If a gift-with-purchase, discount, or other promotion isn't showing up for shoppers, it's almost always one of a small number of causes. Work through this checklist from top to bottom — it's ordered by how often each issue turns out to be the culprit.
1. Is the app embed active?
EG runs on your storefront through a theme app embed. If it isn't turned on for your live theme, none of your rules can run — no matter how they're configured.
Open the EG dashboard.
Look at the status badge on the dashboard that shows whether the app embed is active.
If it shows the embed is inactive, or its status can't be verified, use the button on the card to activate the embed or retry the check.
Version mismatch banner. If the card shows your embed is enabled but flags a version mismatch, your theme is running an older copy of the EG embed block than your account expects. Use the button on the card to open your theme editor and re-add the current embed block. Rules can behave unpredictably — or not run at all — while the versions don't match.
2. Is your subscription or free trial active?
This is the most common silent failure: nothing looks broken in your rule setup, but nothing happens on the storefront either — and shoppers never see an error message, because there isn't one to see.
If your free trial has ended without selecting a plan, or a subscription payment has failed, EG stops serving rules to your storefront entirely. Your rules stay saved in your dashboard, but they will not add items, apply discounts, or show popups until an active plan is restored. If you cancel your subscription, EG remains installed on your store, but none of your rules will be active until you resubscribe.
How to check:
Open the EG dashboard.
Check the plan information shown next to the app embed status badge. It shows your current plan name and, during a free trial, the date your trial ends.
If it shows no active plan, click View plans and choose a plan to restore your rules.
Once billing is active again, previously configured rules resume running — you don't need to rebuild anything.
3. Is the rule actually turned on?
A rule can look configured correctly but still not fire because it isn't active. Common reasons a rule shows as paused or suspended:
You (or a teammate) paused it. Check the Status column on the Rules page. Rules can be Active, Paused, or (if blocked for one of the reasons below) Suspended.
Its schedule has ended. If a rule uses a schedule with an end date, EG automatically pauses it once that date passes — a background check runs every few minutes to catch expired schedules. If you want the rule to keep running, open it and update or remove the end date, then re-activate it. You cannot re-activate a rule whose schedule end date is already in the past; you'll need to move the end date forward first.
You're on the Standard plan and already have 3 active rules. The Standard plan supports up to 3 simultaneously active rules of the plan's supported types (see below). Once you're at the limit, activating a 4th rule requires pausing another one or upgrading your plan. Some rule types — collection-based triggers, product tag triggers, "any combination of items" triggers, magic link targeting, logged-in/guest-only targeting, and location (geo) targeting — always require the Unlimited plan, regardless of how many rules you have active.
The rule is in test mode. Rules in test mode can't be activated for real shoppers until test mode is turned off in the rule editor.
4. Check the health icons on the Rules page
Next to a rule's name on the Rules page, you may see a small alert icon. Hover over it to see exactly what's wrong. Common issues it flags include:
A product or collection used in the trigger or reward has been deleted from your store.
The reward product for an auto-add rule is out of stock, so the rule can't add it.
One of the reward choices in a popup rule is out of stock.
The discount linked to the rule was deleted or paused outside of EG — for example, deleted directly in Shopify, or auto-paused when the app was previously uninstalled.
You may also see an upgrade badge next to a rule — hovering over it explains which plan feature is needed to activate that specific rule.
5. Targeting mismatches
If a rule is active and healthy but a specific shopper isn't seeing it, check who the rule is targeting:
Logged-in vs. not logged in. A rule can be restricted to only logged-in customers, or only guests (not logged in). Test as the right kind of shopper.
Location (geo) targeting. A rule can be limited to specific countries/regions, or blocked from specific ones. If a shopper is testing from an unexpected location (including via VPN), the rule may correctly not apply to them.
Customer criteria. Rules can also be limited by customer tags, specific customer accounts, minimum/maximum order count, or minimum/maximum amount previously spent. If a shopper doesn't meet these criteria, the rule intentionally won't trigger for them.
Magic link rules. A rule targeted via a magic link only activates for a shopper after they click that specific link — simply visiting your store normally will not trigger it. Once clicked, the rule stays active for that shopper for a limited time (14 days by default) via a browser cookie. If they clear cookies, switch browsers/devices, or that window expires, they'll need to click the link again.
6. Trigger mismatches
If shoppers are qualifying but the rule still doesn't fire, double-check how the trigger is configured:
Quantity vs. value vs. combination logic. A product/collection-based trigger can require a minimum quantity, a minimum cart value of matching items, or a combination of multiple specific items together (combination triggers require the Unlimited plan). Confirm the shopper's cart actually satisfies the condition you configured, not just contains "one of the items."
Subscription vs. one-time purchase scoping. Triggers and rewards can be scoped to one-time purchases only, subscription (selling plan) purchases only, or both. If a shopper adds a subscription item but your rule is scoped to one-time purchases only (or vice versa), it won't count.
Excluded variants lowering the counted cart value. Cart-value rules let you exclude specific product variants from the value calculation (up to 50 variants per rule). If a shopper's cart is mostly made up of excluded variants, the calculated qualifying value may be lower than the cart total they see — making it look like the rule "should" have triggered when it correctly didn't.
7. Other things that commonly get in the way
These issues aren't new, but they're still some of the most frequent causes reported to support:
Inventory and sales channel availability. The reward product won't be added automatically if it's out of stock or isn't published to the Online Store sales channel. Shopify also uses predictive availability based on traffic, so high-traffic stores should keep healthy stock levels on frequently-offered reward products. You can sanity-check availability by trying to buy the reward product directly.
Page load timing. If a shopper adds an item to their cart before the page — and EG's script — has fully loaded, the action may not be registered. Large images, many product variants, other apps/scripts, or a slow connection can all delay this. Shopify's Online Store Speed Report can help you find and fix slow-loading elements.
The "Buy it now" / express checkout buttons. By default, "Buy it now" and similar express checkout buttons skip the cart page and go straight to checkout, so EG does not apply cart rules on that path (this protects conversion rate on express checkouts). If you want EG to also apply rule logic on these express checkouts, an admin can turn on Enable Buy Now button (express checkouts) interceptions under Settings → Advanced settings — test your checkout flow after enabling it, since behavior can vary by theme.
Shoppers removing the reward themselves. Shoppers can always remove an automatically-added reward product from their cart before checkout — this is expected behavior, not a bug.
Stale rewards left in carts. If a rule is later paused, its schedule ends, or it's deleted, any reward already sitting in a shopper's cart from that rule may remain there unless you enable Remove products added from paused or expired rules under Settings → Advanced settings.
Theme customizations and other apps. Custom theme code, or leftover code from apps you've since uninstalled, can conflict with EG. Avoid unnecessary theme edits where possible, and reach out to support if you suspect a conflict — they can usually pinpoint it quickly.
Using the built-in Troubleshooting Wizard
EG includes a quick, guided wizard for common problems:
From the dashboard, open the troubleshooting/help section.
Choose the option that best matches what you're seeing: Item is not adding, Discounts are not applied correctly, Unexpected cart behaviour, or Something else.
Follow the numbered steps shown for your issue (for example, testing in a private/incognito window, checking for other gifting or discount apps, or refreshing after using a speed-optimization app).
If the suggested steps don't resolve it, use the Get in touch link in the wizard to contact support directly.
Contacting support
If you've been through this checklist and a rule still isn't behaving as expected, contact EG support with:
The rule name (or a link to it).
What you expected to happen vs. what actually happened.
If your storefront is password-protected, include the storefront password in the support form — the support team can't test your store without it.
Our support team can often diagnose the exact cause faster than continued self-troubleshooting, especially for cart-behavior issues (unexpected quantities, missing rewards, incorrect totals, or redirects) that aren't covered above.