Release held or scheduled fulfillments

Use this guide if you put preorder fulfillments on hold with On hold or Hold all fulfillments, or used the Scheduled status and want to ship before the scheduled date. Releasing or opening makes the fulfillment fulfillable in Shopify, for one order or many at once; you still fulfill and ship it yourself afterward.

Before you begin

Requirement	Detail
Paid plan	Available on Lite and above
Held or scheduled orders	Release applies to On hold / Hold-all orders; Open applies to Scheduled orders
Releasing isn’t shipping	It removes the hold, but you still fulfill and ship the order in Shopify

Choose your setup

Which action you use depends on how the order was held:

• Release: for orders held with On hold or Hold all fulfillments. Shopify keeps these held until they’re released, from STOQ → Reports → Preorders → Orders (or, for a single offer, open it under Preorders → Offers and use its Orders tab). These stay held until you release them, unless the offer has an automatic release date set, in which case STOQ releases them on that date. See On hold fulfillments.
• Open scheduled fulfillments: for orders with the Scheduled status. Shopify opens these automatically on the scheduled date; use this action instead if you want to ship sooner.

What customers will see

Releasing or opening a fulfillment doesn’t ship the order or notify the customer by itself: it only makes the fulfillment available to fulfill. The customer gets their shipping notification when you actually fulfill and ship the order in Shopify afterward.

Set it up

Release “On hold” / “Hold all” fulfillments

If the offer uses Move preorder items to a separate order with Hold fulfillments on split orders turned on, the preorder items STOQ moves out are held on a split order, for example #1001-SPLIT. Split orders don’t get their own row in STOQ, so release the original order, #1001, instead. Releasing the original order also releases the holds on every split order STOQ created from it, for one order or in bulk, so you don’t need to release split orders in Shopify admin.

If all of an order’s held items moved to split orders, the Preorder fulfillment status filter doesn’t list it under On hold. To find it, click the search icon at the top right of the orders list and type the order name in the Search by order name field.

One order

1. Open the order

   1. Go to STOQ → Reports → Preorders → Orders.
   2. Open the held order.

   

2. Release the hold

   From the Fulfill order dropdown, click Release “On hold” fulfillments, then click Release fulfillments to confirm. STOQ removes the holds on the order and on any split orders created from it, then shows “Fulfillments released”.

   

   

3. Fulfill in Shopify

   The fulfillment is now fulfillable, so fulfill and ship it from Shopify as usual.

   

In bulk

1. Select the orders

   1. Go to Reports → Preorders → Orders.
   2. In Filter, set Preorder fulfillment status to On hold to list every held order, including preorder items held inside mixed orders that show an overall status of Unfulfilled. (The Order fulfillment status filter follows the order’s overall status, so it misses those.)
   3. Check the held orders you want to release (or use Select all matching to select every order matching your filters).

   

2. Choose Release On hold fulfillments

   Use the Release “On hold” fulfillments bulk action, listed under Fulfillment, then click Release fulfillments to confirm. Holds on any split orders created from the selected orders are released too.

3. Wait for background processing

   Bulk releases run in the background. STOQ shows a “processing in the background” banner: click Refresh in a moment to see the updated orders.

Open scheduled fulfillments early

One order

1. Open the order

   1. Go to STOQ → Reports → Preorders → Orders.
   2. Open the scheduled order.

   

2. Open scheduled fulfillments

   From the Fulfill order dropdown, choose Open scheduled fulfillments. STOQ makes the fulfillment available immediately and confirms with “Scheduled fulfillments opened successfully.”

   

   

3. Fulfill in Shopify

   The fulfillment is now fulfillable, so fulfill and ship it from Shopify as usual.

In bulk

1. Select the scheduled orders

   1. Go to Reports → Preorders → Orders.
   2. Select the scheduled orders (or use Select all matching to select every order matching your filters).

   

2. Choose Open scheduled fulfillments

   Use the Open scheduled fulfillments bulk action.

   

   

3. Wait, then fulfill

   The action runs in the background.

   1. Click Refresh.
   2. Fulfill the now-open orders in Shopify.

Check your setup

Open a released order in Shopify and confirm the fulfillment is no longer on hold and ready to fulfill. After a bulk action, click Refresh and check the orders in the list.

Troubleshooting

An order still shows held after you released it

Bulk actions run in the background, so wait a moment and click Refresh. If the order has more than one hold, make sure all holds were released.

A split order is still on hold in Shopify admin

Release the original order in STOQ, not the split order. Split orders don’t have their own row in STOQ. If the offer has Automatically release holds on a specific date set, STOQ releases its split orders on that date too; to release one sooner, do it this way.

1. In Shopify admin, open the split order and note the original order’s name from its stoq-split-from-#1001 tag or its Notes card.
2. In STOQ, go to Reports → Preorders → Orders, click the search icon, type that order name in the Search by order name field, and open the order.
3. From the Fulfill order dropdown, click Release “On hold” fulfillments, then click Release fulfillments. This releases every split order that’s still held, even if the original order itself is no longer on hold.

STOQ only releases split orders it created. If another app split the order, release that order in Shopify admin.

In-stock items are still held after you released a preorder order

You likely used Hold all fulfillments, which holds every item together and releases them together. If you used the On hold status instead, in-stock items were never held in the first place, so there’s nothing left to release on them.

A bulk release or open doesn't finish processing every matching order

Very large operations need to be narrowed with filters to stay under the bulk size limit.

You can't find Open scheduled fulfillments

For a single order it’s in the Fulfill order dropdown on the order page, not a separate button. The bulk action in the orders list is a separate path for opening multiple orders at once.

FAQ

Do I always have to release manually?

Not necessarily. If the offer has Automatically release holds on a specific date set, STOQ releases its held orders on that date on its own, including orders already on hold and the split orders STOQ created from them. Otherwise On hold and Hold-all orders stay held until you release them manually. Scheduled orders open automatically on the date you set; opening them early is optional. See On hold fulfillments.

Does releasing or opening an order ship it or notify the customer?

No. It only makes the fulfillment available to fulfill. You still fulfill and ship it in Shopify, which is when the customer gets their shipping notification.

Does releasing charge a remaining balance?

No. Release and open are fulfillment actions only. If the order has a balance owing, collect it separately: see Collect remaining preorder payments.

Can I release or open hundreds of orders at once?

Yes. Select the orders, or use Select all matching, then run the bulk action; it processes in the background. For very large operations, narrow the filters first to stay under the bulk size limit.

Related guides

Handle orders after inventory arrivesThe full flow once your restock lands.

On hold: setup and flowHold only the preorder items.

Hold all fulfillmentsHold the entire order, including in-stock.

Scheduled: setup and flowAuto-open fulfillments on a set date.