These errors mean we can't access your data feed from your server or file hosting website.

If you get an error that says Your Data Feed File Couldn't Be Accessed, Failed to Connect to FTP Server or Fetching Feed from HTTP Server Failed, check to make sure that:

• The URL is a link to your downloadable file. The URL can't be a link to your product page, Facebook Page or somewhere else. Test the URL in a new browser tab to make sure your file opens.
• The URL is accessible outside Facebook. Open a new browser tab and test that your URL leads to your downloadable file and doesn’t go to a broken page, like a 503 or 404 error.
• You formatted the URL headers correctly. A common mistake is to set your Content-Encoding to UTF-8, so make sure to set this in the Content-Type section of the header instead.

If you get a bad request error, check with your developer or team to make sure that your server or hosting site isn’t blocking our requests to fetch your data feed. They can get more information about the server logs and check that the settings are correct.

If you get an HTTP authentication failed error, make sure your username and password are correct in your data feed's Settings page.

Catalogs only support CSV, TSV and XML (RSS/ATOM) file formats. If you upload your data feed file in any other format, your upload won't work.

• You can use CSV and TSV formats with most spreadsheet programs, such as Excel. Make sure to save your spreadsheet file in the correct format.
• XML files are typically generated by automated feed provider systems or web servers. They need to begin with a valid <?xml declaration tag.

For every item in your catalog, you must include a description. These two errors mean your description field is missing or it's in all capital letters, which isn't allowed.

• Make sure to include a description column that contains a relevant, accurate description for each item. The character limit for item descriptions is 5,000.
• Descriptions can't be in all capital letters. Use sentence case instead. For example, change A BRIGHT SHIRT FOR SUMMER to A bright shirt for summer. You can also create data feed rules to fix capitalization issues automatically.
• Don't enter links in the description column. Put these in the link column instead.

For every item in your catalog, you must include a link to an image. This error means your data feed file is missing image links.

• Include an image_link field in your data feed and add the correct image URL for each item.
• Make sure links begin with http:// or https://.
• Make sure that links are correct and aren't broken. Copy and paste them into a new tab in your browser to test them.
• Remember to comply with image size requirements.

This error is only for products, not other inventory types. For each product in your catalog, you must provide at least one of the following identifiers: brand name, Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) or Manufacturer Part Number (MPN). This error means that none of these are in your data feed.

To fix this error, make sure to include at least one of the following fields for each product in your data feed: brand, mpn or gtin. You can refer to the field descriptions for products.

You can have multiple data feed files uploading to your catalog, but each individual item can only be in one file. If you see this error, it means you have the same item ID listed in multiple files.

• If you listed an item in more than one data feed file by accident, delete the item from the extra files. It's best to keep the item in the original file where you first uploaded it, so delete the item from the newer files.
• This error often happens when you accidentally upload a new data feed file instead of updating your existing one. If this happens, delete the newer feed file from your catalog in Data Sources so items aren't listed in two files. Then, update your original file instead.

When you create a data feed, you must include certain required fields (column names) depending on your inventory type. If you don't include the required columns or we don't recognize them because you used different names, you may not be able to upload your items or use them in your ads or commerce channels.

• Check our data feed specifications and make sure to include all of the required fields for your inventory type.
• Enter field names exactly as they appear in the specifications. They must be in US English, even if the rest of your file is in another language.
• If you used a different name for certain columns, you can also create data feed rules to map your column names to columns we support.

This error can happen if something in your data feed file causes your columns to not match up. For example, you might have misplaced quotation marks or quotation marks that aren’t enclosed properly. Or, the number of columns in row 1 might not match the number of columns in later rows.

• For every row in your data feed, check that the number of columns matches the number of columns in row 1 (the header row).
• Remove any extra columns in your feed that you aren't using. Make sure not to delete any required columns.

Your data feed file must contain certain required fields depending on your inventory type.

• When you create your file, check that you've included all the required fields for your inventory type.
• Make sure fields aren't too long. Check the character limits in our data feed specifications and remove excessive characters.
• You may not be able to upload your file if it has errors or typos. Always check your titles and descriptions for spelling and grammar.
• For products, you must include an availability column. Update your product availability as needed. You can schedule automatic feed uploads to keep your catalog updated.
• For products, you must include either a brand (brand name), gtin (Global Trade Identification Number) or mpn (Manufacturer Part Number) field. You only need to include one of these fields, not all of them.

If you host your file on another server like Dropbox or Google Drive and see an error message when you try to upload it, your file URL may not go to the correct file location.

• Make sure the URL starts with http, https, ftp or sftp or your upload will fail.
• Check that the URL links directly to your downloadable file. It can't link to a landing page on your website, a Facebook Page or somewhere else. Open a new tab in your browser, then copy and paste the link into the tab to test it.

If you try to upload an item to your catalog that's already there, your upload may fail.

• Delete any duplicate items from your file.
• After you delete duplicate items, upload your file again to update your catalog.

If you receive an error message about malicious links in your data feed file, please contact your Facebook representative or contact support.

This error means that a line in your XML data feed file is too long and exceeds our size limit of 5,242,880 bytes or characters. Please reformat your XML into multiple lines with 1 field per line and upload your file again.

Sometimes large files can slow down your file upload speed or stop it from uploading. If your file takes too long to upload:

• Check the file size of your data feed. For a one-time upload, the size limit is 100MB. For scheduled feed uploads, the limit is 8GB.
• Compress larger files. You can upload compressed data feed files up to 30GB. Compress your data feed file with ZIP or GZIP formats.
• Split your data feed file to save time. It takes longer to upload one large feed than several smaller feeds. If you split your file, remember that each individual item can only be listed in one file.
• Check your network for connectivity issues. If you can't connect to your network or you experience intermittent connectivity issues, contact your internet service provider or network administrator.

Common data feed file warnings

A product is missing a field: variant_label

or

A product is missing a field: variant_value