Merchant Center reports “Product ID too long” when the id attribute is over 50 characters, and asks for 50 or fewer. Use a short, stable identifier such as the platform’s variant id or the SKU, not a URL or a title, and once set keep it the same across every upload, because Google ties the product’s history to it.
| Shown in Merchant Center as | Product ID too long |
|---|---|
| Attribute | id |
| Effect | Not stated by Google |
| Where to find it | Products → Needs attention, then filter by this issue |
| Free check | Reported by the free feed check |
What Merchant Center means by “Product ID too long”
The id specification allows 1 to 50 characters, unique per product, case sensitive, without whitespace, and unchanged over time. For an id over the limit, Google’s help page asks for a value of 50 characters or fewer. The issue is listed in Google’s product issues list as text_value_too_long, “Text too long [id]”.
Google’s id page says the id is used to track the product’s performance history in Merchant Center and Google Ads, and that changing the id overwrites the product and its history. Choose an id that will not need to change again.
Why it happens
- The URL used as id, which can be over 50 characters.
- The title used as id, or a concatenation of title and options.
- Composite ids built from several codes joined with separators.
- Hashes or UUIDs with prefixes that push past the limit.
How to fix it
In Shopify
Use the variant id, which FeedRobin’s Shopify integration sends as the id. If a feed app offers “handle” or “title” as the id, do not take it.
In WooCommerce
Our free plugin uses the variation’s (or product’s) post id, which is short and permanent. Another export that builds ids from slugs or SKUs with prefixes should be pointed at the post id instead.
In a CSV or XML feed
Replace the id column with a stable identifier of 50 characters or fewer, one per variant: a database id or a SKU. Change the ids once and keep them from then on: Google says a changed id overwrites the product and its history. Keep item_group_id consistent with the change so variants stay grouped.
How long until Merchant Center clears it
After the ids are changed, Google says the Needs attention page may take 24–72 hours to reflect it. A changed id overwrites the product and its history in Merchant Center.
What FeedRobin does about it
The free feed check counts ids over 50 characters, and so does Health on a Google, Microsoft or Custom XML feed. FeedRobin’s Google, Microsoft and Custom XML feeds do not cut the id to 50 characters. For a Shopify store the id is the variant id; with our WooCommerce plugin, the product’s or variation’s post id.
Questions merchants ask
What should the id be?
Something unique per variant, of 50 characters or fewer, that never changes, such as the platform’s variant id or a stable SKU. Google also says not to use casing to make ids unique, and to avoid whitespace.
If I shorten the ids, do I lose anything?
Google says that changing an id overwrites the product and its history, the performance history Merchant Center and Google Ads track under the id. Change the ids once, to a value that does not need to change again, such as a database id.
Can two feeds in one account use overlapping ids?
Google says the id, together with the target country and language, identifies the product, and asks not to reuse an id for different products in the same target country or language. For the same product in different countries, or in different languages within one country, Google asks for the same id.
Sources
- ID [id] — Google Merchant Center Help
- How to fix: Product ID too long — Google Merchant Center Help
- Product issues (Content API for Shopping, sunset on 18 August 2026): common item-level issue codes with their description and detail