How to Edit Shopify URL Handles in Bulk and Set Up Redirects

To change Shopify handles in bulk, select your products in the admin, open the bulk editor, add the handle column and edit each handle in the grid. Bulk edits don’t create redirects for the old URLs, so export a list of old and new handles and import them as URL redirects afterward.

Handles shape your product URLs and act as the key Shopify uses to match products during CSV imports. Changing many at once can tidy up messy URLs after an import or migration, but a careless update can break links and create duplicate products.

What Is a Shopify Handle?

A handle is the unique, URL-friendly name that identifies a product, collection or page in your store. For products, it forms the last part of the product URL, so a product with the handle black-sunglasses lives at /products/black-sunglasses.

Shopify generates the handle from the title when you create a product, turning “Black Sunglasses” into black-sunglasses. Handles can contain letters, numbers and hyphens but no spaces, and if a handle is already taken, Shopify adds a suffix to keep it unique.

Handles also do important work behind the scenes. In a product CSV, the handle tells Shopify which product each row belongs to, so variant and image rows share their product’s handle, and imports use it to decide whether a row updates an existing product.

How to Change Shopify Handles in Bulk

The bulk editor is the native way to change many handles without deleting or recreating products. Because it edits existing products in place, their IDs, order history and other connections stay intact.

1. Export a backup. Go to Products > Export and download the products you plan to change, so you have a record of every old handle.
2. Select the products. In Products, filter the list if needed and select the products with the checkboxes.
3. Open the bulk editor. Click Bulk edit.
4. Add the handle column. Click Columns and add the handle field.
5. Edit the handles. Type the new handle in each cell, using only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens.
6. Save. Click Save, and fix any highlighted errors before saving again.

Work in manageable batches, since the bulk editor handles a limited number of products at a time and unsaved edits are lost if you leave the page. Note the old and new handle for each product as you go, because you’ll need both for redirects.

Create redirects for the old handles

Changing a handle in the bulk editor doesn’t redirect the old URL, so links from search results, ads and other sites would lead to a 404 page. You can fix this in one step by importing your redirects as a CSV.

1. Build a spreadsheet with two columns, Redirect from and Redirect to, such as /products/old-handle and /products/new-handle.
2. Save it as a CSV file.
3. In your Shopify admin, go to Content > Menus and open URL redirects.
4. Click Import, add your file and click Upload file.
5. Review the preview, then click Import redirects.

Shopify provides a sample redirect CSV on the import screen, which is the safest template to follow. Standard stores can have up to 100,000 redirects and Plus stores up to 20,000,000, so even large handle cleanups fit comfortably.

If you sell in several markets with subfolders, such as /en-ca/, redirects don’t automatically apply to every subfolder. Add separate redirects for those paths where needed.

Why You Shouldn’t Change Handles With a Product CSV

A product CSV can’t safely rename handles, because the handle is how Shopify matches rows to existing products. When you import with Overwrite products with matching handles, a row with a new handle no longer matches its original product.

The likely result is a second product with the new handle, while the original stays in place with the old one. You’d then have duplicate listings, split inventory and two URLs for the same item.

Deleting all products and reimporting them with new handles isn’t a safe workaround either. Reimported products get new internal IDs, which breaks links to past orders, reports, reviews and connected apps.

CSV files are still useful for planning. Export your products, write new handles in a spare column next to the old ones and use that sheet to drive your bulk editor changes and build your redirect file.

If you manage product data across Shopify, WooCommerce or Wix, Bulkflow supports bulk import, export and updates to existing product records with field mapping. That can help when you want to export product data, such as titles and handles, to review it in one file.

Other Ways to Update Handles in Bulk

The bulk editor suits most stores, but very large catalogs or rule-based changes may need other tools. These are the main alternatives:

• Bulk editing and import apps. Some apps can update handles for existing products by matching on a product ID rather than the handle. Check whether the app can also create redirects for the old URLs.
• Handle-specific apps. Some apps in the Shopify App Store focus on generating or cleaning up handles from product titles in bulk.
• The Admin API. Developers can change a handle with the productUpdate mutation and set redirectNewHandle to true, which redirects the old handle to the new one automatically.

Whichever tool you use, test it on a few products first. Confirm that the new URLs load, the old URLs redirect and no duplicate products appear.

How to Change a Single Handle

For one or two products, editing the handle on the product page is quicker and handles the redirect for you. Follow these steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products and click the product.
2. In the Search engine listing section, click the edit icon.
3. Change the text in the URL handle field.
4. Keep the option to create a URL redirect from the old URL to the new one selected.
5. Click Save.

Collections, pages and blog posts have handles too, and you edit them the same way from their own search engine listing sections. Redirects for those follow the same rules as product redirects.

Tips for Writing Better Handles

A good handle is short, readable and stable, because every change creates a redirect to maintain. Keep these guidelines in mind when planning a bulk update:

• Describe the product. Use the main words a shopper would recognize, such as linen-shirt-white.
• Keep it short. Remove filler words, internal codes and extra hyphens.
• Use lowercase and hyphens. Separate words with single hyphens and avoid spaces or special characters.
• Avoid details that change. Leave out years, prices or “sale,” which may need another update later.
• Follow one pattern. Use a consistent structure across similar products so URLs stay predictable.
• Change handles sparingly. Update them for a clear reason, such as fixing handles left behind by an import, rather than as routine tweaks.

Common Problems When Changing Handles in Bulk

Most handle problems come from missing redirects or from treating the handle as an editable field in a CSV. Watch for these:

• Old product links show a 404 page. No redirect was created, so import a redirect CSV for the changed handles.
• A CSV import created duplicate products. The handles in the file changed, so they no longer matched existing products.
• A handle ends in “-1” or similar. Another product already uses that handle, so choose a different one.
• A redirect doesn’t work. Redirects only apply when the old URL returns an error, so check that no product still uses the old handle.
• Redirects work on one market but not another. Market subfolders need their own redirects.
• Order history or reviews disappeared. Products were deleted and reimported instead of edited.

Conclusion

Updating Shopify handles in bulk is a practical way to clean up product URLs, as long as the products themselves stay intact. Editing handles in place and redirecting the old URLs keeps shoppers and search engines on working pages. We hope this guide helps you manage Shopify handle bulk changes with confidence. To export and update product data in bulk, you can explore Bulkflow.