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Product feed errors: fix the cause
A fault-finding guide for missing fields, broken URLs, duplicate IDs and product data that has gone stale.
Checked against the sources on 5 October 20267 min read
Product feed errors are usually either missing facts, invalid formats, unreachable assets or information that no longer matches the source shop. The fastest repair is to find the shared cause, fix it where the catalogue is maintained and then regenerate the feed rather than chasing individual rows forever.
Why this matters now
One bad field mapping can create hundreds of errors. That is frustrating, but it is also good news: a store-wide fix can remove hundreds of errors at once. Start with counts, then inspect a few real examples. It gives you a reliable route from symptom to source instead of a long list of guesses.
What to check first
| Check | What good looks like | What to do if it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Missing field | A required fact was not supplied | Add it in the product record or mapping |
| Invalid value | The format or allowed value is wrong | Normalise the source value |
| Unreachable URL | A product or image cannot be fetched | Fix access, redirect or asset hosting |
A practical way to do it
- Group errors by code and count before opening individual products.
- Check whether each failure appears across a platform, collection or product type.
- Open flagged product and image URLs without being signed in.
- Repair the field in the authoritative source or mapping.
- Refresh and compare the error count after the next export.
Common mistakes
- Changing a URL that redirects correctly for an administrator but fails for the public.
- Ignoring duplicate IDs because the products look different in the shop.
- Treating an optional attribute warning as a reason to falsify product information.
What this does not mean
A clean product feed makes your catalogue understandable to a receiving platform. It does not guarantee approval, inclusion, ranking, sales or a particular checkout experience. Those decisions and customer-facing flows remain with the platform and the merchant.
The useful habit is simple: correct the source data, then validate the exported feed. Do not patch a one-off file and assume the next shop sync will remember your fix. That is how a tidy launch turns into a slow drift a fortnight later.
See the missing fields in a public shop catalogue before you spend time formatting a feed by hand.
Run a free store checkQuestions
Why do the same errors keep coming back?
The export is regenerating them from an unfixed source record or mapping.
Are all feed errors equally serious?
No. Resolve required-field, identity and public-access errors before optional improvements.