Heads Up, B2B Sellers: A Shopify Catalog UI Quirk with Large Company Lists

Hey everyone, your friendly Shopify migration expert here! I spend a lot of time sifting through the Shopify Community forums, and recently, a discussion caught my eye that's super relevant for any of you managing B2B operations with a substantial number of company accounts. It's about a tricky little UI quirk in the Shopify B2B Catalog assignment process that can cause some head-scratching if you're dealing with more than a couple of hundred companies.

The original post, kicked off by our sharp community member 425Motorsports (who runs b2b.425motorsports.com, a wholesale distributor of automotive racing and driving equipment), highlighted a bug where the B2B Catalog "Add Companies" UI truncates the display.

The 250-Company Conundrum: What's Going On?

Imagine you have a B2B catalog, and you want to assign it to a bunch of your wholesale companies. You go into the catalog, hit "Add Companies," and start scrolling through your list. If you have, say, 300 or 400 companies, you might notice something odd: the list just stops. Or, if it continues, the checkboxes for companies beyond the first 250 or so just don't seem to work right. They might disappear, or their state might not reflect the actual assignment.

This is precisely what 425Motorsports and others like lumine and mastroke experienced. The catalog "Add Companies" UI caps the visible company list at about 250 entries. Even if you have more companies assigned, or want to assign more, the UI doesn't show them consistently, making it super difficult to manage your assignments from that view.

The Technical Deep Dive: API vs. UI

So, what's the root cause? The brilliant minds in the community quickly zeroed in on the technical details. As mastroke explained, this isn't a data integrity issue on the backend. Shopify's GraphQL API, which is what powers much of the admin, actually supports pagination. In fact, as tim_1 pointed out, a maximum page size of 250 records is a pretty standard limit for Shopify's API, as seen in their changelog for Liquid & Storefront GraphQL API.

The problem, as 425Motorsports confirmed through their own GraphQL Admin API tests (using companyLocations(first: 250) which correctly returned hasNextPage: true), is that the admin UI itself isn't properly implementing pagination beyond that initial ~250 record fetch. It fetches the first batch, but then it doesn't load the subsequent pages. To make matters worse, the checkbox states in the UI are tied to what's currently visible (the "DOM-tied state"), not the full, persisted list of assignments. This means if a company isn't displayed, its assignment status can't be accurately shown or changed from that particular catalog view.

The good news? The data *is* being saved correctly. Assignments made "from the company profile side" (meaning, you go to an individual company's profile and assign a catalog there) work perfectly and persist in the backend. It's purely a rendering and pagination bug within the catalog assignment UI.

Your Immediate Workaround: Managing Assignments

Until Shopify rolls out a fix for this UI bug, you're not left completely in the dark. There's a straightforward workaround:

1. Navigate to the Specific Company: Instead of starting from the B2B Catalog and trying to assign companies, go directly to the individual company's profile in your Shopify Admin.
2. Find Catalog Assignments: Within the company's profile, you'll find a section for B2B catalog assignments.
3. Assign/Unassign Catalogs: From here, you can reliably assign or unassign catalogs to that specific company. The changes will persist correctly, regardless of how many companies you have in total.

This method bypasses the problematic catalog assignment UI, ensuring your B2B catalog assignments are accurate and managed effectively.

What You Can Do to Help

The community discussion highlighted the importance of reporting bugs directly to Shopify. While forum posts are great for collective troubleshooting and finding workarounds, direct feedback helps the product team prioritize fixes.

How to provide feedback:

• Use the in-app feedback tool: As lumine and 425Motorsports suggested, submitting feedback directly through your Shopify admin (usually a "Help" or "Feedback" button) is the best way to get this routed to the B2B product team. Be clear and concise, referencing the observed behavior (truncation at ~250 companies, inconsistent checkboxes, working workaround via company profile).
• Include details: Mention your store URL, plan (e.g., "Grow"), and the exact steps to reproduce the issue, just like 425Motorsports did in their detailed bug report.

If you're running a B2B store with hundreds of companies, it's likely you'll hit this limit. Confirming the behavior on your end and providing feedback will help Shopify understand the scale of the impact and hopefully accelerate a permanent fix. It's a great example of how our collective input helps make the platform better for everyone!

So, while it's a minor frustration, it's not a showstopper. Keep managing your B2B relationships with confidence, knowing there's a clear path forward and a community ready to help you navigate any bumps in the road.