> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.the-meridian.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Frozen and unfrozen

Shopify **freezes** an app subscription when it can't collect from the merchant: a failed card, a store on pause. The subscription still exists, but it isn't billing, and the store is in limbo until it's resolved. Two triggers cover the pair.

## Subscription is frozen

`subscription.subscription_frozen` fires when Shopify reports the subscription as **frozen** and it wasn't frozen already. A repeated frozen report doesn't fire again.

This is an involuntary state, not a decision the merchant made. The email that works here is a heads-up about payment, not a win-back.

## Subscription is unfrozen

`subscription.subscription_unfrozen` fires when a **frozen** subscription returns to **active**. It's deliberately distinct from [Subscription is activated](/subscription-activated): the store was already a customer, so a first-purchase welcome would read badly.

## What they carry

Both carry the store's [variables](/automation-variables) plus the subscription payload's `subscription_plan` and `subscription_status`.

## Building on them

* On frozen: email the merchant that billing failed and their access is at risk, and set a [custom field](/populate-custom-field) your app can read to soften what it gates.
* On unfrozen: clear that field, and optionally confirm to the merchant that everything's back.
* Branch either on a [segment](/condition-segment) if you only want to chase paying tiers.

<Note>
  As with every subscription trigger, an out-of-order Shopify delivery describing an older state than the one recorded is ignored. A freeze followed by a late-arriving "active" from before it won't fire the unfreeze. A "frozen" that Shopify sent before the store uninstalled your app but that reaches Meridian after the uninstall fires nothing either: the uninstall cancelled the subscription, and it is recorded as cancelled.
</Note>


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.