When a customer submits a Customer Fields form on your store, a message can appear on the form if something stops it from saving. This article lists each message, why customers see it, and what you or the customer can do.
Message your customer sees | What it means | What to do |
Check your email for a verification link to activate your account. | The email is already on file, so they need to confirm it's theirs | Click the link in the email, or sign in first |
Email has already been taken | The account is already active (Legacy Customer Accounts only) | Sign in, or use another email |
Phone number has already been taken | Another customer already uses the number | Sign in, or use another number |
[Field] is invalid | The phone number or email is in the wrong format | Re-enter it, with the correct format |
Email contains an invalid domain name | Usually a typo after the @ | Fix the email |
Customer must have an email address, phone number or name | The form has no name, email or phone field | Add one of those Standard Shopify fields to your form |
An error occurred while saving your account, please try again in a few minutes. | A temporary delay at Shopify | Wait a minute and try again |
Could not save form, please try again later | An unexpected problem | Try again, or check the status pages |
We are experiencing high traffic, please try again later. | Too many submissions at once | Try again shortly |
Challenge verification failed, please try again | Spam protection blocked it | Try again, or contact us |
The email or phone number is already in use
"Check your email for a verification link to activate your account."
This isn't a failure, because the form worked. Someone who isn't signed in used an email that already belongs to a customer in Shopify, for example from a newsletter sign-up, a guest checkout or the Shopify admin. Customer Fields sends the Account verification email and adds their answers once they click the link.
With Shopify's Customer Accounts, the customer can skip this by signing in before submitting. With Shopify's Legacy Customer Accounts, the link also lets them set a password and activate their account, and forms using Require email verification show this message to every new customer.
"Email has already been taken" (Legacy Customer Accounts)
With Shopify's Legacy Customer Accounts, this shows when the email belongs to a customer who has already activated their account. Shopify allows only one customer per email, so the customer should sign in first or use a different email. With Shopify's Customer Accounts, the same situation shows the verification message above instead.
Approval forms don't show this message. The duplicate is caught when you approve, as a merge conflict (see How does account approval work?).
To test a form several times with one inbox, add +1, +2 and so on before the @ (name+1@example.com). To collect more than one email, use a custom email field.
"Phone number has already been taken"
The phone number already belongs to a customer in Shopify, even one without an account, such as a guest checkout. Shopify allows only one customer per phone number. The customer should sign in first, or use a different number. To collect more than one number, use a custom phone field.
The email or phone number was entered incorrectly
"Field is invalid"
The customer entered a phone number or email in a format Shopify won't accept. For phone numbers, it's usually a missing country code or extra characters. Shopify needs the full international format, such as +1 555 123 4567 (E.164). Ask the customer to re-enter it with the country code.
You can catch problems before the form is submitted by adding rules to the field (see Field validation). Custom fields aren't checked by Shopify, so they never show this message (see the 3 field type categories).
"Email contains an invalid domain name"
The part after the @ doesn't exist or can't receive email, which is usually a typo such as gmial.com or hotmail.con. Shopify checks this before it creates the customer, so the customer needs to correct the email and submit again.
The form doesn't collect a name, email or phone
The message is "Customer must have an email address, phone number or name".
Shopify needs a name, email or phone to create a customer. This shows when a form without any of those fields is submitted by someone who isn't signed in. Add one of those fields, or have customers sign in first. Approval forms aren't affected.
A temporary problem saving the form
"An error occurred while saving your account, please try again in a few minutes."
Usually the customer was only just created and Shopify hasn't finished processing it, or Shopify is having a temporary problem. Wait a minute and submit again. You can also check Shopify status.
"Could not save form, please try again later"
Customer Fields or Shopify hit an unexpected problem. Check the Shopify and Customer Fields status pages and try again. If it keeps happening, contact us by chat.
"We are experiencing high traffic, please try again later."
The store received so many submissions in a short time that Customer Fields or Shopify hit a rate limit. It clears on its own, so the customer can try again shortly. Shopify Plus stores have higher limits.
Spam protection blocked the submission
The message is "Challenge verification failed, please try again".
Spam protection couldn't confirm the visitor is a person. If it blocks real customers, contact us by chat or at customerfields@heliumdev.com.
Change the wording or style of form error messages
Each message tells the customer what went wrong and how to finish, so we don't recommend hiding them. You can change how they look and read instead.
Wording: in the form's Settings tab, under Language.
Styling: in the form's Settings tab, under Advanced, with custom CSS.