Troubleshooting the Transporter app

The Transporter app can encounter errors when it processes and imports your objects.

Shopify Plus

The Transporter app is available on the Shopify App store for Shopify Plus merchants only.

When the status of an import is Failed, there is something wrong with your CSV file (as opposed to a record-level error). To view these file errors, click the Export errors link in the table. Download the export errors file and review the errors. Fix the errors in your upload file and then try uploading the file again.

If the Transporter app encounters errors when it tries to import objects, then these records are not created in Shopify. Instead, these records are added to an export errors CSV file and the import continues to the next record. You won't see the export errors CSV file until after the import completes (status is Completed). When the import completes, an Export errors link appears in the table:

Download the CSV errors file. The last entry (column) in each row describes the error for the record. Make your corrections in this file and then upload it. You do not need to delete the error column before uploading this file.

In the following example, three customers could not be imported because they already existed in the store. (Shopify customers are identified by their unique email addresses, and these three email addresses are attached to customers who already exist in the Shopify store).

 First Name,Last Name,Email,Error(s)
 Jane,Doe,jane.doe01520022060@example.com,...,Email has already been taken
 Jane,Doe,jane.doe11520022060@example.com,...,Email has already been taken
 Jane,Doe,jane.doe21520022060@example.com,...,Email has already been taken

Common error codes

Common file errors include:

• Encountered a bug in the Shopify API, unable to save

  A number of scenarios could generate this error, start by checking if a single metafield appears more than once for a record. The Transporter app does not support records with duplicate metafields.

• Failed. Response code = 400. Response message = Bad Request

  The Transporter cannot create the object in Shopify because there are errors in the data. Common errors include the following:

  • Currency values must be specified in ISO 4217 format (for example, USD)
  • Country codes, province/state and postal/zip codes must be valid
  • Phone numbers must be valid, not only in terms of format, but also in terms of country codes and area codes.
  • Email address must have valid domains.
  • Financial Status must be one of the allowed values.
  • Fulfillment Status must be one of the allowed values.
  • Boolean values must be specified as true or false.
  • Any columns that require an integer (such as, Product Variant Inventory Quantity in the Product CSV or Lineitem Quantity in the order CSV) will not import if you enter a decimal value. For example, enter 5 (not 5.0). Some spreadsheet software (such as Numbers) can display decimal or floating point values as integers. Double check your values in a text editor.
  • Any column that requires an integer (such as Total weight or Transaction Location ID in the order CSV), will not import if you enter non-numeric values (such as letters).

• Value type is not included in list

  Check the values in the metafield columns. To import metafields, you need to include values in the following 4 metafield columns: Metafield Namespace, Metafield Key, Metafield Value, and Metafield Value Type. This error often occurs because there is an empty or invalid value in one or more of these columns.

• Column-nameis invalid

  A number of scenarios can generate this error. For example, this error can occur because a column is case sensitive. For columns that accept a list of values, you need to follow the case that is used in column descriptions. For example in the orders CSV, the values in the Financial Status column are case sensitive. This means that if you entered Paid instead of paid, then the Financial Status is invalid error will occur.

How the import process works

When you are troubleshooting errors, it can be useful to understand how the Transporter app uploads and imports your data and the common errors that can occur during these processes.

When importing objects into your Shopify store, the Transporter app performs the following actions:

1. Uploads the file to a secure, Shopify-hosted, staging location. To learn how Shopify protects the information that you upload, see Shopify's privacy policy.

2. Prepares the file by checking for structural and content format errors. If the Transporter app finds any errors, then your import fails and its status is Failed.

3. Processes the file by importing the objects. The amount of time for the import depends on the number of objects to be processed (on average the processing rate is 40 objects/second). When the import finishes, its status is Completed. If there were records that the Transporter app couldn’t import, then an Export errors link appears in the table.

At any time, you can stop the import of further objects by clicking Stop import. Objects that were imported before you stopped the import will stay in your Shopify store. When you stop an import, its status is Stopped.

Related links

• Importing data using the Transporter app
• About the Transporter app
• Transporter command-line tool