Feed error
WarningAutomatic item updates
Automatic item updates let Merchant Center overwrite price, availability or condition with what it finds on the landing page. The warnings appear when Google stops doing so, usually because structured data is broken or conflicts too often with the feed. On Shopify the cause is usually theme markup or a stale feed.
How this appears in your account
The exact wording the channel shows, so you can match what you are looking at.
- Not performing automatic item updates for price
- Not performing automatic item updates for availability
- Automatic item updates have stopped for all of your products.
What it affects
- Channels
- Google Shopping
- Attributes
- price sale_price availability
- Scope
- The whole account
Why it happens on Shopify
The landing page structured data is invalid
Automatic updates read price, availability and condition from the page, ideally from structured data. If the theme's product markup is missing or malformed, Google cannot extract a reliable value and stops updating.
The feed and the page disagree too often
Automatic updates are meant to bridge occasional gaps, not a feed that is persistently out of date. Google may stop updates if the total number of detected mismatches becomes too large, and then the underlying mismatches turn into disapprovals.
Prices or stock change faster than the feed
Google warns that automations may not work for products whose price or availability changes frequently. Flash sales, live stock levels and frequent repricing are the typical Shopify cases.
The page shows several strikethrough prices
Google advises against enabling automatic price updates where a product page shows multiple strikethrough prices, since the extractor cannot tell which figure is the price. Themes that show a compare-at price alongside volume or market prices can trigger this.
How to fix it
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Validate the product page markup
Run an affected product URL through Google's Rich Results Test and confirm price, currency and availability are present and match what the shopper sees. Fix the theme or app that outputs the product structured data if they are not.
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Compare the feed with the page for flagged items
Download the affected products from the Needs attention tab and check price and availability against the live page. A systematic difference, such as tax, currency or a missing sale price, has to be fixed in the feed rather than left to automatic updates.
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Refresh the feed more often
Automatic updates are not a replacement for regular product data updates. Increasing how often the feed regenerates reduces the mismatch count that leads Google to stop updating.
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Set sale periods precisely
Submit sale_price_effective_date with the correct timezone so a sale starts and ends in the feed when it does on the storefront, and keep the strikethrough price on the page equal to price.
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Turn off automations that do not fit the catalogue
Price, availability and condition can be switched on or off separately under Products, Automations. Turning off price updates for a store with complex strikethrough pricing avoids Google applying the wrong figure.
How feedlab handles this
feedlab keeps the feed close to the storefront by publishing on a schedule from the synced Shopify catalogue, so automatic updates only have to cover the gaps between runs. Price and sale_price rules are visible in the preview against real products, which makes a systematic difference with the storefront easy to spot before publishing.
Frequently asked questions
Should I leave automatic item updates switched on?
For most stores yes, as a safety net between feed updates. Google recommends against automatic price updates where pages show multiple strikethrough prices, and suggests the Merchant API instead of automations where prices or stock change very often.
Which attributes can Merchant Center update automatically?
Price, sale price, availability and condition. Each of price, availability and condition can be enabled or disabled separately in the Automations section.
What happens when Google stops automatic updates?
Mismatches between the feed and the landing page are no longer corrected, so affected products can be disapproved for price or availability mismatches until the feed or the page markup is fixed.
Related errors
- Mismatched value: price The price mismatch error means the price in the feed does not agree with the price the channel found when it crawled the landing page. On Shopify the three usual culprits are a feed that has not regenerated since a price change, a link pointing at the wrong market's storefront, and a tax convention difference between the feed and the displayed price.
- Mismatched value: availability The availability mismatch error means the feed says an item is purchasable but the crawled landing page suggests otherwise, or the reverse. On Shopify it is usually a stale feed after a sell-out, or an availability value derived from inventory quantity alone without accounting for variants that do not track inventory or that allow overselling.
- Missing structured data A "Missing microdata" warning means Google found no usable structured data for price, availability or condition on the product page, so it cannot check the feed against the page. On Shopify it usually means the theme outputs incomplete product markup, or apps add conflicting markup.
- Invalid value: sale price The "Invalid value [sale_price]" issue means the sale price cannot be used: it is not lower than price, lacks a valid currency, or its effective date range is malformed. On Shopify it usually comes from a compare-at price that is equal to or below the selling price, mapped straight into the feed.
Primary sources
Channel specifications change. These are the official documents this page is based on.