Troubleshooting

Most Torquex issues come down to a metafield value that is missing or malformed, or a setting pointed at the wrong thing. This page lists the symptoms merchants hit most often, the real cause behind each, and the exact fix. Work top to bottom — the automotive metafield problems are the most common.

Every concrete name below (settings, sections, blocks, metafields) is real and matches the theme source. If you are setting these features up for the first time, start with Getting started and the Metafields reference, then come back here when something does not appear.

Fitment selector returns nothing

Symptom: The Year → Make → Model dropdowns on the product page are empty, or the whole Check fitment selector does not appear at all.

Cause: The fitment selector reads only from the product’s custom.fitment metafield. When that metafield is blank, the selector snippet renders nothing — there is no error, the control is simply absent. When it is present but the JSON is malformed (or the wrong shape), the browser cannot parse it and the dropdowns stay empty. Because the admin validates JSON-typed fields when you save a product manually, a malformed value most often slips in through a CSV / bulk import, where it is not checked the same way.

Fix:

1. Confirm the custom.fitment definition exists under Settings → Custom data → Products with Type = JSON, and that the product actually has a value (open the product, scroll to Metafields).

2. Confirm the value is a JSON array of objects, with lowercase keys year, make, model, and optional trim — not an object, and not “Year, Make, Model” as plain text. A valid value:

   [
     { "year": 2021, "make": "Toyota", "model": "Tacoma", "trim": "TRD Pro" },
     { "year": 2020, "make": "Ford", "model": "F-150" },
     { "year": 2022, "make": "Jeep", "model": "Wrangler", "trim": "Rubicon" }
   ]

3. Check for JSON syntax errors: a trailing comma after the last object, smart/curly quotes (" instead of ") pasted from a word processor, or a missing closing bracket. Any of these make the value invalid and the dropdowns render empty.

4. Keys are case-sensitive and lowercase. Year, MAKE, or Model are ignored — use year, make, model, trim.

5. If the whole selector is missing even with valid metafield data, the Fitment checklist block may have been removed from the product template. Re-add it in the theme editor (open a product → Add block → Fitment checklist) — the selector lives in a block, not in the section itself.

year may be a number (2021) or a numeric string ("2021"); both work, but a plain number is cleanest. trim may be omitted on any row.

Tip

Add a Choices / list of values validation to the definitions where it helps, and validate your JSON in any JSON linter before pasting it. One bad character anywhere in the array disables the selector for that product.

”Fits your vehicle” badge never shows

Symptom: A shopper saved a vehicle in the fitment selector, but the green Fits your {vehicle} badge does not appear on product cards or the product page.

Cause: The badge is hidden in markup and only revealed by JavaScript when the visitor’s saved vehicle matches an entry in that product’s custom.fitment metafield. The match compares year, make, and model (trimmed, case-insensitive). If the product has no custom.fitment value, or the saved vehicle’s Year/Make/Model is not in the product’s list, the badge stays hidden — by design.

Fix:

• Make sure the product carries a valid custom.fitment value (see the section above). No fitment data means no badge.
• Confirm the saved vehicle genuinely fits that product. If the selector shows Does not fit your saved vehicle, the saved Year/Make/Model is not one of the product’s rows — that is correct behavior, not a bug.
• The saved vehicle lives in the visitor’s browser (local storage). Testing in a private/incognito window, a different browser, or after clearing site data starts with no saved vehicle, so no badge appears until a vehicle is saved again.

Spec table is empty

Symptom: The technical specifications table (and the Specs tab) on a product is blank or missing.

Cause: The spec table is built entirely from these product metafields: custom.part_number, custom.weight_kg, custom.dimensions, custom.material, custom.warranty. Each blank metafield skips its row, and if all five are blank the whole table renders nothing.

Fix:

1. Open the product’s Metafields section and fill in the spec fields you want to show. You do not need all five — any one filled value renders the table with that row.
2. For custom.weight_kg, store the number only (12.5, not 12.5 kg). The theme appends ” kg” itself, so a value of 12.5 kg renders as 12.5 kg kg.
3. custom.dimensions, custom.material, and custom.warranty are printed verbatim — include your own units (e.g. 120 x 80 x 30 cm).
4. Confirm each definition uses the exact Namespace and key (custom.part_number, custom.weight_kg, custom.dimensions, custom.material, custom.warranty) and the Type listed in the Metafields reference. A typo in the key means the theme reads nothing.
5. If the Specs tab is missing entirely even with metafields filled, the Tab — Specifications block may have been removed from the product template. Re-add it in the theme editor (open a product → Add block → Tab — Specifications) — the spec table lives in a block, not in the section itself.

The same five metafields populate the Compare products section; there, blank values fall back to an em dash (—) instead of hiding the row, so a compare column full of dashes also points to missing spec metafields.

Install-difficulty badge is not showing

Symptom: The wrench install badge (Easy install / Moderate install / Pro install) does not appear on the product page, product card, Installation tab, or compare table.

Cause: The badge reads custom.install_difficulty, which must be exactly one of three lowercase values: easy, moderate, or professional. The badge logic has no fallback — any other value (including Easy, EASY, pro, hard, expert, or a blank field) produces no badge at all, silently.

Fix:

1. Open the product’s Metafields and set custom.install_difficulty to exactly easy, moderate, or professional — lowercase, no extra spaces, no trailing text.

2. Note the value-to-label mapping (the label is translated text, the value is what you store):

   Stored value	Badge label
   easy	Easy install
   moderate	Moderate install
   professional	Pro install

3. To stop editors entering anything else, add a Choices / list of values validation to the custom.install_difficulty definition limited to exactly easy, moderate, professional.

4. On product cards, the badge also depends on Show install difficulty badge being on. Check it under Theme settings → Products.

Caution

professional is the full word — pro, prof, or expert render no badge. The value is case-sensitive: Professional (capital P) also renders nothing.

Product images look wrong (stretched, cropped, or letterboxed)

Symptom: Product-card images appear stretched, awkwardly cropped, or with empty bars around them.

Cause: Card images are forced into a single aspect ratio set by Image aspect ratio in Theme settings → Products (square, portrait, or landscape). Torquex fills the frame (the image is cover-cropped to the chosen ratio), so source photos that do not match the chosen ratio get cropped. If your photos are inconsistent sizes, some will crop more than others.

Fix:

• In Theme settings → Products, set Image aspect ratio to the shape that best matches your photography (Square is the most forgiving for mixed sources).
• Use consistently sized source images across products so the cover-crop behaves the same on every card.
• If a key part of an image is being cropped out, set the image’s focal point in Shopify (on the product’s media) so the crop keeps the important area centered.
• This setting controls product cards. Other sections (hero, garage CTA, popup, image-with-text) have their own fixed ratios and are not affected by this control.

A menu is not appearing

Symptom: The header (or a footer column) shows no links, or shows the wrong menu.

Cause: Torquex sections do not contain menu links — they point at a menu you build under Navigation. The Header section’s Main menu setting defaults to the store’s main-menu. If that menu is empty, or the setting points at a menu that does not exist, no links render.

Fix:

1. Go to Online Store → Navigation and confirm the menu has links. The header uses main-menu by default — add your top collections, pages, and blog to it.
2. In the theme editor, open the Header section and check the Main menu setting points at the menu you intend to show.
3. For footer columns, each footer menu block has its own menu setting — open the block in the Footer section and point it at the right menu.
4. Drag links beneath other links in Navigation to create drop-downs; Torquex renders nested links as submenus automatically.

Changes in Navigation appear immediately in the editor and on Preview — you do not need to republish.

A section is ignoring my brand colors

Symptom: One section uses different colors than the rest of the site — wrong background, text, or accent — even though your color schemes look right elsewhere.

Cause: Most sections expose a Color scheme setting that selects which of your color schemes that section uses. The colors themselves come from Theme settings → Colors; the per-section setting just chooses a scheme. If a section is set to the wrong scheme (for example a light scheme on a dark page), it will look out of place even though nothing is “broken.”

Fix:

1. Edit your palettes once, centrally, under Theme settings → Colors (background, surface, border, body text, muted text, accent, accent hover, button label, plus the functional Success / Warning / Error colors).
2. In the theme editor, open the affected section and set its Color scheme to the scheme you want it to use.
3. If you changed the accent color but a section did not update, confirm you edited the same scheme that section is assigned to — each scheme has its own accent.

Note

Editing a color scheme updates every section assigned to that scheme at once. That is the intended behavior — set your brand colors in Theme settings → Colors and pick the right scheme per section, rather than fighting individual sections.

The demo looks different from the marketing preview

Symptom: After installing, your store does not look like the Torquex demo/marketing images — sections appear empty or show placeholder graphics.

Cause: The marketing preview is populated with demo products, collections, images, and copy. Your installed theme ships the same section layout, but the product, collection, image, and video references inside those sections are intentionally empty so you fill them with your own catalog. Empty sections render placeholders or nothing.

Fix:

• This is expected, not a defect. Work through the homepage in the editor and fill each section: pick your collections in Featured collections, choose products in Bundle builder / Featured product, and upload your own hero image or video.
• Hide sections you are not ready to fill (for example Compare products or Bundle builder) and bring them back later.
• Set your brand logo, colors, and fonts in Theme settings so the look matches your store, not the demo.

See Building the homepage for what each section needs.

Saved vehicle (garage) is empty after saving

Symptom: A shopper selected Year → Make → Model, but the saved vehicle does not seem to persist — fit badges do not light up on other pages, or the selector forgets the choice.

Cause: The saved vehicle is stored in the visitor’s own browser (local storage), not in your store or their account. A vehicle is only saved once all three of Year, Make, and Model are chosen. Anything that clears browser storage — private/incognito mode, “clear browsing data,” a different browser or device, or strict privacy settings that block storage — drops the saved vehicle. Pressing Clear in the selector also removes it.

Fix:

1. Confirm all three dropdowns are selected. A partial selection (Year + Make only) is not saved.
2. Test in a normal (non-incognito) window. Incognito clears storage when the window closes, so the vehicle will not persist across visits.
3. Remember the garage is per browser: a vehicle saved on a phone will not appear on a desktop, and vice versa. This is expected for a storefront feature that needs no app and no login.
4. The Garage banner homepage section only promotes saving a vehicle (it links wherever you point its button); it does not store anything itself. The actual saving happens in the fitment selector on a product page.

Popup is not appearing

Symptom: The newsletter popup never shows on the storefront.

Cause: The popup is a section in the Popups and drawers group, and its behavior is governed by two settings: Open trigger and Show frequency. Two things commonly suppress it: the popup is set to show Once per visitor (or Once per session) and you have already seen it, or the Open trigger condition has not been met yet. The popup is also suppressed inside the theme editor preview to avoid getting in your way while you edit.

Fix:

1. The popup does not auto-open while you are editing in the theme editor. Use Preview (or the live storefront) in a fresh browser session to see it fire.
2. Check Show frequency in the popup’s settings:
   • Once per visitor — shows once, then never again until the visitor clears site data.
   • Once per session — shows once until the browser tab/session is closed.
   • Every page load — shows on every visit (use this to test). If you have already seen it, switch to Every page load or clear your browser’s site data to reset.
3. Check Open trigger — the popup only opens when its condition is met:
   • On exit intent (the default) fires when the cursor leaves the top of the window — it will not fire if you never move the mouse toward the browser chrome (and behaves differently on touch devices).
   • After a delay waits the number of seconds set in Delay.
   • After scrolling fires once the visitor scrolls roughly 40% down the page — short pages may never reach that point.
   • On page load opens shortly after the page loads.
4. If Show on mobile is off, the popup will not show on small screens — turn it on to test on a phone.
5. Make sure the popup section is present in your Popups and drawers group and not removed.

RTL or translated text is missing or wrong

Symptom: In a right-to-left language (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu) the layout does not flip, or some on-screen text stays in English / shows a raw key.

Cause: Torquex sets text direction automatically from the storefront locale: it switches to RTL when the active language is Arabic (ar), Hebrew (he), Persian (fa), or Urdu (ur). If the page is not actually being served in one of those languages, the layout stays left-to-right. Missing or English text usually means that language is published but not fully translated, or you are viewing the default language. Theme ships translations for English, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, and Italian.

Fix:

1. Add and publish the language under Settings → Languages in your Shopify admin, then visit the storefront in that language (via your language selector or a localized URL). RTL flips only when the served locale is ar, he, fa, or ur.
2. For any text that shows in English or as a raw key, edit it under Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit default theme content (or Edit languages) for that language. Torquex ships translations for English, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, and Italian; other languages need your translations filled in.
3. Some content is your own input (section headings, metafield values, product copy) — the theme cannot translate it for you. Translate that content per language in your admin.
4. Confirm you are testing the published language, not a draft, and not the store’s default language.

See Translations & internationalization for the full language and RTL workflow.

Still stuck?

If you have checked the cause and fix above and the issue persists, contact Torquex support — we reply within 12 hours. To help us resolve it fast, include:

• Your store URL and the page where you see the problem (a product, collection, or the homepage).
• The exact symptom and what you expected instead.
• For automotive issues, the metafield value you set (paste your custom.fitment JSON or the custom.install_difficulty value).
• Whether it happens on Preview, the live storefront, or both, and on desktop, mobile, or both.

You can also reach us through the general contact page. Back to the documentation home.

Related: FAQ · Metafields reference · Torquex support replies within 12 hours.