Turn on clone detection in your theme

Someone copied my Shopify store: how would I know? Clone detection tells you. When a copy of your store goes live and someone opens it, Recon sees it within minutes. A clone is a copy of your store on another web address.

Clone detection is an app embed in your theme, called Clone detection. It is on every plan. It only sees clones made after you turn it on, so turn it on as soon as you install Recon.

Turn on clone detection

You can start from setup, from the Setup guide on the Overview page, or from the Clones page. Each one has the same Open theme editor button.

1. In Recon, open Clones.
2. In the Turn on clone detection card, click Open theme editor. Your theme editor opens in a new tab, with Clone detection already switched on for your live theme.
3. Click Save in the theme editor.
4. Come back to Recon. Recon checks that the embed is on, and the card goes away.

If you change your live theme later, turn clone detection on again in the new theme.

What clone detection does

When a copy of your theme loads on a web address that is not yours, the embed tells Recon. Recon then checks the page. If your store is really there, it opens a case on the Clones page with the reports ready to send.

What it does not do:

• It does not slow your store down. It is a short inline script and loads no external file.
• It does nothing on your own store. On your own domains, it stops at once.
• It does not collect customer data. It sends only details about the page, such as its address and title.
• It does not change what your customers see on your store.

With clone detection on, you can also warn shoppers on a clone that shows your store’s pages. Recon adds a red bar to that clone only, after you turn it on from the case. See Warn shoppers on a clone of your store.

Turn on the backup embed

Some clones remove the first embed from the copied theme. Recon has a second embed, Clone detection backup, that still tells Recon when that happens. We recommend you turn on both.

1. In Recon, open Clones.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page. Find the line that starts "Add a second copy of clone detection to your theme".
3. Click Turn it on. Your theme editor opens with Clone detection backup switched on.
4. Click Save in the theme editor.

The line only shows while clone detection is on and the backup is off.

Check that clone detection is on

When Recon can see that the embed is off, it tells you in three places:

• The Email and Trust pages show a Clone detection is off banner.
• The Clones page shows the Turn on clone detection card.
• On the Overview page, the Setup guide comes back with Turn on clone detection to do.

Click Open theme editor in any of them, then click Save in the theme editor.

In the Setup guide, the clone detection step may show as done with the note Could not verify from here. This means Recon could not ask Shopify about your theme, for example because the check timed out. It does not mean clone detection is off. To check it yourself, open your theme editor and look under App embeds.

Turn off clone detection

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
2. Click Customize on your live theme.
3. Open App embeds in the left sidebar.
4. Switch off Clone detection, and Clone detection backup if it is on.
5. Click Save.

While it is off, Recon cannot see new clones from your theme. Clones made in that time stay hidden from clone detection, even after you turn it on again.

Related articles

• Getting started with Recon: the four setup steps, from install to your first scan.
• Review a clone case: what to do when Recon finds a clone of your store.
• Recon FAQ: answers to common questions about clones and reports.