What we shipped.
Alva Digital Downloads is a Shopify app that delivers digital files, license keys and private links to customers automatically after purchase. This page is every feature, fix and improvement we've shipped — reverse chronological, newest first, no marketing gloss. Built for merchants who want to see exactly what's changed, when, and why it matters.
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Automation
Clearer fraud reasons in Shopify Flow
The Digital order flagged for fraud trigger now tells you why an order is under review. Its two existing Fraud Reason values are unchanged: High risk order and Medium risk order (flagged for review). Every other order under review used to arrive as Medium risk order (flagged for review) too, and now gets a value of its own: Risk check could not be completed when the fraud check could not finish, Risk not yet assessed when Shopify has not assessed the order yet, and Unknown risk level for anything else. A workflow that approves orders when the Fraud Reason contains “Medium” no longer approves these orders, so add a separate branch for them if you want them handled automatically. The Approve flagged order action now only acts on orders that fraud prevention is holding, and on orders rejected earlier with Reject flagged order. On any other order the step fails with “No flagged order found or already approved” instead of re-sending the download email. The fraud alert email you receive now also says when the risk check could not be completed, or when Shopify has not assessed the order yet.
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Security
Password-protect the PDFs you watermark
Watermarking can now lock the file it produces. Turn protection on for a product, set an owner password only you hold, and every stamped PDF goes out encrypted: the customer opens it without a password, prints it and copies text from it as normal, while editing, rearranging pages, adding comments and filling in forms are restricted. Those restrictions are PDF permission flags — most readers respect them, so treat them as a deterrent against casual editing rather than a lock. Customers who already bought the product receive a protected copy from their next download onwards. Included on every paid plan. See Protect PDFs with an owner password.
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Links
Sold links open in a new tab
A link product bought through Alva now opens in a new tab on the thank-you page, the order status page and the customer account page — the delivery email and the hosted download page already did. Buyers no longer navigate away from an order page they may not be able to reopen, which used to look like losing access. File and ZIP downloads are unchanged.
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Delivery
Extra downloads are granted per order
Granting a customer more downloads — from the admin or through the Shopify Flow action — now applies to the order you granted it on, and only that one. A customer who bought the same product twice keeps a separate allowance per order, and the download page, the resend link and the counter all agree on the number. Link visit limits are enforced the same way. See Reset download limits for a customer.
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Admin
Variant view on the product page
When each variant of a product delivers different files, the product page could only tell you which variants this mapping covers — never what each variant actually delivers. The new Variant view toggle lists every variant with the files it delivers, flags the ones with nothing of their own, the ones covered by an "all variants" mapping and the ones claimed twice, and lets you jump to a variant's own mapping or create one for it in a click. Standard view is unchanged and stays the default. See Map files to specific product variants.
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API
Create files in the API from a URL
The external REST API can now ingest a file from a URL instead of requiring you to upload the bytes: hand it a Dropbox direct-download link and Alva fetches, stores and maps the file for you — multi-GB videos included. Fetches are restricted to an allowlist of hosts and blocked from reaching private networks, and every redirect hop is re-checked. The same release added link products to the API, so courses and gated URLs can be created programmatically too. See the API reference.
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Security
Watermarks in Japanese, Chinese and Korean
Watermarks containing kanji, kana or Hangul rendered as empty boxes, and did so silently — the bundled font covered no CJK characters at all, yet the stamp still reported success. Alva now ships a second font and routes each character to whichever font can draw it, so a Japanese buyer's name in the default
Licensed to {customer.full_name}template stamps correctly. Watermarks that already rendered correctly are unchanged. -
Delivery
Partial fulfilment for mixed orders
An order holding a T-shirt and a PDF used to stay unfulfilled, because Alva only auto-fulfilled orders it could fulfil completely. Turn on partial fulfilment in Settings → Orders and Alva marks just the digital line items as fulfilled, leaving the physical ones for your normal shipping process. Auto-fulfilment can also be overridden per product — always, never, or inherit the store setting. See Partially fulfil mixed digital and physical orders.
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Admin
Variant pictures and search in the product list
The products list now shows each variant's own image rather than the product's, and the search box matches variant titles as well as product titles — so "Blue / Large" finds the right row. Paging moved to the server, so a catalogue with thousands of per-variant mappings loads one page at a time instead of all at once.
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Security
Choose which PDFs are watermarked
Watermarking is no longer all-or-nothing per product. Every PDF row on the product page now has a Watermark checkbox — untick a bonus file or instructions PDF to deliver it unchanged while the rest stay watermarked. PDFs with security restrictions (for example "prevent copying") cannot be watermarked, so Alva now excludes them automatically and delivers the original unchanged instead of holding the download — their checkbox shows as disabled. See Choose which PDFs are watermarked for the full behaviour.
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Security
Watermark only the pages you choose
Watermarking every page of a 900-page book is slow and rarely what you want. Choose all pages, the first N, the last N, every Nth, or a custom list of pages and ranges such as
1-3, 7, 40-— shop-wide, or per product. Fewer pages also means faster stamping on long documents, and Alva warns you if the pages you picked don't exist in a PDF. See Choose where your watermark appears. -
Delivery
Delayed download delivery
Set a delay per product — seconds up to 365 days — and buyers can only open that product's files, packs and links once it elapses. Until then every customer surface shows an "available on" date, and inside the last ten minutes it becomes a live countdown that releases itself. The buyer gets a heads-up at purchase and the delivery email at release. Useful for pre-orders, launch dates and drip releases. See Delay download delivery.
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Licensing
License-key-only products
A product no longer needs a file attached to it. Map a product to a license key tag alone and Alva delivers the key by email, on the download page, in the customer account and at POS — with no empty download button and no placeholder file to upload. Key delivery can be delayed globally or per product. See Sell a license-key-only product and Delay license key delivery.
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Compliance
EU right of withdrawal consent
Merchants selling instant downloads to EU consumers can now collect the Article 16(m) waiver of the 14-day withdrawal right before delivery. Switch it on and no download URL, link redirect or license key is issued for an order until the buyer has consented; the consent is recorded once per order, confirmed to the buyer by email as the durable-medium record the directive asks for, and exportable as evidence. A theme block puts the same checkbox on the product page. Off by default, available on every plan, and POS orders are exempt. See EU right of withdrawal consent.
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Security
PDF watermarking with forensic tracing
Stamp every delivered PDF with the buyer's name, email and order number, plus an invisible forensic marker so any leaked copy traces back to the original customer. Enable from Settings → PDF Watermarking, configure your watermark defaults, then turn it on per product from its product mapping page. Choose from 9 static positions, a tiled grid, or a diagonal rotation, with adjustable opacity, colour and font size. Templates support variables like
{customer.full_name},{customer.email},{order.name}and{order.date}. Available on Basic, Pro and Enterprise plans — see the PDF watermarking guide for setup details. -
Email
Notify past buyers when a product changes
Fixed an error, added a bonus file, shipped v2 of a template? The Notify Customers button on a product sends a one-off update email, carrying a fresh download link, to every customer who has already bought it. Preview the recipient count before sending, cancel a send in progress, and send at most once per product per week. Available on paid plans.
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Email
Custom sending domains
Merchants can now send delivery emails from a verified branded domain. DKIM and Return-Path are set up from the Alva admin, and every download email lands in buyer inboxes with the merchant's own sender identity.
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Delivery
Order status download access
Customers can now open their digital downloads directly from the Shopify order status page and related surfaces — no more lost links, no more support tickets asking where the file went.
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Links
Link-only product delivery
Products can now deliver secure external links — private Drive folders, members-only pages, course URLs, Discord invites, or any gated destination — instead of a file.
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Security
Per-link access rules
Set visit limits and expiry windows per delivered link, including fixed-date expiration.
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Licensing
Tag-based license key pools
License keys can now be grouped with tags and mapped to products. Makes entitlement management for stores selling dozens of license-based products far cleaner.
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Licensing
CSV import and key generation
Bulk-import existing keys via CSV, or let Alva auto-generate them per order. Inventory management for license-based products is now a one-minute job.
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Licensing
Low-stock license alerts
Threshold-based alerts warn merchants before a license pool runs dry, so customer fulfillment is never blocked waiting for a restock.
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Personalization
Personalized order fulfillment
Made-to-order digital products — wedding invitations, custom portraits, bespoke artwork — now flow through a smoother per-order file upload and auto-delivery workflow.
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Branding
Branded download page controls
Customize colors, copy and layout for the customer download page. Every touchpoint between checkout and file delivery now carries the merchant's brand.
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Email
Per-product email customization
Configure delivery email content on a per-product basis. Useful for multi-brand stores and catalogs where different products need different tone or instructions.
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POS
POS email capture delivery
In-store Shopify POS purchases now capture the customer's email at the register and trigger automatic digital delivery — a first-class experience for conventions, pop-ups, and retail.
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Migration
WooCommerce migration support
Migration tools help import legacy WooCommerce digital customers and purchase records directly into the Alva workflow on Shopify.
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Migration
Etsy sync mapping improvements
Bulk matching for Etsy-synced products dramatically speeds up setup for merchants running both platforms during migration.
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Automation
Expanded Shopify Flow coverage
More triggers and actions for Shopify Flow enable deeper automation — approve/reject orders, grant or revoke access, resend emails, tag customers — all from the visual editor, no code.
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Security
Fraud review queue controls
Merchants can hold and review suspicious purchases in a dedicated queue before any file or license key is released — the full fraud-review experience baked in.
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Security
Secure expiring download URLs
Every delivery link is now signed and time-limited. Dramatically reduces unauthorized sharing and gives merchants control over how long a link stays valid.
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Security
IP-based download controls
Track and limit downloads by IP address — a lightweight but effective layer of protection for paid digital content.
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Delivery
Universal file type delivery
Alva delivers any file type — PDFs, videos, audio, archives, 3D models, code, fonts, Procreate brushes — with a single upload path. Files up to 20 GB per single file on paid plans.
Ready to ship digital products?
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