Fix feed issues

Google Merchant Center reports this when a product is missing its GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) — the manufacturer-assigned barcode that uniquely identifies retail products. Affected items stop showing in Shopping ads, free listings, and Performance Max retail campaigns.

Affects: gtin

Google has the GTIN, but it doesn't validate. Either the check-digit algorithm fails, the format is wrong, or the GTIN doesn't match any product in the global retail registry. Affected items are dropped from Shopping until the GTIN is corrected.

Affects: gtin

The image at image_link doesn't meet Google's minimum resolution. Google tightened this threshold in April 2026 — what was previously a warning is now blocking for new submissions. Affected items don't show in Shopping until the image is replaced.

Affects: image_link

The product image contains promotional text overlay — sale percentages, 'NEW' badges, watermarks, calls-to-action rendered into the image. Google's policy bans this and the auto-reviewer flags it. Affected items stop serving until the image is replaced with a clean version.

Affects: image_link

The price in the feed doesn't match the price on the landing page. Google compares feed values against the live landing page and rejects items where the user would arrive expecting one price and see another. Affected items stop serving until both prices match.

Affects: price

Google requires brand on items in most categories. Without it, Google can't disambiguate your product from similar listings by other sellers. Affected items are dropped from Shopping until brand is populated.

Affects: brand

The image_link points to a 'generic' image — usually a stock photo used by many sellers, a placeholder graphic, or a manufacturer marketing shot used by competitors. Google's classifier identifies these and downgrades them.

Affects: image_link

Googlebot can't reach the product page. The URL might be 404, redirected to a non-product page, blocked in robots.txt, or behind authentication. Affected items can't be served because users would land on a broken page.

Affects: link

A general parent issue covering missing required fields beyond just GTIN — could be brand, image_link, price, availability, or category-specific requirements like gender for apparel. Google reports the specific attribute in the issue detail.

The color attribute is populated but with a value Google can't recognise — usually free-text marketing names ('Midnight Whisper', 'Sahara Sunset') that don't map to standard colours. Items still serve but with reduced filter eligibility.

Affects: color

Google requires MPN alongside brand when GTIN isn't available. Without either, the item can't be uniquely identified against the global product graph and gets rejected from Shopping placements.

Affects: mpn

The availability in the feed doesn't match what Google sees on the landing page. Feed says 'in stock', the landing page shows 'sold out' (or vice versa). Affected items stop serving until both align.

Affects: availability

The product link URL is malformed or unreachable. Could be HTTP instead of HTTPS, missing protocol, broken encoding, or returning a non-2xx status code.

Affects: link

Two or more rows in the feed share the same id. Google can only accept one item per id — the others are silently dropped, leading to inventory gaps you'd otherwise miss.

Affects: id

Googlebot can't fetch the image_link URL. Could be 404, blocked by robots.txt, geo-blocked, requires authentication, or HTTPS certificate issues.

Affects: image_link

Google's product taxonomy field isn't populated. Items still serve in most cases (Google infers category from title) but with reduced segmentation precision and missing eligibility for category-specific filters.

Affects: google_product_category

Google's algorithm flags prices dramatically lower than the competitive set for the same product. Often a typo, currency confusion, or counterfeit suspicion. Items aren't always rejected but get suppressed in Shopping placements.

Affects: price

The product falls under a restricted category — alcohol, supplements, healthcare claims, weapons, financial services, gambling. Each has its own ruleset; some are gated by region.

Google can't determine shipping cost for the item. Either account-level shipping settings don't cover the item's destination, or item-level shipping is missing where required.

Affects: shipping

The sale_price field is set but either expired (sale_price_effective_date has ended) or fails validation (higher than price, equal to price, etc.). Item still serves at regular price but loses strikethrough display.

Affects: sale_price

Severe account-level disapproval. The entire Merchant Center account is suspended — no items can serve regardless of their individual status. Typically triggered by repeated or serious policy violations.

The title contains promotional language ('SALE', 'FREE SHIPPING', '50% OFF', 'CHEAP', etc.). Google's title policy bans this — promotional claims belong in the sale_price field or ad-level extensions, not the product title.

Affects: title

Apparel and accessories require age_group on every item. Without it, channels can't apply age-appropriate sizing logic and the item is rejected from Shopping placements.

Affects: age_group

Tax field is set but doesn't validate. Could be malformed structure, invalid country/region code, or rate outside acceptable bounds. Primarily affects US feeds where state-by-state tax is required.

Affects: tax

Feed-reported shipping cost differs from what the landing page shows at checkout. Doesn't always block delivery but suppresses Shopping ad eligibility because users would see different shipping at checkout than in the ad.

Affects: shipping

The condition value isn't permitted for the product's category. Used/refurbished food products, used cosmetics, used babies' items — Google bans these on policy grounds and rejects the listing.

Affects: condition

The product link in the feed returns a 404 error. Item can't serve because users would land on an error page. Distinct from 'Landing page not crawlable' (which covers broader crawl issues) — this is specifically about 404 responses.

Affects: link

Account-level warning that indicates accumulating issues. Not suspension yet, but the threshold for suspension is being approached. Common precursor to harder enforcement.

Google's safe-browsing classifiers flagged the site as untrusted. Could be reputation issues, missing trust signals, or technical security gaps. Affects all listings until resolved.

Google's classifier identified misleading claims, sensationalised language, or content that overstates product capabilities. Affects listings across the account, not just flagged items.

Google's classifier suspected counterfeit goods. Could be price dramatically below legitimate sources, brand names used without authorisation, or listing patterns matching known counterfeit operations.

Healthcare-category restrictions triggered. Health products face strict claim rules — any treatment, cure, or specific outcome claim needs substantiation. Affects vitamins, supplements, medical devices, fitness products with medical claims.

Feed condition doesn't match what the landing page communicates. Common when 'refurbished' is in the feed but the page calls it 'pre-owned' or 'reconditioned'.

Affects: condition

Feed colour doesn't match what the landing page or image shows. Common when 'Midnight Whisper' is in title but the colour field says 'Black' (acceptable) vs. when actual product shown is blue (not acceptable).

Affects: color

Google fetched the image but couldn't process it. Could be corrupted file, unsupported format, or processing timeout. Distinct from 'image too small' or 'broken link' — the fetch worked but processing didn't.

Affects: image_link

Item has no GTIN and no MPN, but identifier_exists isn't set to false. Google requires the explicit flag — otherwise it assumes a missing GTIN is an error rather than an intentional exemption.

Affects: identifier_exists

Title violates Google's editorial standards — non-standard characters, excessive punctuation, gimmick formatting. Items still serve but with reduced ranking.

Affects: title

Description contains HTML tags. Google accepts plain text only — HTML doesn't render as formatting; the raw tags display in some surfaces.

Affects: description

Description under Google's recommended minimum (typically 200 characters). Items still serve but with reduced relevance scoring for search queries.

Affects: description

The landing page exists and works but the item can't actually be purchased from it — out of stock, requires login, requires a region the user isn't in, or has a broken add-to-cart.

Meta's catalog policy bans promotional text overlay on product images. When the auto-reviewer flags this, affected SKUs stop serving in Dynamic Product Ads, Advantage+ Catalog Ads, and organic Shopping placements until the image is replaced.

Affects: image_link

The item falls under Meta's restricted-product categories — alcohol, supplements, beauty claims, weapons, cryptocurrency, gambling, health products, and others. Items in these categories face stricter rules and often country-specific restrictions.

Meta's general-purpose rejection — the item violates some policy but the auto-reviewer hasn't specified which. Frustrating because the diagnostic is vague. Usually it's image policy, restricted content, or personal attributes, but the path to the right answer involves digging.

Not a formal Commerce Manager rejection — the catalog is healthy and items deliver. But pixel events report content_ids that don't match the id field in your feed, so Meta's algorithm can't link user behaviour to specific products. Performance suffers silently.

Affects: id

Meta requires brand on every catalog item. Items without brand are rejected from the catalog and don't serve in Dynamic Product Ads or Advantage+ Catalog Ads.

Affects: brand

The price field's currency code isn't recognised. Meta expects ISO 4217 three-letter codes (USD, GBP, EUR, JPY). Affected items are rejected from the catalog.

Affects: price

Not a hard rejection — items still serve. But Meta's algorithm continues showing items marked 'in stock' when the actual inventory has hit zero. Budget is wasted on impressions for products users can't buy.

Affects: availability

The image at image_link is below Meta's 500×500 minimum. In 2026 Meta has tightened practical enforcement, so images that previously squeaked through at 400×400 now consistently fail.

Affects: image_link

Meta's policy strictly limits weight-loss claims and imagery. Products positioned as weight-loss aids, before/after transformations, or 'fast results' get rejected even when the product is genuinely effective.

Meta bans before-and-after imagery that implies body transformation, weight loss, or cosmetic results. Common rejection cause for beauty, fitness, supplements, and cosmetic-procedure verticals.

Affects: image_link

Meta can't fetch the image at image_link. Could be 404, geo-blocked, requires authentication, or HTTPS issues. Items with broken images don't serve.

Affects: image_link

The entire catalog has been rejected — not individual items, the whole thing. This is rare but catastrophic. Usually triggered by a pattern of policy violations across many items or an account-level restriction.

Items without an availability value can't enter Meta's catalog. Affects items where the feed-generation pipeline failed to map the availability field correctly.

Affects: availability

The product is restricted from the region your audience is targeting. Often a regulatory issue (alcohol shipping limits, supplement claims that vary by country) rather than a product issue.

Meta accepts titles up to 200 characters but truncates to ~65 in feed placements. Beyond ~65, the visible part of the title gets cut off mid-word, hurting click-through.

Affects: title

Meta caps descriptions at 9,999 characters but truncates to ~90 in many placements. Long descriptions don't break catalogs but reduce visible content in product detail views.

Affects: description

Meta detected a brand in the feed that doesn't match what the landing page shows. Common when reseller catalogs use the store name instead of the manufacturer brand, or when feed-generation pulls the wrong field.

Affects: brand

The price's currency doesn't match the catalog's primary target region. UK catalog with USD prices, or EU catalog with GBP. Items still serve but conversions plummet because users see foreign pricing.

Affects: price

Meta's crawler can't reach the product page. 404, 500, redirect to non-product page, geo-restricted, or blocked by robots.txt. Items don't serve until reachable.

Affects: link

Meta hasn't received a feed update in longer than the schedule expected. Could be that the scheduled fetch failed, the feed file is unreachable, or someone disabled the data source.

Multiple items share near-identical titles or descriptions. Meta's classifier flags this as low-quality content and suppresses delivery across all affected items.

Affects: description

The product's category is restricted in the region the catalog targets. Common for alcohol in dry regions, supplements in regulated markets, or financial products where claims are tightly controlled.

Affects: google_product_category

Pixel is firing but with too few catalog-matching events for Meta to optimise effectively. Affects Advantage+ Catalog Ads which need event signal to allocate budget across products.

Affects: id

Meta increasingly requires country of origin disclosure for catalog items, especially cross-border. Items without it serve with reduced visibility in international placements.

Feed file exceeds Meta's size limits. For scheduled fetches the cap is roughly 8GB compressed; for the Catalog Batch API it's per-batch limits typically around 5,000 items.

Meta's processor timed out on the feed before completing. Combination of file size, server response speed, and parsing complexity. Items don't update until next successful fetch.

Apparel items without material specified. Meta increasingly uses material in audience segmentation for Advantage+ — items without it miss precision targeting opportunities.

Affects: material

Product set defined too restrictively for Advantage+ to optimise. Sets need a minimum item count (typically 30+) for the algorithm to learn within them. Below threshold, sets serve but don't optimise.

Product description lacks scannable bullet structure. Meta favours items with clear bullet-point highlights for catalog card visibility — pure paragraph descriptions get suppressed in scan-heavy placements.

Affects: description

Variants under one item_group_id have inconsistent colour formatting. Some say 'Navy', some 'NAVY', some 'navy' — Meta treats each as a different colour, fragmenting the variant group.

Affects: color

TikTok Shop's availability field is stricter than Meta's or Google's. It accepts specific values ('in stock', 'out of stock', 'preorder') and rejects anything else. Items with invalid availability are rejected from the catalog.

Affects: availability

TikTok Shop's minimum image resolution is 600×600 — higher than Google's or Meta's. Items with smaller images fail validation. TikTok also prefers vertical aspect ratios for video-first placements; a square image will work but won't perform as well.

Affects: image_link

TikTok Shop uses its own product category taxonomy (separate from Google's). Items without a mapped category_id are rejected because TikTok can't route them to the right shopping surfaces.

Affects: category_id

TikTok Shop requires brand on every product. Without it, the product can't be matched against TikTok's brand registry, which affects discoverability in branded searches and Shop placements.

Affects: brand

TikTok's title policy bans specific keywords and patterns — promotional language, prohibited categories, sensitive terms. Items with restricted keywords in the title are rejected outright.

Affects: title

TikTok Shop requires price on every item. Missing or zero prices reject the item from the catalog.

Affects: price

TikTok caps product titles at 60 characters. Titles exceeding the limit get truncated mid-word in placements, which hurts click-through. Some accounts also see outright rejection.

Affects: title

TikTok Shop restricts certain product categories per region — alcohol, weapons, supplements, financial products, gambling. Items in those categories require additional verification or are outright banned.

TikTok Shop only operates in specific regions. Items intended for unsupported countries are rejected. As of 2026, supported markets include UK, US, several EU countries, and key SEA markets.

Affects: shipping

TikTok rejects product images with watermarks. Common for resellers using supplier-provided images that still carry the supplier's branding. Affects discoverability across TikTok Shop placements.

Affects: image_link

TikTok's quality score flagged the listing as below threshold. Vague catch-all — could be thin title/description, low-quality images, missing optional attributes, or inconsistent data.

TikTok detected an item that's very similar to another listing in your catalog or another seller's catalog. Can suppress delivery on both items pending review.

Affects: id

TikTok Shop requires shipping templates to be set up at account level before items can list. Templates define cost per region, weight bracket, and service level. Without a template, items can't activate.

Affects: shipping

TikTok requires variants to share a Standard Product Unit (SPU) ID — equivalent to item_group_id on other channels. Without SPU IDs, variants compete as separate items and TikTok's classifier rejects them as duplicates.

Affects: item_group_id

The product's category is banned outright in the targeted region — not just restricted, but prohibited from listing. TikTok's bans extend further than most channels in some categories.

Affects: google_product_category

TikTok flagged the item's return rate as above category norms. Doesn't block listings but suppresses delivery — TikTok's algorithm favours items that customers keep.

Listing has been in review longer than normal. TikTok's review SLA is typically 24-48 hours; listings stuck beyond 72 hours indicate manual review queue overflow or borderline policy compliance.

Account hasn't enabled TikTok Live Shopping, missing the highest-converting catalog surface on TikTok. Items still appear in non-live placements but don't qualify for in-stream commerce.

Item has no product video. TikTok favours video-first listings — items without video get suppressed visibility, especially in feed-style placements where video plays auto-preview.

Affects: video_link

Variant items share one image instead of each having variant-specific imagery. Users buying a 'red' variant see the 'blue' image — bad UX that suppresses conversion.

Affects: image_link

TikTok Shop has country-specific restrictions on certain product categories (alcohol shipping limits, supplement regulations, hazmat). Items targeting restricted destinations can't activate.

Affects: shipping

Title contains characters TikTok's classifier flags as non-standard — emojis, decorative symbols, excessive punctuation. Items still serve but with reduced ranking in search placements.

Affects: title

TikTok's classifier flagged the assigned category as incorrect for the actual product. Items still serve but in the wrong competitive set, hurting both ranking and conversion.

Affects: google_product_category

TikTok Creator Affiliate program enrolment pending — your items aren't yet available for creators to promote in their content. Limits TikTok Shop's biggest growth channel.

Pinterest Catalog requires google_product_category — it uses Google's published taxonomy directly. Items without it can't enter the catalog. Pinterest is stricter than Google on this; what's optional for Google is required for Pinterest.

Affects: google_product_category

Pinterest can't fetch the image at image_link. Common cause for Pinterest specifically: tall-format requirements (Pinterest prefers 600×900+) combined with thumbnails being served.

Affects: image_link

Pinterest's crawler can't reach the product page. 404, redirect to non-product page, blocked by robots.txt, or HTTPS issues. Items with broken landing pages can't serve as shopping pins.

Affects: link

Pinterest verifies feed prices against landing-page prices. Mismatches block the item from shopping pin distribution. Pinterest's check is slightly more forgiving than Google's but still tight.

Affects: price

Pinterest Catalog requires availability on every item. Without it, the item can't enter the catalog. Pinterest treats missing availability stricter than missing-but-invalid availability — the latter at least makes it into the catalog as 'out of stock'.

Affects: availability

Pinterest Catalog requires brand on every item. Without it, products can't be matched against Pinterest's brand registry and don't serve in branded-pin placements.

Affects: brand

Pinterest expects condition (new, refurbished, used) for catalog items. Missing condition defaults to 'new' in some surfaces but suppresses filterable visibility.

Affects: condition

The product falls under Pinterest's restricted-content policy. Pinterest's policy is stricter than Meta's on some categories (weight loss, body image, financial products, alcohol).

Pinterest requires merchant verification before catalog products can serve as shopping pins. Unverified catalogs can be created but products don't appear in shopping placements.

Item is missing the link field. Pinterest can't surface as a shopping pin without a destination URL. Items with no link don't enter the catalog.

Affects: link

Pinterest can't process the image format. Supports JPG, PNG, WebP — but not GIF (Pinterest treats animated content separately), BMP, or SVG.

Affects: image_link

Pinterest's image policy is stricter than Meta or Google on body imagery, suggestive content, and certain wellness claims. Items with policy-violating imagery don't serve.

Affects: image_link

You've submitted for the Verified Merchant Program but Pinterest hasn't approved yet. Catalog products still serve (if otherwise valid) but without the Verified Merchant badge and associated placement benefits.

Multiple feed rows share the same id. Pinterest keeps the first match and drops the rest. Hidden inventory gap because the dropped rows don't appear in error reports.

Affects: id

Pinterest can't parse the feed XML. Schema validation failed — could be malformed tags, encoding issues, or invalid characters in field values.

Item exists in the catalog but the Shopping Pin feature is disabled — likely because of category restrictions, verification gaps, or trust-signal issues. Items appear as regular pins but without buy functionality.

Item's availability field is set but doesn't specify region-level inventory state. Items targeting multiple regions need per-region availability for accurate placement.

Affects: availability

Feed file exceeds Pinterest's size limits — typically around 1GB uncompressed or 200MB compressed. Items can't sync until file is split.

Amazon requires either an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) or a GTIN for every listing. Without one, the listing can't be created. Brand-gated categories require additional verification on top.

Affects: gtin

The product type assigned to the listing isn't valid for Amazon's category system. Amazon uses a deep, specific product-type taxonomy that doesn't accept free-form values.

Amazon's main-image policy is stricter than other channels — pure white background required, no logos, no watermarks, product fills at least 85% of frame. Failures suppress the listing.

Affects: image_link

Amazon requires fulfillment configuration on every listing — either FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon), FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant), or SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime). Without it, the listing can't activate.

Amazon detected another listing for the same product (matching GTIN, brand, and key attributes). Amazon's catalog policy is one ASIN per product — duplicates are merged or suppressed.

Affects: id

Amazon gates many brands behind explicit authorisation. Without approval from the brand owner (or proof of authentic sourcing), you can't list products under that brand.

Affects: brand

Listing exists and is technically active, but Amazon has hidden it from search results due to data quality issues. Items don't appear in user searches even though the listing technically works.

Listing-specific buyer detail page has data inconsistencies. Often happens when seller-provided data conflicts with Amazon's canonical catalog data for the same ASIN.

Amazon's variation theme (how variants are grouped — by size, colour, etc.) doesn't match the actual attributes. Common when child SKUs have inconsistent attributes that don't fit Amazon's expected variation pattern.

Affects: item_group_id

Amazon's listing quality score is below the threshold for full visibility. Listings serve but get suppressed ranking — they appear lower in search and rarely win the Buy Box.

The brand value in the feed doesn't match what's registered for the ASIN in Amazon Brand Registry. For brand-registered ASINs, only the brand owner can edit canonical brand data — other sellers must match.

Affects: brand

Amazon gates entire categories — automotive parts, jewellery, watches, toys, beauty, supplements, fine art — behind approval gates. Without category approval, new sellers can't list in those categories regardless of brand.

Amazon's inventory count differs from your seller-reported quantity. For FBA, this means physical count differs from system count (lost/damaged units). For FBM, your system reports more units than Amazon shows available.

Item listed but not winning Buy Box. Listing appears in search but customers default to a competitor's offer. Driver of significant revenue loss because Buy Box wins most clicks.

Amazon's pricing algorithm flagged the price as anomalously high vs the typical range for the ASIN. Listing suppressed until price is adjusted or seller appeals.

Amazon flagged the price as suspiciously low. Common counterfeit-protection trigger. Listing may be suppressed pending verification.

Item appears to contain hazardous materials (battery, flammable, pressurised) but hasn't been classified. Amazon requires hazmat classification before items can ship.

Reported dimensions in the listing differ from what FBA measured at intake. Amazon adjusts dimensions to actual measurements; large discrepancies trigger this warning.

Listing condition (used, refurbished) is restricted in this category or for this brand. Listing exists but doesn't appear in search results.

Affects: condition

Amazon's tax compliance review flagged the seller account. Could be missing tax registration in nexus states, incorrect VAT collection, or sales tax filing gaps.

Brand owner has locked the ASIN's canonical attributes (title, description, images). Other sellers can only attach offers — they can't edit listing content.

Amazon requires two-step verification (2SV) on seller accounts. Accounts without 2SV are flagged and may face restrictions on listing changes or fund withdrawal.

Amazon refused to receive your inbound FBA shipment at the warehouse. Items intended for FBA storage couldn't be processed, leaving them in limbo.