Articles on: Preorders

How to release on-hold preorder fulfillments from Shopify Admin

When STOQ places a fulfillment hold on a preorder, the order appears as On hold in your Shopify admin until you are ready to ship. This article explains how to release on hold fulfillments directly from Shopify admin so the order moves back to Unfulfilled status and becomes available for fulfillment.

Note: You can release holds from inside the STOQ app (individually or in bulk) and via Shopify Flow automation. See the STOQ fulfillment holds article for those methods.

Why Are My Preorder Fulfillments On Hold?

STOQ places fulfillment holds on preorder orders to prevent your team from shipping items before they are ready. This can happen in several ways:

On hold delivery type — You selected On hold as the delivery type in the offer's Shipping section. Preorder items are automatically placed on hold after checkout.
Hold all fulfillments checkbox — You enabled the Hold all fulfillments checkbox in the offer's Shipping → Fulfillment options section. This holds all items in the order (preorder and in-stock) until you manually release them.
Hold fulfillments on split orders — If you use split orders, the Hold fulfillments on split orders checkbox places a hold specifically on the new split order.

When a hold is placed, Shopify shows a reason note that STOQ configured — by default this reads "Order contains a preorder product. All fulfillments are on hold, as configured in STOQ > Preorders." You can customize this note in the offer's shipping settings.

How to Release Holds from Shopify Admin

You can release fulfillment holds directly from your Shopify admin without opening the STOQ app. This is the quickest method for releasing a single order.

Steps

In your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Open the order that shows an On hold fulfillment status.
In the fulfillment section, you will see the held fulfillment with the reason note from STOQ (e.g., "Order contains a preorder product").
Click Release hold (or Release fulfillment) on the held fulfillment.
The fulfillment status changes from On hold to Unfulfilled, and the order becomes available for fulfillment.

Tip: If the order has multiple fulfillment groups (e.g., items shipping from different locations), each group has its own hold. You need to release each one individually.

What Happens After You Release

Once you release a fulfillment hold, the order transitions through these steps:

Status changes — The fulfillment moves from On hold to Unfulfilled in Shopify.
Order is fulfillable — The order appears in your fulfillment queue and can be picked, packed, and shipped.
Normal fulfillment workflow — From this point, the order follows your standard fulfillment process in Shopify. You can fulfill it manually, or let your third-party logistics (3PL) or fulfillment service handle it automatically.

Note: Releasing a hold does not fulfill the order. It simply makes the order available for fulfillment. You still need to fulfill it through your normal process.

Note: Releasing a hold from Shopify admin does not notify STOQ immediately. STOQ will pick up the change the next time it syncs the order. The release itself takes effect in Shopify right away.

Known Limitations

Releasing is permanent — Once you release a hold, the order becomes fulfillable immediately. If you need to re-hold the order, use the STOQ order page or Shopify Flow's Hold all fulfillments action.
No bulk release in Shopify admin — Shopify admin does not offer a built-in bulk release for fulfillment holds. Use the STOQ app's bulk release action or set up a Shopify Flow automation for multiple orders.
Partial release — If an order has multiple fulfillment groups, releasing one does not release the others. You must release each group individually.
STOQ sync delay — When you release from Shopify admin, STOQ's internal order status updates on the next sync, not immediately. The release itself takes effect in Shopify right away.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely Cause	Fix
No Release hold button visible	The order is not actually on hold, or it has already been released	Check the fulfillment status — it should show On hold
Release button returns an error	The fulfillment order is in an incompatible state (e.g., already fulfilled or cancelled)	Check the order status — it may have been fulfilled by another process
Released order still shows as "On hold" in STOQ	STOQ has not synced the order yet	Click Refresh table in STOQ or wait for the next background sync
Multiple fulfillments listed for one order	Items ship from different locations or were split by STOQ	Release each fulfillment group individually

FAQs

Q: Do I need to open the STOQ app to release a hold?

A: No. The fulfillment hold placed by STOQ appears as a standard Shopify fulfillment hold. You can release it directly from the order page in Shopify admin by clicking Release hold.

Q: Will releasing a hold automatically fulfill the order?

A: No. Releasing a hold only changes the status from On hold to Unfulfilled. You still need to fulfill the order through your normal fulfillment workflow.

Q: Can I re-hold an order after releasing it?

A: Yes. You can place a new hold from the STOQ order page using the Fulfillment actions dropdown, or by using the Hold all fulfillments Shopify Flow action.

Q: Does the customer get notified when I release a hold?

A: No. Releasing a fulfillment hold does not send any notification to the customer. Customers are only notified when you actually fulfill the order and Shopify sends a shipping confirmation.

Q: How do I release holds for split orders?

A: Split orders are separate Shopify orders with their own fulfillment holds. Release them the same way — open the split order in Shopify admin and click Release hold.

Q: Can I release multiple orders at once from Shopify admin?

A: Shopify admin does not offer a built-in bulk release for fulfillment holds. Use the STOQ app's bulk release action or set up a Shopify Flow automation to release multiple orders at once

Updated on: 05/06/2026

Was this article helpful?

Thank you!