Testing changes in a sandbox

A sandbox is a throwaway, full copy of your store — same products, orders, customers, and settings — running on its own separate web address. It lets you try changes safely: install and test an extension, work on configuration, try a data import, or preview theme changes, all without touching your live store. Nothing you do in a sandbox affects your real store, and nothing is carried back to it.

Creating a sandbox

Only the account owner can create a sandbox. There are two ways, both in your portal:

• Sandbox tab → "Create sandbox from latest" — copies your store as of its most recent backup.
• Backups tab → "Create sandbox from this backup" — copies from a specific restore point, so you can reproduce your store as it was on a particular day.

You choose how long you want it to run — 1 week, 1 month, or 3 months — and pay for that term at checkout. A sandbox you've started but not yet paid for shows as pending until payment completes; once paid, it's set up and appears in your store list with a Sandbox badge and its own web address.

What a sandbox is — and isn't

• It's a full, independent copy: its own web address, its own admin login (your live store's admin password does not work on it — the sandbox's own login is shown in your portal), and its own copy of your media.
• It is one-directional and disposable. Changes you make in a sandbox are never synced back to your live store. When a change works, you apply it to your live store separately.
• It holds a real copy of your data — the same customers and orders as your live store. Treat it with the same care.

How long it lasts

A sandbox runs for the fixed term you bought, counting down on the calendar — it does not pause when you're not using it. Your portal shows a live countdown with warnings as the end approaches.

• The account owner can top up to extend the term at any time.
• When the term ends, the sandbox is torn down automatically. There's then a 7-day window in which topping it up brings it back with its data intact. After those 7 days it is permanently deleted.

Before you rely on it

• Scheduled tasks (cron) start switched OFF. This is deliberate — it stops a test copy from firing real-world actions (sending emails, syncing to outside systems, capturing payments). One side effect: scheduled jobs like index updates don't run, so a catalog or price change can look wrong until you turn cron on in the portal.
• ⚠️ Your payment settings are copied in, and they're real. The sandbox carries your live store's payment configuration. Scheduled jobs are off, but a manual test checkout in a sandbox could still reach your real payment provider. Before running any test orders, switch the sandbox to your provider's test/sandbox mode.
• A sandbox doesn't send email. Transactional and sign-in emails don't go out from a sandbox, so it isn't the place to test email flows.
• It's throwaway — anything you build in it is lost when the term ends (unless you top up within the 7-day window), and nothing flows back to your live store.