Products not publishing to Google- Shopify asking for GTIN or MPN but I have already provided a GTIN

[Eren1999]

I have multiple items that were previously approved by Google but my Shopify dashboard now says I must add a GTIN or MPN. I have already input the GTINs, that is why the products were able to be authorised in the first place.

Does anyone have any advice on what I have to do?

[CanineSpirit]

I'm having this issue too - there was another discussion about this and I posted this reply - "all my products have GTINs and everything is set up correct, however, my Shopify page and my Google Merchant account are now showing over half my products are not published due to GTIN missing??

I spoke with Shopify support and they told me they hadn't had anyone else report this -however, the guy I spoke to went through my account and couldn't find any 'mistakes' so he has 'escalated my support ticket to the technical team.

According to him there appears to be a syncing error between Shopify and Google Merchant - but he couldn't tell me what this issue was yet. He said the technical team would need to look at it further. I am actually kind of happy others are experiencing this too as this should mean that Shopify will make it a priority to get it sorted". 

Is this the same issue you are having?

[Eren1999]

yes sounds like the same issue!

Mine we fine before but recently changed, were yours okay previously too?

This is a terrible time for this to happen to us too, hope it gets sorted quickly. 

[CanineSpirit]

I haven't heard back from Shopify yet regarding this but I did just have a long conversation with Google.  They have confirmed my products are all set up fine and have suggested for each product I select 'submit for Manual Review' - you can find this halfway down the page on each individual product under the Diagnostics tab in Google Merchant.

They said after this they should all be 'approved' within 3-5 business days.

Google told me it is actually just a 'warning' and it may be part of their process of weeding out fraudulent products.  They assured me all my products are still showing in Google and in shopping ads.

[Scott_Clever]

ah I thought you meant they werent showing in google merchant centre as well. Always keep an eye on that because they shopify chanelle will say products are approved but they wont be showing in merchant centre. 

If you see a large drop off on the active product graph you know you have a problem.

[Scott_Clever]

this is concerning you say there is no one else who has registered this issue. I have multiple times.

For some reason shopify isn't talking to merchant centre. 

I bet if you go into the Shopify channel app and select all your products, then hit edit you will see under the "custom_id", the first column, you will see many blank squares. you need to choose either true or false (depending on whether you have a GTIN or not and then I bet it will appear in merchant centre within 24 hours

[CanineSpirit]

Sorry I meant to say there 'are' other people reporting this (not aren't 🙂 )  I just spoke to Google Merchant - see my comments in my comment above.

Where do I find the 'custom_id'??  I see custom product and custom label - but not custom ID.  None of my products are custom so all say false. 

Can you help?

[Eren1999]

Hi, see my last post I have found a solution that has worked for us, hope it sorts you out too

[CanineSpirit]

Hi,

I just did what you did - set a standard category.  It immediately 'approved' it. 

However, I've just checked back and it's disapproved again - how are yours?

[EmmanuelFlossie]

This is a known issue, Shopify has technical issues. At the rate they fix fundamental issues, on the free app, I don't expect anything to be resolved any time soon.

The free app is plagued with fundamental issues. If you are losing sales, I recommend you move on to a paid app, where support is much better. (In my opinion)

[CanineSpirit]

Thanks for the reply but sorry, which app are you referring to?

The error messages I'm getting are on both Shopify and on Google Merchant.  I'm not using an app for anything?

Which was it that you thought?

[EmmanuelFlossie]

Any top-rated app, just not the free one. https://apps.shopify.com/search?q=google%20shopping

[Eren1999]

Same as yours! I woke up this morning and they are unauthorised again!

Have just been on the phone to Shopify, they managed to sort one product out over the phone and are sending me a step by step guide on how to fix the rest, will send to you when I get it

[CanineSpirit]

Thanks so much. Shopify haven’t come back to me yet. I spoke with Google today and they are supposed to be doing manual reviews. The number of rejected products I have grew today.

Would rrally appreciate you letting me know what Shopify finds out

[Eren1999]

OKay so you inspired me and I found the solution!

I selected all products but couldn't find the column you were referring to. But I did see that I had my products listed under a custom category. So, I changed the categories to Standard Category types, and the products were all immediately approved!

[CanineSpirit]

I have them listed to both 'Standard' and Custom product types which (according to Shopify literature) is okay.

I tried a few little tweaks on products yesterday and then they were immediately approved.  However, 30 mins later they were disapproved again.

Maybe check them again in an hour or two and see if they are still okay?  Will you let us know on here.

[Griffin_Retail]

I actually have the same issue since the beginning of December. A year long I've had no issues and suddenly all products (about 60k products) do not have any GTIN's set according to the merchant center. All products do have GTIN's though, so there seems to be something wrong with the sync between Shopify and Merchant center. 

I have also talked to shopify support and they couldn't see anything wrong with my products. As I dont feel like going through 60k products of manually requesting a check, are there any other solutions?

I've seen someone suggest a paid app, but with the amount of products I have that doesn't really feel profitable.

[CanineSpirit]

@Eren1999 said that Shopify sorted the issue for them yesterday and they were going to post the update of how to do it here.

I've woke up to find more products showing without GTIN in both Shopify and Google Merchant again.

I'm not looking into a paid app either as I think this is a syncing issue or perhaps even just a reporting glitch with the Shopify /Google Merchant integration and I'm hopeful they'll get on top of it.  Hopefully what they gave to @Eren1999 will work?

[Eren1999]

The solution they gave me, worked for 30 minutes then they switched back to unauthorised again.

It seems that whatever change you make, the system recognises the info is fine, then rejects it later...

I'm at my wits' end with this and quite frankly wished I just ignored it as now I am on a mission to get it sorted!

The person that helped me hasn't responded to me saying they've been kicked back out again when they do, will update you

[CanineSpirit]

It seems like both Shopify and Google are putting it in the 'too hard basket?'  One product that I manually submitted appears to be okay now - its been about 24 hrs (but wonder if that will change again?).  However, the number of products not syncing has increased. 

I will follow up with Shopify again. 

[Scott_Clever]

so the issue I had was that the below field would be blank, even though I had it marked in the actual product. For small stored I manually had to set it to true (if there was no GTIN) or Falso (if there was a GTIN).

But This did it for many stores that had 1000's of products so going through and changing each manually wasnt an option. So I ended up downloading Google Feed for Shopping by Symprosis which has a 21 day free trial to test and this sorted my issues perfectly. So its definitley the Google Channel apps issue not merchant centre, but Shopify doesn't want to acknowledge it.

For all my high performing stores I just migrated over to the paid version of the app (which provides alot more functionality).

They still show as needing a GTIN in the hopify app (which is stupid) but in merchant centre they are fine.

[Miri2]

I think I it is pointless wasting time with google or Shopify team. I tried today as well over an hour again! With Shopify! They don’t seem to get it. I pointed out that the number even goes up or down (or unpublished items) and there are also issues on the merchant account I cannot fix. Went though it manually and they suggested to Change the title briefly and save it and then it was solved but minutes later error came back! What a shame! So Shopify has to figure this out but won’t. Does this impact the google search or shipping campaign anyone knows?  I wonder if it does! If so then I immediately go to a paid app if that is any better. I can’t tell if google now published or is this just a glitch showing it wrong… 

[CanineSpirit]

Hi everyone ,  I'm not really following this conversation anymore but a few of us had another discussion on this topic about 4 months ago - https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/urgent-help-gtin-missing-google-unpublished-prod...

.  This is what resolved my issues finally - it's simple so you may want to try it. 

I posted earlier that Shopify got in touch and told me this:

This is John from Shopify Specialist Support, I'm checking into the issues you are having with the Google Channel at the moment.

The majority of disapproval warnings I am seeing seem to be related to Image crawl issues rather than missing GTIN's at the moment. I have tried to refresh the feedback on your available products to see if that will provide you with more accurate errors.

Can you please make sure the following setting on your Google Merchant Center is disabled exactly as outlined below.

• Navigation Google Merchant Center > Tools and Settings > Automatic Improvements > Item Updates. If it has been enabled it must be disabled.

It is a simple step but it has resolved my GTIN issues on Google Merchant (they are still showing rejected on Shopify but not on Merchant).  

I do have a problem with 4 variants being rejected due to 'price' now - they are set up correctly so now Shopify are looking into this.   At least tho its gone from 221 issues down to 4.

You might want to try this simple change.

[LEPUP]

Yep I’ve done that too in Google merchant centre and it helped publish a
handful of my products for 2 days and then they reverted back to
unpublished. My issue is definitely with GTIN on my custom products and I’m
not the only person with this issue. The problem is with the shopify link
to Google merchant centre. Shopify needs to rectify it as it is affecting a
lot of sellers.

[Stephhrev]

Hey did anyone ever get a solution? I am having the same issue with error ' You need to add a gtin or mpn.' I have set them to custom and even put data in the MPN field? but getting an error to say that I havent added it? 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

@Stephhrev if you don't have barcodes, follow this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyvilyMb2Bo

[Beana]

I appreciate this is an old thread  but now I am experiencing the same issue after a year of everything being fine. When you say google requires you to have the correct format for GTIN codes what do you mean exactly?

You: Google requires the correct format for GTIN or MPN; in case you have the correct format, it shows missing GTIN. 

Thanking you in advance

[Griffin_Retail]

Hi,

I stopped using the shopify google app and went over to a paid app instead. The costs aren't that high for my shop (60k+ products) and it's definately a better app than the one shopify provides. The one I use is called 'Feed for google shopping'. You should check it out, because I dont think shopify will fix this issue any time soon. It also has a 21 free trial period, so you can have your sales going in the meantime.

Regards,

Kevin

[EmmanuelFlossie]

In the other thread here: https://community.shopify.com/c/ecommerce-marketing/google-merchant-limited-performance-due-to-missi...

You mentioned you bought your own barcodes, I have left you the correct answer based on that statement.

[LEPUP]

.          .

[LEPUP]

Same issue here, having spent hours on live chat to both Google and shopify I’m at my wits end. Shopify can’t seem to rectify it, looks like the best option is to move to another app to sync shopify products with Google. A great shame 😞

[EmmanuelFlossie]

@LEPUP the solution to barcodes not submitting, is to go to Shopify > sales channel > google > manage availability > change custom products to the value false.

And you can find more solutions here: https://feedarmy.com/kb/fixed-shopify-barcodes-gtin-not-showing-in-google-merchant-center/

[LEPUP]

If I do as you say and set custom products to ‘false’, then it will ask me for a barcode/GTIN/MPN… which I do not have because these ARE custom products. The solution is to put custom products as ‘true’ and then you do not need a GTIN/MPN. However, this doesn’t seem to work and the problem is the connection between Google merchant Centre and Shopify which seems to be broken. If you go into Google merchant centre and manually force a sync, occasionally some of the products will publish but not all of them… And within a couple of days they revert back to being unpublished. The problem is with Shopify, it’s something that you need to fix. So fix it.