Obnold Subscription — Support Center

App: Obnold Subscription
Last updated: 1 August 2026

This guide covers setup, billing, the Customer Portal, the storefront widget, common questions, and troubleshooting based on how the App actually works today. For privacy and legal terms, see the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

1. Contact Support

These contact details are operator-configured via environment variables (see .env.example / getAppConfig().legal). Set them before App Store submit (see REVIEW_CHECKLIST.md). Do not treat them as a promised SLA. Do not invent company information in the repository.

When you write in, include your shop domain (for example your-store.myshopify.com), what you were trying to do, and any error message shown in the App.

2. Getting Started

After you install Obnold Subscription from Shopify and approve the requested permissions, open the App in Shopify Admin. The dashboard Get started with Obnold checklist tracks three setup items in this order:

1. Create your first plan
2. Customer Portal
3. Configure notifications

The steps below expand that checklist into a complete first-run path, including the storefront Theme App Extension (configured under Widget settings, not as a separate checklist row) and a test purchase.

2.1 Install the App

1. Install Obnold Subscription on your Shopify store.
2. Approve the OAuth scopes the App requests (customers, orders, discounts, subscription contracts, and products — as listed in the Privacy Policy).
3. On first install, a 14-day trial with Starter-level plan/product limits begins automatically (once per shop; reinstall does not restart the trial). See Billing.

2.2 Create a subscription plan

1. In the App, open Plans (or use the checklist link Create your first plan).
2. Create a plan: name, billing frequency, discount, optional customer trial days, and status.
3. Set the plan to Active when you want it published as a Shopify selling plan. Only active plans sync as selling plans for checkout.
4. Save. If sync to Shopify fails, the App will not leave an orphaned local active plan without a successful selling-plan sync.

Until you have at least one plan, some App areas may redirect you back to the dashboard setup surface.

2.3 Assign products

1. On the plan create/edit screen, use the product restriction section to choose which products the plan applies to.
2. Active plans attach those products to the Shopify selling plan group so subscription options appear at checkout for those products.
3. Stay within your App plan’s unique product and active plan limits (Free and Starter have caps; Growth is unlimited on those counts). Attempts that would exceed the cap are blocked when creating or updating plans.

2.4 Enable the Theme App Extension (storefront widget)

1. In the App, open Widget settings. Choose a layout template and use Customize widget to edit labels, colors, and behavior (including Enable subscription widget).
2. Save / use the template so settings are written for the storefront (App metafields).
3. In Shopify Admin, open the theme editor for your live theme (the App can deep-link toward the current theme editor; you can also use Online Store → Themes → Customize).
4. On a product template, add the App block named Subscription selector (theme extension subscription-selector). This is the behavior-aware widget (templates, sold-out handling, Widget Settings enable/disable).
5. Save and publish the theme.
6. Confirm the product has an active Obnold plan assigned and that the variant has selling-plan allocations. If no selling plans exist on the product, the widget only shows one-time pricing; if groups exist but the variant has no allocations, it shows that subscription options aren’t available for that variant.

2.5 Install the Customer Portal

Matches the in-App checklist guide:

1. From the dashboard checklist, click Open Customer Accounts Editor (opens the Checkout & accounts editor on the order status page), or follow Settings → Checkout in Shopify Admin and open the Customer Accounts / checkout editor.
2. Add the Obnold Subscription block (subscription-portal) on a supported surface (order status and/or customer profile).
3. Add the subscription-portal block and save & publish. The portal calls the App automatically using the App URL baked in at deploy time (SHOPIFY_APP_URL) — merchants do not configure a backend URL.
4. Save and publish.
5. Return to the App. The checklist marks Customer Portal complete when Shopify reports the extension as activated on at least one supported target. If verification fails, you may see “We couldn’t verify the installation automatically” — you can still finish installation manually and continue.

Customers who are logged into their customer account can then view plan name, status, billing frequency, next billing date, and (when allowed) pause, resume, skip, or cancel.

2.6 Configure notifications (checklist step)

1. Open Notifications in the App.
2. Review the four email types: subscription confirmation, renewal reminder, failed payment, and cancellation confirmation.
3. Edit subject/body as needed, enable the types you want, and save. Saving marks notifications as configured for onboarding.
4. Optionally send a test email (tests go to the merchant email the App can resolve — not a substitute for verifying customer delivery).

Email delivery requires the App host to have SMTP configured. If SMTP is not set up, sends fail and appear in notification logs. See Troubleshooting.

2.7 Test a subscription

1. On the storefront, open a product assigned to an active plan, choose a subscription option via the widget, and complete checkout (use a development store / test payment method as appropriate).
2. In the App, open Subscriptions. New contracts appear after Shopify delivers the subscription-contract / related webhooks and the App syncs them. Brief delay is normal.
3. Optionally open the Customer Account pages where you placed the portal block and confirm the subscription appears for that customer.

3. Billing

App billing (what you pay for Obnold) is separate from what your customers pay for product subscriptions. Customer charges stay on Shopify checkout and selling plans. Details match the Terms of Service.

3.1 Free trial

• Yes — a real 14-day trial on first install only.
• During the trial you get Starter-level plan and product limits.
• The trial is not granted again on reinstall.
• After the trial ends without an active paid App subscription, entitlements fall back toward the Free catalog limits for plan/product caps.

3.2 Available App plans (USD catalog)

3.3 Plan upgrades

1. Open Billing in the App.
2. Choose monthly or yearly, then Choose plan / Upgrade on Starter or Growth.
3. Shopify shows a charge confirmation. After you approve, you return to the App’s billing return path and local billing status refreshes from Shopify.
4. Shopify is the system of record for the charge. Invoices and payment methods are managed in Shopify Admin (Shopify’s billing for the store), not inside a separate Obnold invoice system.

The App does not implement its own proration engine. When you change interval or plan, exact proration and invoice timing follow Shopify Billing.

3.4 Plan downgrades

• The Billing page does not offer an in-App downgrade button to a lower paid tier. Lower-tier cards show that downgrades are not available from that page yet.
• Free is shown as informational (“included at no charge”) rather than a one-click downgrade action.
• If a paid Shopify App Subscription ends without a replacement, the App’s local billing state falls back (capabilities use Free limits for plan/product caps). Cancelling the Shopify App charge is handled through Shopify’s subscription/billing controls for the App, not a dedicated downgrade wizard in Obnold.

3.5 Billing questions

• Check the App’s Billing page for current trial/plan status shown by Obnold.
• For charges, receipts, payment failures, and tax on the App fee, use Shopify’s billing/invoice surfaces for your store.
• If purchase fails with a message about managed pricing, the App listing may still be on Shopify-managed pricing; paid appSubscriptionCreate will not complete until the listing uses manual App billing (operator/configuration issue — contact support@obnold.com).

4. Customer Portal

4.1 Installation

See §2.5. Summary:

1. Open the Customer Accounts / checkout editor (checklist CTA targets the order-status editor).
2. Add the Obnold Subscription / subscription-portal block.
3. Add the subscription-portal block and publish (no URL setting required).
4. Save and publish.
5. Confirm activation back in the App checklist when possible.

4.2 What customers can do

When logged in, customers can view subscription details (plan name, status, billing frequency, next billing date, skip-blocked flag) and, when allowed by status/rules: pause, resume, skip, or cancel (cancel may ask for a reason). Actions go through Shopify subscription contracts, then sync locally.

4.3 Troubleshooting

5. Theme Extension

5.1 Installation

See §2.4. Summary:

1. Configure template/style under Widget settings.
2. In the theme editor, add Subscription selector to the product template.
3. Save and publish.
4. Ensure the product is on an active plan with selling plans synced.

5.2 Troubleshooting

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I start after installing?
Use the dashboard checklist: create a plan, install the Customer Portal, configure notifications. Also add the storefront Subscription selector block so shoppers can choose a selling plan.

Is there a free trial?
Yes. First install gets 14 days with Starter-level plan/product limits. Reinstall does not restart the trial.

What’s the difference between an App plan and a customer subscription plan?
App plans (Free / Starter / Growth) are what you pay for Obnold. Customer plans are the selling plans you create under Plans for your products.

Why can’t I create another plan or add more products?
You’ve hit your current App tier’s active-plan or unique-product cap. Upgrade on the Billing page, or archive/reduce usage. Existing over-limit data after a downgrade may remain, but new creates that increase over the cap are blocked.

Can I downgrade from Growth to Starter in the App?
Not from the Billing page today — lower tiers show that downgrades aren’t available there yet. Shopify remains the source of truth for App charges.

Do customers pay Obnold?
No. Customers pay you through Shopify checkout. Obnold’s App fee (if any) is billed to the merchant via Shopify App Billing.

What emails does Obnold send?
Four types, by email (SMTP): subscription confirmation, renewal reminder (scheduled for upcoming renewals), failed payment, and cancellation confirmation (may include a win-back code when that automation runs). Templates must be enabled, the shop must not be uninstalled, and a customer email must exist on the subscription.

Does the Customer Portal show the customer’s email?
No. The portal payload shows plan/status/billing date fields, not name or email.

What happens if I uninstall the App?
Sessions are removed and automations are turned off; subscription/plan data is kept for the post-uninstall privacy window. Reinstalling resets operational data for a fresh setup but keeps the merchant billing/trial-used record. Full erasure follows Shopify’s shop/redact process. See the Privacy Policy.

Where is my customer data-request export?
When Shopify sends a customer data request, the App stores an export for fulfillment. There is no merchant download screen in the App yet — contact support@obnold.com with your shop domain if you need help retrieving it.

Is Scale available?
Not yet. The Billing UI marks Scale as coming soon.

7. Troubleshooting

Widget not showing

1. Confirm the Subscription selector App block is on the product template and the theme is published.
2. Confirm Enable subscription widget is on in Widget settings and the template was saved/used.
3. Confirm the product is assigned to an active plan that synced selling plans to Shopify.
4. Try another variant — some variants may lack selling-plan allocations.
5. Hard-refresh the storefront or preview the published theme (not only an unsaved editor session).

Customer Portal not appearing

1. Confirm the portal block is added on order status and/or profile, then saved and published.
2. Confirm root SHOPIFY_APP_URL matches the live App URL and the portal extension was redeployed after the last URL change.
3. Customer must be logged into Customer Accounts.
4. If the checklist can’t verify activation, still confirm visually in a real customer session after publish.
5. Ensure network access for Customer Account UI extensions is allowed for the App (Partner Dashboard setting required for portal API calls — if this was never enabled for the App, contact support@obnold.com).

Subscription not syncing

Subscriptions are created and updated primarily from Shopify webhooks (subscription contract create/update/lifecycle and related order events), then written to the App database.

1. Wait a few minutes — webhook delivery is not always instant.
2. Confirm the checkout used a selling plan from an Obnold active plan (not one-time only).
3. Confirm the App is still installed and not mid-reinstall reset.
4. Open Subscriptions in the App and refresh. If the contract exists in Shopify Admin but never appears in Obnold, note the approximate checkout time and shop domain and contact support@obnold.com (possible missed webhook, selling-plan resolution failure, or processing error). The App can also retain failed webhook events for retry when processing fails.

Notifications not sending

1. In Notifications, confirm the template type is enabled and saved.
2. Confirm the subscription has a customer email in the App.
3. Check recent notification logs in the App (sent / failed / skipped). Skipped can mean template disabled or shop soft-uninstalled; failed often means SMTP or missing email.
4. Renewal reminders only send for upcoming renewals in the reminder window and won’t resend for the same cycle once already reminded.
5. Email goes out via the App’s SMTP configuration on the server. If SMTP environment variables are missing or wrong, all sends fail until the operator fixes hosting config — contact support@obnold.com if logs show SMTP configuration errors.
6. Check the customer’s spam/junk folder only after logs show sent — if the log never shows sent, the message did not leave the App successfully.

8. Contact Information

For privacy or data-deletion questions related to App-stored data, use support@obnold.com and see the Privacy Policy.