availability availability Fix “Invalid availability” on TikTok Shop
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.
What you see in TikTok Shop:
Invalid availability TikTok Shop's availability enum is stricter than Meta's or Google's. Only "in stock", "out of stock", "preorder" are accepted — TikTok doesn't accept "backorder" or any boolean-style values. Items with other availability strings get rejected from the catalog outright.
The value-normalisation problem comes from cross-channel feeds. A unified feed serving Google, Meta, and TikTok needs separate normalisation per channel: Google accepts more values (including backorder), Meta accepts the same plus regional variations, TikTok is strictest. Feed-generation pipelines that normalise universally often pick a value that's valid on Google/Meta but rejected on TikTok.
The fix: per-channel availability mapping. Maintain a transformation rule that converts your source-system availability (true/false, 1/0, available/unavailable, in stock/out of stock) to TikTok's specific enum. Apply this transformation only on the TikTok feed; keep other channels' feeds with their wider enum support.
The boolean-source case is the most common failure mode. Source systems using true/false for "is in stock" don't translate cleanly to TikTok's three-value enum. Add explicit mapping: true → "in stock", false → "out of stock", neither → exclude from feed (don't default).
The Audit feature normalises availability per channel automatically, applying channel-specific enum mapping at feed generation. The same source data produces TikTok-valid availability on the TikTok feed and Meta-valid availability on the Meta feed.
Top causes
- 1
Boolean values ('true'/'false') instead of named states
- 2
Capitalisation mismatches ('In Stock' vs 'in stock' vs 'IN STOCK')
- 3
Localised values ('verfügbar' instead of 'in stock')
- 4
Empty availability for items that should be flagged in/out of stock
How to fix it
- 1
Audit your availability values
Export the feed and review the unique values in the availability column. Anything other than 'in stock', 'out of stock', or 'preorder' will fail.
- 2
Normalise the values
Apply a transformation rule in your feed-generation: true→in stock, false→out of stock, '1'→in stock, '0'→out of stock, etc.
- 3
Update the feed and re-submit
Regenerate the feed and re-submit through TikTok Shop's catalog tool.
- 4
Verify in TikTok Seller Center
Affected items should clear within an hour. Items still flagged probably have another issue overlaid.
Related issues
Out-of-stock items still serving
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.
Read moreMissing category mapping
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.
Read moreRelated fields
Related reading
FAQ
Does TikTok accept 'available' or 'unavailable'?
No — only the three named values: 'in stock', 'out of stock', 'preorder'. Anything else fails.
Is 'preorder' commonly used?
Only for products with a known release date. Items merely 'coming soon' should be 'out of stock' until release. TikTok flags preorders with unrealistic dates.
Last reviewed: 26 May 2026
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