Facebook Pixel Error: Server External ID Not Matching to Pixel External ID for Purchase Event

[lorenzopohl]

Hi there,

I know this is more on the facebook site but i hope someone can help me since i am not getting the same data in shopify than i get in facebook for my ad campaigns.

The Facebook Pixel says there is this error on the purchase event:

Any ideas on how to fix this problem and if this is related to my facebook ads data not showing up correctly in the marketing section in my shopify account?

[KorbLtd]

Hey, I have the exact same problem here since the 09/06/2021 and I have looked every where online for this and there is no response online nor from the facebook team. I believe it's a bug from the facebook channel in Shopify. I really hope it will be fixed quickly

[Benny2002002002]

same here i am getting the same message since June 10th. Today I get the same message but for ATC, IC, view. I dont know what to do.

[AdsSupport21]

Having the same issue here too - just suddenly appeared and using the Facebook integration with Shopify so assuming this is a glitch that they're working to resolve? 

[windmillkey]

Same here! Getting this since yesterday. I'm using the Shopify <> Facebook integration (see screenshots below).

@ Team Shopify, how can I/we resolve this?

[Andrew_Sihan]

Same problem here since 15.06.2021. Integration was fully made through Shopify Partner.

Could some employee from Shopify notify about this general alert which is increasing day by day ?

[junhanaff]

I'm having the same issue as everyone under the diagnostics tab.

Additionally is anyone else having this "inactive" message showing under the "Connected Partners" section? I have no idea why there are 3 of them too when I only have 1 shopify website connected.

[filipcibicek]

Yes! The inactive part was also in one of my errors, I disconnected and reconnected and it seems to be active now. The pixel errors are still there though.

[Kashop]

Hi we are getting the same error from 17/06/2021 too! Infact for us, sales have crashed almost in unison with this pixel problem.

We started the external Id matching and got a subsequent error that server side external Id has errors. Shopify says this is not going to be handled by them ... So just confused and waiting ...

Has anyone experienced the same? 

 

[JacobNC]

Experiencing the same issue with all 8 events that Facebook has required since the IOS 14 update. I recently changed over from my custom javascript installation of the Facebook pixel to the Facebook Marketplace integration. Initially it was just duplicating events which Facebook was able to deduplicate inside the Events Manager, but now we're being flagged.

I'm going to send this over to our Plus Representative as well to see if there's anyway to accelerate the process.

[bestgft]

same problem

[BlackHawk17]

Is this still an issue for everyone, or is there a fix?

Server External ID Not Matching to Pixel External ID for PageView Event

Server External ID Not Matching to Pixel External ID for ViewCategory Event

[okimaslatt]

Having the same problem, just started on 6-16 for me. Haven't seen anyone offer a fix yet sadly

[kyleedarcy]

I am having the same issue.  I believe it is causing terrible reporting accuracy in Facebook Ads Manager (less than 50% of my purchases that I know are attributed to Facebook are being reported in Ads Manager).  This is obviously a catastrophe for our ROAS and ultimately our sales.  I hope Shopify presents a solution soon!

[Benny2002002002]

Updated! Yesterday I have contacted shopify online chat. They said I might have installed apps from the third party that tracks the data. I used to use trackify and I 

uninstalled it 3 months ago. They said they will look into it and fix it for me. There were 7 errors yesterday and today I checked 4 error are fixed but there are still 3 errors left that need to be fixd. I believe

it is a shopify bugs. I urge everyone to contact shopify online chat to get the problem fixed as this seems like everyone is getting it.

[filipcibicek]

I also had trackify. Could this be it?

[Paul_Tsiavlis]

Having the same issue. Just reached out to Shopify and got the following response:  The screenshots you have provided me with confirm that what you are currently experiencing is an active issue that our developers are currently investigating to see what our default values for this are and if this is expected to be sent from Shopify's integration for conversion API. Once our team confirms this, we will be able to confirm if this falls under Shopify's scope of support. After we close this chat I will loop in our technical support team, and they will reach out to you via email as soon as they can with more information.

[mediacom]

Having the same issue, appeared like 2 weeks ago. Shopify store with FB implemented Pixel trough their app. Can't say for sure if it has impacted results, but definitely more unstable, appears to be not matching on all of my events VC,ATC, IC, PUR. Looking around on other forums and found a reddit forum talking about it, let's see if there is a solution I will update if I can find one.

Reddit Support Forum:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/nzivdq/fb_error_server_external_id_not_matching_to_pixel/

PIC here:

[mediacom]

UPDATE> Shopify and Facebook have identified this issue and are looking at a solution.

[Shahrukhz]

Thanks for letting us know.

Keep us posted when you get to hear any further latest update from the team.

[Willtuner121]

Thank you to let us know, hope it could be fix soon

[lorenzopohl]

Hi guys, 

I got an update from the support, this is what they say so far. I will keep you updated:

"This is an update with regards the issue with your purchase event data which relates to the facebook error message that you've previously sent to my co-advisor. Our developers are currently investigating what our default values for this are and if this is expected to be sent from Shopify's integration for conversion API. Once they confirm this, they will be able to confirm if this falls under Shopify's scope of support

We've checked on your facebook setup and it was done correctly. In able to help with the investigation, you can confirm with us if you've connected the same Pixel ID to your Shopify and Facebook dashboards. You can confirm by sending us a screenshot of the fb error message showing your Pixel ID as well. If you have any custom code/scripts/Apps that implement the Pixel - it wouldn't part of our scope of support anymore.

About the marketing campaigns done outside your shopify admin, our technical team have confirmed that it's a known behavior as our marketing section would only show campaigns that were created within your shopify admin.

Surely, we'll monitor on your reply here so we can take further action with our developers and do our best to sort things out. :)"

[dmitrybzns]

Same issue external id missing 😞 I also did test events through browser and none of the events fired while pixel helper says it was. Could anyone check if it works? Also I noticed that i receive 0 events from website only from server side. So messed up, i really hope Shopify fix it like yesterday

[mediacom]

Fingers crossed this gets resolved soon!

[okimaslatt]

Anyone have an update from Shopify or Facebook?

[Willtuner121]

forward from reddit

Update 6/19/21: Shopify has identified the problem and working with
Facebook for a fix. No timeframe on the fix.

[AwesomePlace]

Thank you. Should we stop ads meanwhile? I didn't get many sales for last few days and lot of money was spent.

[Jeff211]

Possible workaround: Last night I switched from Maximum data-sharing to Enhanced, in order to turn off the CAPI.

I won't know until later today if it fixes conversion tracking, but less than half of my sales conversions were being recorded by Facebook, so if using the pixel alone fixes that, it'll be worth the tradeoff of missing a few people with ad blockers. At least until this gets resolved.

Update: 2 pixel Purchase events received: 2 discarded 😞

[mediacom]

Interesting idea, will switch over to Enhanced too if you feel that this resolves the issue.

[BP-Shop]

SHOPIFY - any news on this?

This is a critical issue for Facebook Advertisers since 50%+ of sales do not fire.

[Benny2002002002]

Updates: I contacted shopify they have fixed the error problem for the first day. On my second day the error came back so basically nothing got fixed. I receive an email 

This is a quick note to let you know the issue we spoke about has been sent to our Technical Support Team.

We’re reviewing all of the information and will be in touch. If you have any more details that you would like to add to your original request, you can send it directly to us by replying to this email.

Thanks for your report!

Shopify's Technical Support Team

Hopefully they can fix it soon.

[Jeff211]

@mediacom  8 events, 5 discarded so far.. Now I'm wondering if Facebook is rejecting these because they've matched the sales to users who have not consented to tracking.. wondering if anonymized conversion data would help. Obviously it'd be worse for optimization if the conversions can't be matched to a user, but certainly would be better than missing half the conversions entirely. Can try to make up for it with lookalike custom audiences from sales..

[filipcibicek]

boys let's keep all the discussion in a single thread, and since reddit has a better UI i recommend visiting this newly made thread below.. dont panic, every single one of us is losing money because of this

https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/nzivdq/fb_error_server_external_id_not_matching_to_pixel/

[okimaslatt]

Apparently someone on reddit was told Shopify said they would fix it by June 30th.

[dmitrybzns]

I got an email from them saying shopify will send all main events with server side, BUT why not to make a hot fix or something. So freaking stupid when they blame it in each other. 

[JacobNC]

Shopify Plus support communicated that they're looking into the problem. Went into my events manager this morning and the 8 warnings on the events are gone! Almost back to normal!

[okimaslatt]

The errors are gone for me today, anyone notice the same?

[stccompanyalwar]

I was facing same error till day before yesterday. Entire 22-June-2021 I have not received that error. But still sell gone down to 30% of the actual value. The Event matching quality is very low. Not sure when Shopify and Facebook will work on proper fix. Right now very less conversion events are fired.

[Benny2002002002]

Yesterday the errors were all fixed. However, when I check today atc error appears again. I find that the sales still down even though things are fixed. Their system is completely messed up now.

[stccompanyalwar]

I think there is no hope. So need to quickly have to switch to other platform. Almost 10 days with no help. Even though the error is not coming now but no conversion.

I am planning to switch. Practically no hope.

[BP-Shop]

Does anyone use Zipify OCU app? Wondering if that's causing it.

I'm waiting on Shopify as well. We're building out a custom checkout page in the meantime.

[stccompanyalwar]

No we are not using Zipify App. We are trying to host in other platform as nothing is working.

[dmitrybzns]

Shopify sent me an email today:

"Our developers and the team at Facebook have definitely noticed a large increase in these errors, and it appears to be due to an updated implementation in Facebook's CAPI version 2.

We have heard back from Facebook, and they have noted that these errors will not be impacting Pixel performance on your store. As well - they have notified us that Facebook has removed the new instances of this error related to External ID not matching. Can you please review your Facebook Pixel, and let us know if you're seeing any new instances of this error? The error may still exist historically in the data of your Pixel, but going forward Facebook has mitigated this issue."

Today stats are the same, shitty as they were, no atc, no purchase data, half the view content. 

I ignored the errors, will see. 

[BP-Shop]

Anyone seeing normal stats? Shopify claims this was fixed but my stats are still really low.

See below...

We've confirmed information from our developers about the warning that you are receiving in your Data Sources section. Merchants who use the Maximum data-sharing level  are seeing this because we have rolled out a new version of the Conversion API used by Facebook. The Conversion API  now sends the six standard pixel events between Shopify and Facebook servers in addition to javascript via the browser. Previously, we were only sending the purchase event in this manner.

In preparation for this, our developers pushed out some changes and they triggered the Pixel warnings you have seen in your Event Manager. Our developers have confirmed with Facebook that these changes weren't affecting the existing Pixel events that are being sent via browser or the purchase event being sent via server. Facebook has also confirmed that they have prevented these warnings from appearing again so you can dismiss them by clicking Mark as resolved in your Event Manager and the warnings won't reappear.

[Benny2002002002]

very shitty sales , states very bad. Nothing is normal

[BP-Shop]

Do you have MAXIMUM MATCHING on for facebook pixel settings?

Looks like that could be causing the issue since it's new.

I changed the settings to ENHANCED MATCHING to see if that'll make a difference as a temporary solution.

[Benny2002002002]

Yes I do have maximum setting on. I thought enhance setting would limit the amount of customer which result in lower sales isn’t it?

[stccompanyalwar]

Is there any luck as we are still not getting any sell. Our pixel was 1 year old all setting was done properly it was tracking everything fine prior to 15 th June.

[BP-Shop]

I tried both "enhanced" and "maximum" and purchase events seem off with both. Really frustrating

[stccompanyalwar]

Same for us. Also checked with other paid app. Only session getting created no improvement in conversion.

[dmitrybzns]

I do get sales, and no errors but checking data is almost impossible. Today out of 6 sales I only see 2 in FB ads manager. While UTM's show that all 6 came from Fb ads.

I assume if pixel sees only 2 sales then it doesn't take other 4 into the optimization.

I also checked operating system this sales came in, and Android sales also not being counted. 

[am2288]

Things seem to have gone quiet on this for a week or so now. I'm currently experiencing these issues too in event manager. Anyone have any updates?

[Steven_Gross]

Did this ever get resolved? It just seems like there are a lot of open tickets around this topic...

[Steven_Gross]

Here's another thread that's still open on this - https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-APIs-SDKs/ALERT-Server-External-ID-Not-Matching-to-Pixel-Ext...

[Derelicte]

I just started having this issue this week 😞

[okimaslatt]

@Jeff211 I'm newer to FB ads when you say 2 received and 2 discarded does that mean that its working as intended? Thanks

[Jeff211]

@okimaslatt Nope! It means that Shopify successfully sent Facebook the conversion data and Facebook discarded it all and showed 0 conversions. 

[Halo123456]

Hi, were you able to resolve this? Mine comes and goes away and then it finally came back and stayed that way.

[Spartanc]

Hi all,

I just started to have this problem yesterday.

If anyone has any updates please share.

Thanks!

[FTFWC]

I also got this error only today. Even though I had customer purchases and the purchase event detected them, I am not able to view this data in my ad campaign and it's difficult to attribute the purchases to a specific ad set!

I don't know if this is related to the error but I'm assuming it is.

is there an update on this issue?

[MORE10]

Hello how does this issues working out?

[revoplus]

Also having this issue on one of our stores now, for all of our events. Any solutions? Shopify Plus support said everything is OK with their API so  only solution is to post on the forum.

[antanas321]

Same here. Did you find a solution?

[pierre-oord]

For a while I used Elevar. It seems to work (although not all checkout pages are accessible), but I still had some doubts. We've just completed the switch back to Woocommerce, and it's a bless. We see more conversions already on our Facebook pixel. Also, multi language issues are all gone, as well as tax VAT issues. The javascript client-side calculations made Google unhappy for pricing and reviews. It's more maintenance, but at least it works.

[Puda]

Looks like an issue on either the FB and/or Shopify side. It also just started around the same date for one of my stores. It's been 18 days now. I won't complain much because it has no impact on the sales. (In fact, sales have been up by 40%. Most likely unrelated though)

[ccharlie114]

Hey I tried to solved it but like you either Facebook or Shopify that are not helpful. // Maybe in the settings of Facebook, maybe in automatic advanced matching parameters try to keep only with parameterssuch as name,surname, email address ? for me i always have the problem "server sending external id but not pixel". By the way are you sure that the pixel helper in your printscreen the right side one is from shopify native connection or from some third party app connection?

[sawgerrera]

I just got reply from FB support team. 

"Thank you for reaching out to let us know about the problem you are having with Pixel.

Please explain the client that this error is about Deduplication, If you connect website activity using both the Pixel and Conversions API, we may receive the same events from the browser and the server. If we know that the events are the same and therefore redundant, we can keep one and discard the rest. Here , I can see that in the client account all the events are shared between browser and server.

About the error, Client is sending the parameters for PageView event and View content event from the server, but not sending the same parameter for these events from the pixel code. In order to solve this issues client or the clients web developer should add 2 event parameters that help us determine if the events are the same: the event name (for example, Page view or View content) and the event ID.This helps the pixel for deduplication issue."

[Yurii_K2]

If you use automatic built-in integration Shopify with Facebook, then the incorrect value of the parameter content_ids passes to the Pixel. So you can see the issue.

Solution - to turn off automatic built-in integration Shopify with Facebook, to take the application for creating a feed for Facebook Catalog (for exampledatafeedwatch), install the Google Tag Manager (GTM), and manually set up the correct transfer value of parameters to Facebook Pixel using dataLayer and javaScript.

This is the only solution to this mistake that I know of.

[CharlieZEV]

Hi oh that looks so complicated, think the automatic integration and the server external id doesn't impact a lot on final campaigns results right?

[Yurii_K2]

Incorrect external id affects dynamic ads. In particular on dynamic retargeting.
If the external id is incorrect you can't show users of your site products, which they looked.

It is not complicated if to know how to do it. 🙂 Write to me in private if you need help.

[NCF]

Hi, Yurii
Is this solution still viable?
Are you able to help?
Regards,