Short answer. “Image not retrieved (crawl pending)” means Google has queued the image and not fetched it yet; Google’s guidance is to wait, up to three days. “Image not retrieved (crawl rate too slow)” means your host lets Google fetch images too slowly to get through the catalogue; make the image host answer quickly and without rate limits for Google’s crawler, and use a CDN if the origin is slow.
| Shown in Merchant Center as | Image not retrieved (crawl pending) |
|---|---|
| Attribute | image_link |
| Effect | Warning — Pending until the crawl completes |
| Where to find it | Products → Needs attention, then filter by this issue |
| Free check | Not something a feed file shows; see below for what the check can tell you instead |
What Merchant Center means by “Image not retrieved (crawl pending)”
Two related states from the Content API’s product issues list. image_link_pending_crawl, “Image not retrieved (crawl pending)”, means Google has the URL and has not fetched it yet; the listed fix is to wait for the crawl, up to three days. image_link_slow_crawl, “Image not retrieved (crawl rate too slow)”, means Google is fetching your images but your host answers too slowly, or throttles, for the catalogue to be covered; the fix is to make sure Google can access and crawl the images.
Neither is a defect in the image itself. The first resolves on its own; the second is about the server the images live on, as the image_link requirements put it, the URL must be crawlable by Google.
Why it happens
- A new or re-uploaded catalogue: every image is new to Google at once, and the queue takes time.
- Rate limiting on the image host or CDN, applied to Google’s crawler.
- A slow origin without a CDN, serving large originals from a busy server.
- Bot management that delays or challenges unknown clients.
How to fix it
In Shopify
Shopify’s CDN serves images quickly and is rarely the cause; a pending state after a new channel connection is normal and clears. If the slow-crawl version appears, the images are probably hosted off Shopify; move them into product media.
In WooCommerce
Put a CDN in front of /wp-content/uploads/, or make sure the existing one does not rate-limit or challenge Googlebot. Check the security plugin’s rate-limiting rules for an exception for Google’s crawlers. Serving reasonably sized originals (Google recommends around 1500×1500, and caps files at 16 MB) helps the crawl finish.
In a CSV or XML feed
For a pending crawl, wait three days before doing anything. For a slow crawl, look at the image hosts in the feed and at their server logs for Google’s requests: response times in seconds or 429 statuses are the sign. Fix the host, then re-fetch the feed so Google retries sooner.
How long until Merchant Center clears it
Pending clears as Google works through the queue, within its stated three days. Slow crawl clears once the host answers promptly and Google completes the fetches, which can take another pass of the queue.
What FeedRobin does about it
The free feed check fetches a sample of images itself, with a short time budget, so a host that is slow for Google is often slow for the check too and shows up as images it could not read in time. It cannot see Google’s queue, and does not claim to. For connected stores the images are the platform’s, on the platform’s CDN.
Questions merchants ask
How long should I wait?
Google’s product issues list says up to three days for a pending crawl. If the issue is still there after that, the image host is probably the reason: check that it answers Google quickly and does not throttle.
Why would my host be too slow for Google?
Rate limiting, a slow origin without a CDN, or a firewall that delays unknown clients. Google’s image crawler fetches many images in a row, and a host that answers each in seconds never finishes a large catalogue.
Does a new feed with thousands of products trigger this?
Often, and harmlessly: every image is new to Google at once. Pending clears as the queue drains. It becomes a problem only if it persists or turns into the crawl-rate version.
Sources
- Product issues (Content API for Shopping): the issue codes and the titles Merchant Center shows — Google Merchant Center Help
- Image link [image_link] — Google Merchant Center Help