Product CSV Import not updating existing products

Topic summary

A merchant attempted to bulk update product descriptions for 150+ items using Shopify’s CSV import feature but found the changes didn’t apply despite receiving a success confirmation.

Solution provided:

  • Simplify the CSV to only three columns: Handle, Title, and Body (HTML)
  • Remove all other columns from the spreadsheet
  • Ensure column names match exactly
  • Test with a single product first
  • When uploading, check the ‘Overwrite products with matching handles’ box in the import dialog

Outcome:
The streamlined approach successfully updated the descriptions. The issue was resolved by reducing the CSV to only essential columns rather than including all product data from the original export.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Uploading the file with limited columns worked! Thanks so much for the help!

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