Guides
A useful place to start, with a route to the related result.
Guides 97–120 of 348
Troubleshooting guide
A nightly SFTP fetch imports half a file, repeats a file or stops after the supplier's server changes
How to tell a finished supplier file from one still uploading, stop the same file being imported twice, and treat a changed server host key as a stop sign rather than an error to switch off.
Troubleshooting guide
A scheduled supplier fetch runs at the wrong time, twice or not at all: time zones, clock changes and cron surprises
Why a cron-style schedule can fire an hour off, skip or repeat around clock changes, run on the wrong days, or break on a percent sign, and how to make the job safe whichever happens.
Troubleshooting guide
Comparing two supplier feed versions: match products by key, not by line, and make the counts add up
Why a text comparison of two supplier files buries real changes, how a key-based comparison reports added, absent and changed products, and the arithmetic that proves nothing was missed.
Troubleshooting guide
Converting an ERP export for a store import: decimal commas, day-first dates, codes and rejects
Why hand-editing an ERP export produces different files on different days, and how explicit number, date and code rules, exact decimal arithmetic and a reject file make the conversion repeatable.
Troubleshooting guide
Supplier categories end up in Uncategorised: use a mapping table with an unmapped list, not loose matching
How to map a supplier's category names to your store categories with one reviewed row per value, an explicit unmapped state, exact matching and a report of new or changed values.
Troubleshooting guide
Supplier image links that load a page, redirect in circles or time out: classify them before import
How to tell a working image address from a missing file, a redirect, an error page returned as success, a wrong file type or a slow host, and how to check them without stalling the import.
Troubleshooting guide
Merchant Center cannot process your product file? Check the format, header row and XML layout
The file-level rules that make Merchant Center reject or misread a product file, from accepted formats, header row, tabs and line breaks, encoding, XML namespace and tag case, extensions and compression.
Troubleshooting guide
Merchant Center scheduled fetch fails or shows an old file? Check the address, access and what comes back
Why a scheduled fetch of your product file fails or stays stale: an address that leads to a page, redirects, blocks or permissions, login handling, compression, size and the difference between a fetch and an SFTP upload.
Troubleshooting guide
Merchant Center says your price does not match the page: compare feed, page, checkout and markup
What Google compares when it flags an inaccurate price, the causes in order of likelihood, tax and format rules that cause mismatches, and how fixing and review work after you correct the data.
Troubleshooting guide
Merchant Center flags availability: pre-orders, sold-out lines, variants and a feed that refreshes too slowly
The availability values and situations that Merchant Center flags, why a daily fetch cannot follow fast stock changes, and which fixes belong in the feed, the page or the refresh route.
Troubleshooting guide
Merchant Center rejects product images: file type, size, URL rules, robots access and overlays
What Google's image_link attribute requires and why images are disapproved: the extension must match the real format, the size minimum, URL and robots rules, stable addresses and disallowed content.
Troubleshooting guide
Excel shows #REF! or #NAME?: work out which kind of broken formula you have
Each Excel error value points to a different kind of break. Learn what they mean, how to trace a formula back to its inputs, and why hiding the error is not a repair.
Troubleshooting guide
Totals look wrong but Excel shows no error: stale calculation, text numbers and displayed versus stored values
When no error appears, three quiet causes explain most wrong totals: manual calculation, numbers stored as text and rounding that is displayed but not stored. Here is how to tell which.
Troubleshooting guide
Merged cells stop Excel sorting and pivoting: how to flatten a printed-style report safely
Merged group labels, spacer rows and subtotal lines make a report readable on paper and unusable as data. See what merging does, what a flat table needs and how to prove nothing was lost.
Troubleshooting guide
Dates sort wrongly or change between computers: serial numbers, text dates and day-month order
Excel stores dates as numbers and reads typed dates through regional settings. Learn how text dates, a four-year offset and day-first entries produce wrong sorting, and what to do with rows that cannot be settled.
Troubleshooting guide
Cleaning duplicates in a contact list: write the match rules before you delete anything
Removing duplicates is a set of decisions, not a button. Compare exact and near matches, avoid merging people who only share a field, and keep a log so every merge can be undone.
Troubleshooting guide
Old .doc and .xls files: what converting really changes and how to check a whole batch
Converting one old Office file is easy. Converting a folder needs an inventory, copies instead of overwrites, a decision about macros and a check that the new files match the old.
Troubleshooting guide
Renaming thousands of files: rules, collisions, path limits and a manifest that proves nothing changed
A bulk rename can overwrite files, break on reserved names or exceed path limits. A dry run, a rule check and a checksum manifest make it safe and reversible.
Troubleshooting guide
Mail merge and quotation templates: why numbers arrive wrong and how to test a batch
A merge copies cell values into a template. Currency symbols, percentages and codes come through differently from how they look, so calculations and formats must be settled before the merge.
Troubleshooting guide
Rebuilding the same report every week or month: how to make it repeatable and checkable
A recurring report drifts when it is rebuilt by hand. Fix the export contract, make refreshing change only the data, and add control totals so each period can be checked against its source.
Troubleshooting guide
Before you import a spreadsheet into another system: the checks that stop a failed load
Loads fail on blanks, types, dates, codes and keys. A column-by-column readiness sheet, the right CSV handling and a test on a copy catch most problems before they reach a live system.
Troubleshooting guide
Can this PDF be read as data? Check for a text layer before you plan an extraction
A PDF can hold selectable text or only a picture of each page. A two-minute test tells you which, and that decides the method, the checks and what anyone can honestly promise.
Troubleshooting guide
How to check a PDF extraction is right: count, compare, and list what could not be read
Extraction mistakes are silent. Counting rows page by page, comparing a pre-chosen sample and keeping an exceptions list shows where a spreadsheet differs from its document.
Troubleshooting guide
Filled-in PDF forms: where the answers live and when they are really gone
Answers typed into a fillable PDF are stored as named fields inside each file. Learn how to tell whether a returned form still has them, and how to decide what checkboxes and blanks become in a spreadsheet.
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