[WooCommerce] Invalid Products and Sync Issues

Table Of Contents

  1. Identifying an Invalid Product
  2. Resolving an Invalid Product 
  3. Resolving Sync Issues when Updating WooCommerce Products

Identifying an Invalid Product 

When a WooCommerce product is activated for Autoship but marked as "Invalid", this is an indication that a product or product variation's data in WooCommerce is not matching the product's data that is synchronized in your connected QPilot Site. In these cases, it is possible that a duplicate or invalid product exists .

For more details on how to identify an invalid or corrupted product, please see this doc: How Products Are Synchronized with WooCommerce

Common Causes

Products can be marked as "Invalid" for several reasons: 

  • Setting a simple product to a variable. 
  • Making changes to the WooCommerce database that result in Ids (for products) changing.  This often causes duplicate products in your connected QPilot Site. 
  • Site Connectivity Issues that break your WooCommerce site's ability to synchronize product data.

Resolving an Invalid Product 

Step 1: Update and Sync

Visit WP-Admin > Products >> Edit Product, then select "Update and Sync". This will trigger the product to sync with Autoship Cloud.  

  • If the sync is successful, you will see the Autoship Status is updated to "Active". Now, skip to Step 3. 
  • If the sync was not successful, then go to step 2. 

Step 2: Editing The Product 

If "Invalid" product issues persist, follow these steps:

  1. Edit the WooCommerce Product displaying the sync issue. 
  2. Copy the title of the WooCommerce Product and then locate the synchronized product(s) in your connected QPilot Site by searching the title in WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Products
  3. Edit the synchronized product (in WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Products) to see which data is no longer matching.  The product data that is not matching will cause the product to be "invalid".
  4. Ensure that the WooCommerce Product ID (for the specific product or variation) matches the QPilot Product's External ID
    1. If the ID's match, then use the action "Update and Sync" when editing the WooCommerce Product. This will send the updated product data to QPilot immediately
    2. If the ID's do not match, update the QPilot Product's External ID to match the WooCommerce Product ID and then update the WooCommerce Product.
    3. If the product should not be synchronized with QPilot, then delete the Product in QPilot. Then see Step 5. 
  5. If the product is still not synchronized, there may be problems with your site connectivity, so you should run the API Health Check (found in WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Settings) to see if your site is having issues that are disrupting the automatic synchronization.
Example

In the video example below, we demonstrate how to respond to an "Invalid" product alert in WooCommerce by locating the synchronized product in QPilot.  In this example, the WooCommerce Product Type is "Variation", but the Product Type in QPilot is "Variable".  This issue is quickly resolved by editing and updating the product in WooCommerce.

Step 3: Check for an Invalid Product in Autoship Cloud

Once you have ensured that the product in your connected QPilot Site is correctly synced with the same product or variation in WooCommerce, you should check to ensure that there are no duplicate products (which will be "invalid"). 

  • When a product is invalid, a duplicate product in QPilot may exist and it is important that this product is reviewed to avoid processing issues. 

In your WordPress Admin, you can review the products in your connected QPilot Site by visiting  WP-Admin > Autoship Cloud > Products and then filtering the results for "Invalid".

  • If an invalid product does not exist, you are all set. No further action is needed!
  • If an invalid product does exist, move on to step 4. 

Step 4: Removing an Invalid Product 

1. First, grab the invalid product's Product/External Id in  Autoship Cloud > Products.

2. Then check for any Scheduled Orders that contain the invalid product in Autoship Cloud > Reports >> Scheduled Orders by Product and then search by the Product Id or Product title (make sure to select the correct Product Id). 

  • If no Scheduled Orders contain the invalid product move on to Step 5.
  • If Scheduled Orders do contain this product, you will need to replace the invalid product with the valid one. See this doc for how to do this: How do I replace a product on existing Scheduled Orders?
    Once all Scheduled Orders are updated to contain the correct product, move on to Step 5. 

Step 5: Delete the Invalid Product

You can now delete the invalid product in  Autoship Cloud > Products. This can be done by selecting the trash button. 

WooCommerce Product Sync Issues

Autoship Cloud Sync Warning

QPilot attempts to synchronize WooCommerce products automatically once per day, however if QPilot cannot successfully update products through this daily sync for a number of days, the Autoship Cloud plugin will display a sync warning icon on the WP-Admin > Products page. This is not cause for alarm, but a friendly warning to help ensure your product data stays up to date in QPilot. 

See the sync warning icon (amber cloud) in the image below? That is the warning icon letting merchants know their product data is out of date in QPilot.

Resolving Products with Out of Date Sync Warnings

Simply updating products in WooCommerce with this type of sync warning will re-sync the product in QPilot ensuring the product data is current. If many products have this sort of sync warning you may simply bulk activate Autoship sync on your products. Once successfully synchronized with QPilot the sync warning will be updated to the standard black cloud icon, indicating your product is up to date in QPilot!

Sync Error Updating WooCommerce Products

When updating a product synchronized to QPilot in WooCommerce (if invalid data is included in the update), the product will fail to synchronize to QPilot. The sync error is written to the Autoship Log, however Autoship Cloud will also display the sync error in the WooCommerce Edit Product page header notices (or Variations tab for Variable products). This helps merchants catch sync issues quickly, so that the product data stays current (synchronized) in QPilot.

What do Sync Errors Look Like when Updating Products?

If an error in product synchronization occurs, merchants will see an error displayed on the ( WP-Admin > Products > Edit Product) page when the page refreshes after updating the product. 

Sync error for Simple product displaying notice stating the Product Group Id does not exist

Sync error for Variation displaying notice stating the Product Group Id does not exist

How to Resolve Sync Errors on Product Updates in 3 Steps

  1. Review the error notice on the page 
    1. If more details are needed, follow the link in the notice to download the Autoship Log for review
  2. Update the Product to verify the issue still exists
  3. Fix the errant data identified by the notice
  4. Update the Product 
    1. If the notice goes away, the sync error has been resolved 
    2. If the notice persists refresh the page to clear any notices that are cashed
    3. If the notice still persists, review the error and verify it persists by reviewing the Autoship Log
      1. If there still is a sync error, there will be an error written to the Autoship Log at the same time as when the product was last updated
      2. If there is still a sync error, go back to Step 2

See the below a merchant solve their sync error by removing the invalid (QPilot) Product Group Id from their variation & selecting "Update and Sync". Notice the header notice disappears once resolved?

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