Importing Shopify products, you may find yourself in a situation where the products won’t show in the store though there is a message “Product uploaded” so you get situation when your Shopify import products not showing. In this article, we’ll go over the possible reasons and solutions.
There are multiple reasons why Shopify import products might not show after import or might look broken. Here’s a quick checklist for you:
- File has all required fields and the data is available there.
- Products limit reached. There is no maximum product limit on Shopify. You can upload as many products you want. However, there is upload throttling once your store reaches 50,000. After 50,000 products your store will only be able to upload 1,000 products per day. If you need to upload more products per day, you can upgrade to Shopify Plus which does not have this limit.
- Your products are published and that you have assigned them to the correct collection.
- Too many variants (size, color). Shopify allows up to 100 SKUs (variants) per product. If you have more, you need to to delete some SKUs from the file and try again.
- Too many product options. Native Shopify allows up to 3 product variant options (like: color, size, material). Remove other options or proceed or check for third-party extension to add more.
- Product title (name) – Too short, too long or missing. Shopify product names should have between 70-90 characters.
- Product image too large – Shopify lets you upload images of up to 4472 x 4472 px with a file size of up to 20 MB. Shopify experts recommend using 2048 x 2048 px for square product images. Make sure your file contains images for both main product and product variant.
- More possible reasons coming soon
More “Shopify import products not showing” troubleshooting
For more deep investigation you can check the following parameters: your Shopify website configuration, the import file requirements, and the usage of extensions and modules. So, if your import fails, you should check them all one by one. Also in order to make your product visible on your store you should check where exactly the products aren’t displayed, is that Frontend (public website), Backend (Admin) or both. Please see possible solutions depending on your situation:
Shopify products are available in the backend (Admin) but not visible on the frontend (public site)
If the imported products are listed in the admin panel after import but cannot be found on the frontend (site) you can check the following solutions:
1. Create one product manually via admin panel
How to check: First of all, make sure the products aren’t displayed on the frontend but are available in the admin. Look for a product on the homepage, open the collection where the product is added and check if you can see the product there. Try searching for the product by module or SKU to make sure you’re not missing the product because of some filters or settings.
Possible solution: If the product isn’t there, the issue may be with your store configuration. Try creating one product from within the backend (admin panel) and checking it (the newly created product) on the frontend. If you have created one product via the admin and you cannot see it on the frontend, make sure your Shopify store is configured correctly. Try disabling theme, or plugins and create one more product manually.
2. Resave imported product in the admin
How to check: Create one product manually via admin panel and if it becomes visible on the store frontend, that means that the site is configured correctly, but your product is missing some data to be shown.
Possible solution: If the imported products are visible in the admin panel but don’t show up on the live site (frontend), open one product that was imported and is not visible and hit Save button to resave it. In case the product won’t be visible after resaving, check the following parameters:
- Visibility in the online store. Open a product, click Manage next to the Sales channels and Apps and check if Online Store is selected.
- Product status – Active.
- Inventory. If you’re tracking inventory, make sure there’s inventory available for the product.
If the product becomes visible on the frontend after resaving, it means that not all data was imported. Check your import file to see if all required fields are mapped.
Here you can find
Shopify file example with variations (one variation per row). If you need more examples or if you need assistance with your file, contact our support at contact@emagicone.com and attach your file to check.
Shopify import file sample with variations
3. Clear cache
Possible solution: If the import completes and you can see a confirmation message but the imported products still don’t display on the frontend, try clearing the cache. Pay attention to caching modules. If you are using Cloudflare, clear the cache on the service itself and check the product again. Alternatively, disable third-party (non-Shopify) caching extensions to see if it works.
Shopify products are not available in the backend (Admin) and not visible on the frontend (public site)
If the imported products are not listed in the admin panel after import, you can check several possible solutions.
1. Add one product manually via admin and check if it is listed in the admin
How to check: Are products created and saved at all? Try adding one product manually and checking if it is displayed.
Possible solution: If the product added manually is visible, go on with the checks. If the product created manually is not listed in the admin, try disabling all extensions, modules, and customizations. Then try creating one product via admin manually again.
2. Check import file structure and data
How to check: Check the latest Shopify import guidelines and compare your file to the Shopify sample import file. Also check your file carefully to make sure you do not have any duplicates or other issues.
Possible solution: According to the documentation, there are only two required fields to import products: Title and Handle. But don’t delete the fields that seem unnecessary. These fields may be related to other fields, and deleting them will lead to an import error. Also make sure that your data is accurate (numeric columns contain only numbers, data in all required fields are available, no duplicates in IDs or handles, etc)
Example of the related case:
“I am uploading a single product using bulk upload in my store. The product has 64 lines in CSV because of multiple variants. My problem: the product won’t show in the store though there is a message “Product uploaded”. Uploading the product at ~50 lines was successful. Why importing 60+ lines items won’t upload?”
The issue was caused by a duplicate entry for a variant. The solution was to remove the duplicated row and repeat the upload.
3. Check the error message (if any)
How to check: Either on the import steps or after import you may see error message. If you get any, you’re lucky as it greatly simplifies the troubleshooting process.
Possible solution #1: Check the contents of the message and correct the issues described there. For instance, if your file misses some values, add them and try reimporting the file.
Possible solution #2: If you edited your file in the Excel spreadsheet editor, check the separator in your CSV file. The thing is, Excel or any other editor may save your CSV file with an incorrect separator (for example semicolon or tab) and Shopify requires a comma as a separator. In this case resave the file with comma as a separator and reimport the file.
Possible solution 3: For the fields to be mapped correctly, check if all the import column names are available and if all values are accurate (numbers for numeric columns, etc).
4. Possible issues caused by extensions and modules
How to check: If products are not listed in the admin panel and you are using some extensions or modules either for import or for any customization of Shopify itself.
Possible solution #1: If you are using extensions for import, try disabling this extension and using the default admin import instead. In case default import allows you to import products and those appear in the Admin panel, contact the developers of the extension and get assistance with troubleshooting.
Possible solution #2: If you are using the default import tool but products still don’t display, this might be caused by a conflict with other extensions. Try disabling all extensions, modules, and customizations and import products again. In case products are not listed in admin, try to import the file into default Shopify store without any modifications to check if the issue is related to the store configuration or is it related to the file.
The Bottom Line on Shopify import products not showing
Troubleshooting Shopify import errors boils down to checking a number of parameters and excluding them one by one until you find a cause of the issue. If you are stuck with the import, go over the points described above. If the issue persists, describe it in the comments below and we’ll investigate your case and try to offer your a solution.
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