Commerce Manager shows “A required field is missing” (in the Products view: “Missing title, description, price, availability, product link, condition or image link”) when a product lacks one of the fields Meta requires: id, title, description, availability, condition, price, link, image_link and brand, with size added only for products in specific categories, including clothing and shoes, sold in Shops. Add the field; condition is optional in Google for new products and required for used and refurbished, while Meta requires it for each product.
| Shown in Commerce Manager as | A required field is missing |
|---|---|
| Effect | Product disapproved |
| Where to find it | Catalog → Products → a product’s Status and issues; feed-level errors under Catalog → Data sources → Download issue report |
| Free check | Reported by the free feed check |
What Commerce Manager means by “A required field is missing”
Meta’s product data specification lists the fields every product must have: id, title, description, availability, condition, price, link, image_link and brand, with size required only for specific categories, including clothing and shoes, sold in Shops. A product missing any of them is reported on the data feed troubleshooting page as “A required field is missing” and, on a product in the catalogue, on the products-not-showing page as “Missing title, description, price, availability, product link, condition or image link”. The product may not be shown in ads or the shop until the field arrives.
The list is close to Google’s with two differences that matter for a reused feed: condition is required by Meta and optional in Google for new products, required for used and refurbished; and brand is required by Meta, and by Google for products with a clearly associated brand.
Why it happens
- A Google feed without
condition. - Products without a brand.
- Empty descriptions, or descriptions identical to the title.
- Variant rows without an image or price, inherited from a parent the export did not read.
- A column mapping error: the field exists under a name Meta does not recognise.
How to fix it
In Shopify
The Facebook & Instagram channel fills condition and brand (from Vendor) itself. For a feed app, add condition with a fixed value of new for new goods and map Vendor to brand; fill Vendor where it is empty.
In WooCommerce
Our free plugin writes g:condition from the Google for WooCommerce condition field or a product attribute named Condition, and new when neither holds new, used or refurbished; it writes g:brand from your brand taxonomy, a product attribute named Brand, or the brand set in the plugin settings. The remaining work is assigning brands to products that have none and writing a description for products that have none.
In a CSV or XML feed
Add a condition column (new, refurbished or used) and a brand column and fill both on every row. Check the header names against Meta’s specification; a misspelt column is a missing field. Then download the issue report after upload to confirm nothing is still missing.
How long until Commerce Manager clears it
On the next upload that carries the field, the product is added or updated and the issue disappears from its Status and issues. Feed-level counts refresh with each upload session.
What FeedRobin does about it
The free feed check counts products with no image, no description, no brand and no usable price and, in a feed file, no availability and no condition, which are six of Meta’s nine required fields, and rows missing id, title, link or price are counted as rejected outright. For the Google feeds it reads, Google’s specification makes condition optional for new products and required for used and refurbished ones. The feeds we render for Meta always carry both: a product whose source has no availability goes out as in stock, and one with no condition as new. Brand and description we never invent, for the reasons on each finding.
Questions merchants ask
Google approved the same feed. Why does Meta say fields are missing?
Two fields differ. Meta requires condition on every product, which is optional in Google for new products, required for used and refurbished; and Meta requires brand for every product, which Google requires for products with a clearly associated brand. A Google feed that omits either can be complete for Google and incomplete for Meta.
Is a description required even for simple products?
Yes, and it must differ from the title. Meta allows up to 9,999 characters of plain text; a sentence is enough to clear the error.
Does the file need every optional field too?
No. Meta recommends as much relevant data as possible for ad performance; without the required fields, products may not be shown in ads or the shop. Start complete on the required fields, then add sale prices, variants and categories.
Sources
- Product data specifications for catalogs in Commerce Manager — Meta Business Help Center
- Catalog fields reference — Meta for Developers
- Troubleshoot products not appearing in your ads or shop on Facebook and Instagram — Meta Business Help Center
- Troubleshoot data feed errors in your catalog — Meta Business Help Center
- Condition [condition] — Google Merchant Center Help
- Brand [brand] — Google Merchant Center Help