New Shopify Store Migration: Meta Titles and Descriptions Blank After CSV Import (How to Recover)
When you duplicate your catalog into a second Shopify store (rebrand, new region, or plan change) using the standard product CSV, the meta title and meta description do not come along, because Shopify stores those as the global.title_tag and global.description_tag metafields and the basic product export only includes them if you set values that differ from the product's own title and body. As a result the new store auto-generates generic meta from product names, your hand-written SEO is gone, and collection, page, and blog meta (which are not in the product CSV at all) are missing entirely. Shopify keeps no cross-store version history, so there is no native undo: the original meta only exists on the old store until you take it down.
If you didn't already have a backup, those old values are gone — Shopify keeps no history.
The steps below recover what you can. To make the next time a 1-click undo instead of hours of CSV work: a daily snapshot of every SEO field. Free to monitor, no card — and SEO Vault only reads your store unless you click restore.
Stop the source: do not close or wipe the old Shopify store yet. It is the only place your real meta titles, descriptions, and redirects still live, so keep it active (even password-protected) until everything is verified on the new store.
Recover the SEO fields properly: from the old store, export the SEO metafields specifically, including the Metafield: global.title_tag (string) and global.description_tag (string) columns (the basic CSV will not, but a metafield-aware export or the Admin GraphQL API does). Separately copy collection, page, and blog meta plus your URL redirect list, which the product CSV never contains.
Re-import to the new store: import the metafield-aware CSV so SEO Title and Description land in each product's Search engine listing, re-enter collection and page meta by hand, and recreate your 301 redirects under Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects (bulk CSV upload) so the new store's handles do not orphan indexed pages. Verify in Google Search Console.
Install SEO Vault on the new store so it snapshots every product AND collection's meta, alt text, tags, and handle every day. Migrations are exactly when these fields silently revert; with a daily backup you restore the correct version in one click and get alerted the instant a bulk change or app touches your SEO, with no second metafield-archaeology project.
Source: Shopify Help Center, Using CSV files to import and export products; Shopify Help Center, Product metafields (global.title_tag / global.description_tag)
SEO Vault keeps a daily snapshot of every SEO field on your store — meta titles, descriptions, alt-text, tags, handles (products AND collections) — and emails you the moment something changes in bulk, with the likely app responsible. One click restores yesterday's state, just the SEO fields. Free to monitor and get alerted; $14/mo for 1-click restore.