The email contains a link that opens a password reset page on your store’s domain (or on Shopify’s accounts domain, depending on your customer account settings). The link expires after a few hours, so ask the customer to act on it quickly.

If the Send password reset email option is missing or greyed out, the customer almost certainly has not activated their account yet. In that case the right action is to send an account invite instead, which lets them set their password for the first time.

Classic Customer Accounts vs New Customer Accounts

Shopify has been migrating merchants from classic customer accounts to new customer accounts through 2024 and 2025. The reset flow looks slightly different on each:

  • Classic customer accounts: the customer receives a “Reset your password” email with a link. They click the link, set a new password, and log in with email + password going forward. This is the flow described above.
  • New customer accounts: passwords don’t really exist in the same way. Customers log in by entering their email and receiving a 6-digit one-time code. There is technically no password to reset; if a customer says they’re locked out, you can either (a) confirm they’re entering the correct email and check spam for the code, or (b) re-send the login email via the same Customers admin action (sometimes still labelled “Send password reset” depending on theme).

To check which type your store uses, go to Settings > Customer accounts in Shopify admin. The version shown there determines what your customers actually receive when you trigger a reset.

Troubleshooting Customer Password Resets

A few situations come up repeatedly when merchants try to reset a customer’s password:

  • Customer says they never got the reset email. Ask them to check spam, promotions tab, and any quarantine. Resend after 5-10 minutes if it still hasn’t arrived. If they use a corporate email, the message may be silently filtered; have them try a personal address by editing the email on their profile first (then resend).
  • Multiple customers with the same name. Always search by email, not by name. If you accidentally hit “Send password reset” on the wrong record, the link is only useful to whoever owns that email inbox, so nothing breaks; just send another to the correct customer.
  • The reset link expired. Shopify reset links last about 12 hours. If the customer waited too long, just send a fresh one from the same More actions menu.
  • Customer accounts not enabled on your store. If you turned customer accounts off in Settings > Customer accounts, the reset email option won’t appear because customers can’t log in at all. Either turn the feature back on or explain to the customer that your store only supports guest checkout.
  • Customer’s account is disabled. If you previously disabled the account or blocked the customer, the reset option is hidden. Re-enable the account first if you want them back in.
  • Suspicious reset request. If a customer’s password reset is requested by someone you can’t verify (especially after a chargeback or suspected fraud), pause and confirm identity before triggering anything. Once the email goes out, anyone with inbox access can take over the account.

What Happens After You Send the Reset

After you send the email, the rest of the flow happens outside your admin:

  1. The customer opens the email and clicks the reset link.
  2. Shopify takes them to a password creation page (classic accounts) or a code-entry page (new accounts).
  3. They set the new password (or enter the code) and are logged in automatically.
  4. Future logins use the new password (classic) or fresh email codes (new accounts).

You will not see the new password anywhere in your admin, and Shopify won’t tell you whether the customer successfully completed the reset. The only signal is whether they’re able to place a new order or contact you back. If they say it still didn’t work, walk through the troubleshooting checklist above before assuming a platform issue.