Fileflare keeps deleted Shopify products in its records so customers who already purchased can still access their downloads. This page covers what happens when you delete a product, how customers continue to access their files, and how to bulk-delete assets if you need to start over.
Available on all plans. Deleting a product in Shopify doesn’t delete its assets in Fileflare — they remain attached to historical orders. Deleting an asset in Fileflare is permanent and removes it from any customer who hasn’t already downloaded it.
What happens when you delete a Shopify product
Download links are attached to the customer’s order record, not the live product. When a customer purchases, Fileflare creates an access record tying the customer’s order to whatever assets were attached to the product at that moment.
If you later delete the product in Shopify:
- New customers can’t buy it — the product is gone from your storefront.
- Past customers retain full access — their order’s access records still resolve to the original assets, so download emails, customer accounts, and download pages all keep working.
- You can still manage those assets — see below.
This is intentional: customers paid for files, and you’ve fulfilled that promise even after the product is removed from sale.
Access a deleted product to update files
If you need to update or replace files for customers of a now-deleted product:
- Go to Orders in Fileflare.
- Find an order containing the deleted product. The product name will still be linked.
- Click the product name. Fileflare opens the product’s asset management page.
- From there, attach new files, replace existing assets, or change the file delivery — the changes flow to all past customers’ download pages automatically.
Delete all assets
If you want to wipe everything in Fileflare — for example, before reuploading a fresh catalog or starting over — there are two options:
- Easiest: contact support and we’ll do it for you.
- Self-service: use the API delete endpoint with the bulk-delete option.
Deleting all assets is irreversible. Customers with active orders will lose access to anything they haven’t already downloaded. If you only want to remove a product from sale, just delete it in Shopify — your past customers stay covered.
Common issues
- Customer says their download stopped working after I deleted the product — deleting the product alone shouldn’t break access. If it did, double-check that you didn’t also delete the underlying asset in Fileflare. The asset (the file or URL) is what powers the download; the product is just a vehicle for attaching it.
- I want to reuse the SKU but keep history clean — recreate the product in Shopify with the same SKU. Past orders retain access to the original asset records; new orders use whatever you attach to the new product.