Merchant Center and Commerce Manager errors, explained and fixed
Every entry below is the exact text a catalogue console shows: Google Merchant Center under Products → Needs attention, Meta Commerce Manager in a product’s Status and issues or a feed’s issue report. Each page says what the error means, why it happens, how to fix it in Shopify, in WooCommerce or in a feed file, and how long the console takes to clear it. 53 errors so far, each checked against Google’s own list of product issues or Meta’s help pages and the help page for that issue. Most of them the free check finds in your file before the console does. For the rule behind each field, the attribute reference has one page per attribute.
Image errors
The photo is the first thing Google checks and the most common reason a product is disapproved.
Image too smallGoogle now wants every product image at least 500×500 pixels, enforced from 31 January 2027. Where the warning comes from, how to find the small photos, and how to replace them in bulk.Promotional overlay on image [image_link]A sale badge, watermark, logo or “free shipping” banner on the product photo gets the product disapproved. What counts as an overlay, Google’s automatic fix, and how to keep it from coming back.Generic imageA placeholder, a logo or a “no image available” graphic in image_link disapproves the product. How Google detects a generic image and how to find every product that still has one.Missing value [image_link]The product has no image URL in the feed, so Google disapproves it outright. Why exports drop images for variants and drafts, and how to find every product without a photo before Google does.Invalid image [image_link]Google could not fetch or decode the image at the URL in your feed. The five reasons it happens — 404s, http, hotlink protection, unsupported formats, robots.txt — and how to test each one.Image not retrieved (crawl pending)Google has not fetched the image yet, or cannot fetch images from your host fast enough. When to wait, when to act, and how to let Google crawl your images faster.Same value for differing variants [image_link]Variants that differ by colour share one photo, so Google cannot show the colour a shopper searched for. Which variants need their own image, which can share, and how to set variant images in Shopify and WooCommerce.Identifier errors: GTIN, brand, MPN, id
How Google matches your product to its catalogue, and what happens when the numbers are wrong or missing.
Invalid value [gtin]The barcode in your feed fails Google’s format check: wrong length, bad check digit, a SKU in the GTIN field, or a placeholder. How to find the bad values and what to put in their place.Limited performance due to missing value [brand]Products without a brand run, but Google shows them less. Where the brand field lives in Shopify and WooCommerce, what to do for own-brand and unbranded goods, and why “N/A” makes it worse.Incorrect value [identifier_exists]You told Google a product has no identifiers, and Google disagrees. When identifier_exists = false is legitimate, when it is not, and how to set it only for the products that qualify.Reused value [id]Two rows in the feed share the same id, so Google processes one and discards the other. Why variant exports do this, how to find the duplicates, and the id rule that keeps history intact.Same GTIN but differing value [brand]Two products in your feed share a GTIN but name different brands, so one of them is wrong. Why it happens with reused barcodes and copied rows, and how to find the pairs.Incorrect product identifier [mpn]The value in mpn is not a manufacturer’s part number: your own SKU, a barcode, a placeholder. What an MPN is, when Google wants one, and why a SKU in the field is worse than an empty field.Invalid value [brand]“N/A”, “Generic”, “Unbranded”, a URL or a sentence in the brand field is an invalid value, and Google treats the product as if it had no brand. What the field accepts, and what to do for goods that really have none.Text too long [id]The product id is over Google’s 50-character limit, usually because an export built it from a URL or a title. The rule, why changing ids costs history, and the id that never needs changing.Limited performance due to missing identifiers [gtin]What Google's missing-GTIN warning means, where to find barcodes for your products, and what to do when a product genuinely has none.Price, availability and shipping errors
The values Google re-checks against your product page and checkout, and the ones that put the whole account at risk.
Missing value [price]An empty price is “Missing value [price]”, a zero price “Invalid value for category [price]”; both disapprove the product. Why exports lose the price on variable products, and the currency Google expects.Invalid value [availability]Google accepts exactly four availability values. A translated word, a yes/no or “available” gets the product disapproved. The accepted spellings, and the most common wrong ones.Mismatched value (page crawl) [availability]Google crawled your product page and found a different stock status from the feed. The timing gap that causes most of it, the structured-data fix, and why it can escalate to an account warning.Missing value [shipping]Google needs a shipping cost for every product where shipping is required, from account settings or the feed. Why products are disapproved for it, the two places to set it, and the mistake of setting both.Missing shipping costsThe account has no shipping policy for a country your products target, so every product there is affected at once. The exact steps on Google’s help page, and how to check the fix took.Missing value [availability]The availability attribute is required and this row has none. Why exports leave it empty, the four values it takes, and how to derive it from stock in Shopify and WooCommerce.Inaccurate availability status due to inconsistency between feed and landing pageToo many products said in stock in the feed and sold out on the page, or the reverse, so the account is warned. Google’s twelve listed causes, the fix sequence, and the review request.Mismatched value (page crawl) [price]Google suspends products when the feed price and the page price disagree. The usual causes — currency, sale prices, stale feeds — and the fixes.MisrepresentationMisrepresentation is Google's vaguest suspension — and the most common. The signals Google actually checks, a step-by-step recovery checklist, and how to request the review.Title and description errors
Editorial rules: what a title may not contain and what a description must.
Missing value [description]Description is required for every product; without it Google warns and limits performance. Length that works, what not to put in it, and why the text must match your product page.Excessive capitalizationALL-CAPS titles and descriptions are disapproved under Google’s editorial rules. What counts as excessive, the exceptions for acronyms and model codes, and how to fix a whole catalogue at once.Promotional text in title“SALE”, “20% off”, “free shipping” and “buy now” do not belong in a product title and break Google’s editorial rules. What the title may contain, what it may not, and how to move the offer where Google will show it.Title truncatedGoogle cuts titles at 150 characters and warns you. Why the part it cuts is usually the part that mattered, how to reorder a title, and the shorter limit that applies in the ad itself.Variant and category errors
Sizes and colours listed as separate products, apparel attributes Google requires, and the category field.
Missing value [item_group_id]Without item_group_id, every size and colour competes as its own product, and in free listings the attribute is required. How to group variants in Shopify, WooCommerce and a CSV export.Missing value [color] / [size] / [gender] / [age_group]Clothing needs four attributes Google does not ask of other products, and a missing one disapproves the item in the biggest markets. Where each value lives in Shopify and WooCommerce, and the formatting rules.Invalid value [google_product_category]The category in your feed is not a value from Google’s taxonomy: a typo, your own category name, or an id and a path in the same field. The accepted formats, and when it is safer to leave the field out.Landing page, link and crawl errors
The URL itself is wrong, or Google could not open the page or the image behind the product.
Image not crawlable due to robots.txtYour robots.txt blocks Google from the folder or CDN that serves product images, so the product cannot be approved. The two lines to add, where they go on Shopify and WooCommerce, and how to confirm the fix.Unavailable desktop landing pageGoogle opened the product URL and got an error, a redirect to the homepage or a timeout. The causes by HTTP status, how to test with Search Console, and why it becomes an account issue if ignored.Invalid URL [link]The product link in your feed is not a URL Google can follow: a relative path, a missing scheme, stray characters, or the wrong field. The rule, the four ways exports break it, and how to find every bad row.Mismatched domains [link]Your product links point at a domain other than the website claimed on the Merchant Center account. Why it happens after a domain move, a staging URL or a marketplace link, and how to claim or correct.Desktop page not crawlable due to robots.txtYour robots.txt blocks Google from the product pages, so Google cannot verify price and availability and disapproves the products. The rule to add, and the mobile twin of the same issue.Landing page not workingEnough product pages failed Google’s crawl that the account itself is flagged. The causes Google lists, how to test with URL Inspection and PageSpeed, and how to request the review that clears it.Products expiredEvery product expires 30 days after its last refresh, with no disapproval and no error. What counts as a refresh, why a feed that uploaded once isn’t enough, and the two settings that stop the slow drain.Data source could not be fetchedRoboted URLs, redirects that return a page instead of a file, SFTP errors and size limits — plus the failure Google never reports as one: a feed that downloads perfectly and arrives empty.Meta Commerce Manager (Facebook & Instagram)
Meta’s issue names are the headings of its own troubleshooting pages rather than bracketed attribute strings. The pages below quote them as written; Google’s errors are above.
Errors that block the whole feed
Commerce Manager could not read the file at all: nothing in it was added or updated.
Your data feed file couldn't be accessedMeta could not download your feed: the URL opens a page instead of a file, the server blocks facebookexternalhit, a login is required, or a Google Sheet is restricted. Meta’s own checklist, and how to test each item.HTML format isn't supportedMeta received a web page where it expected a data file: the feed URL points at a page, a login screen or an error page. The formats Meta accepts, and how to tell what your URL actually returns.Incorrect number of columnsA CSV or TSV whose rows do not match the header, almost always because a comma inside a description was not quoted. Meta’s exact quoting rule, and the two-minute check in a spreadsheet.Feed download speed is slow or exceeds file sizeMeta’s limits: 100 MB for a one-time upload, 4 GB for a scheduled feed, compression recommended over 1 GB, up to a million items per feed. What to do when a catalogue outgrows them or a server serves them too slowly.Line or row of text exceeds size limitOne line of your feed is over Meta’s 5 MB row limit, usually an XML file written on a single line or a row stuffed with very long image URLs. The limit, the XML fix and the CSV fix.Errors on individual products
The file uploaded; these products were skipped, or are in the catalogue but not shown in ads or the shop.
A required field is missingMeta requires id, title, description, availability, condition, price, link, image_link and brand, plus size for clothing in Shops. Which one is usually missing, and why a Google feed is short of two of them.Invalid valuesSeveral Meta fields accept only a fixed list: availability is “in stock” or “out of stock”, condition is new, refurbished or used, gender and age group have their own sets. The lists, and what a Google feed can keep.Field can't be all uppercase lettersA description in ALL CAPS, or one that simply repeats the title, keeps the product out of ads and the shop. Meta’s rule, the sentence-case fix, and the data rule that applies it to a whole feed.Invalid Google or Facebook product categoryThe value in google_product_category or fb_product_category is not on Meta’s supported list. Where the lists are, the name-or-id rule, and why a wrong category can also trigger a missing-size error.ID conflicts with group IDA product’s id is also the item_group_id of other products, which Meta forbids: ids and group ids must be unique across both. Why exports do this to the parent product, and the search that finds the pairs.IDs can't be duplicatedTwo rows share a content id, so one overwrote the other. Meta’s rule that ids are unique, case sensitive and distinct from group ids, and the variant pattern that satisfies it.Universal IDs are missing, Invalid GTINMeta wants at least one of brand, GTIN or MPN on every product, and a GTIN, when given, as UPC, EAN, JAN, ISBN or ITF-14 without dashes. Why brand alone satisfies it, and how the rule differs from Google’s.URL incorrectly formattedThe product link must start with http:// or https://, lead to that exact product’s page, and for Shops sit on your own domain. The three checks Meta lists and the domain rule that catches marketplace links.Missing or invalid price or currency errorsMeta’s price format, the comma-decimal trap, the 0.50 to 10,000 range for Shops, and the one-currency-per-feed rule behind the currency mismatch issue. With the data rule that fixes decimals in bulk.Missing sizeSize is required for clothing and shoes sold in Shops, and Meta guesses the category when you give none. The format rules for size, the “One size” escape hatch, and how to stop a non-clothing product needing a size.Out of stock for too longOut-of-stock products leave ads immediately and stay in the shop as sold out for 56 days, then disappear from the shop too. What each status affects, and what to check when an available product is still marked out.Invalid HTML, HTML attributes unsupported, Disallowed HTML tagsHTML belongs only in rich_text_description, only with p, b, i, ul and li, and only for Shops. What Meta strips, what it rejects, and why the plain description still has to be there.Image errors
Meta could not fetch or use the product image, or will not notice that it changed.
Product image upload issuesEvery image cause Meta lists: the 500×500 minimum, the 8 MB cap, JPEG or PNG only, the Meta-ExternalAds crawler your firewall must allow, spaces in URLs, and the rule that an image only updates when its link changes.How to read the Needs attention tab
Merchant Center groups issues by what they do to the product. A disapproval takes the product out of Shopping ads and free listings until the value is fixed. A warning means Google accepted the product but altered something (a truncated title) or expects you to act by a date (an undersized image). Limited performance means the product runs with less reach than it would have with the missing attribute. And a few issues are about the account rather than any one product; those need a review request after the fix, and the guides linked above cover them.
Whatever the issue, the mechanics of the fix are the same: change the value at the source (your store, or the export that produces the feed), let the feed refresh, and wait for Google to re-process it. Editing products inside Merchant Center works for one product and is undone by the next feed fetch for everything else.
Questions merchants ask
Where do I see these errors in Merchant Center?
Under Products, on the Needs attention tab. The filter above the table narrows the list to one issue, and the download icon exports the affected products as a CSV, which is the fastest way to fix many at once.
What is the difference between a disapproval, a warning and limited performance?
A disapproved product does not show anywhere until the issue is fixed. A warning means Google accepted the product but changed or flagged something. Limited performance means the product shows, but less often than it would with the missing data.
How long after fixing does an error disappear?
Google’s help pages say 24 to 72 hours for the Needs attention page to reflect a change, once the corrected data has reached Merchant Center. Issues that involve Google crawling your page or image take 24 to 48 hours from the crawl.
Can a feed check find these before Google does?
Most of them. Missing or invalid values, undersized images, wrong availability words, duplicate ids and text problems are visible in the file. What a file cannot show is what Google sees when it opens your page or looks at the pixels of your image, and the pages here say which is which.
Not sure what's wrong with your feed?Paste your feed URL and FeedRobin checks every product for missing barcodes, images, descriptions and more — free, no account needed.