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Most Common Feed Issues ​

Table of Contents ​

Feed not syncing — causes and steps ​

A feed that fails to sync is one of the most commonly reported issues. Below you will find possible causes and steps to identify and resolve the problem.

Possible causes ​

Feed URL availability issues

  • The feed URL is invalid or has changed on the store's side
  • The server returns an HTTP error (401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found, 500 Internal Server Error)
  • The SSL certificate has expired or is invalid (self-signed)
  • The server requires authentication (Basic Auth, token in header) and the credentials have not been updated in Sembot

File format or size issues

  • The file is not valid XML or CSV — syntax errors prevent parsing
  • Incorrect character encoding (UTF-8 expected, file saved in a different encoding)
  • The feed file is too large and the download exceeds the allowed timeout
  • The file is empty or contains only a header with no products

Configuration issues

  • The synchronization schedule is disabled or set to "manual"
  • The feed configuration references a non-existent or archived mapping profile

Diagnostic steps ​

  1. Check the feed URL manually — open the URL in a browser or a tool such as Postman. The response should return a valid XML/CSV file with HTTP status 200.

  2. Go to the synchronization history — in Sembot, open Feed Settings, click the three-dot icon next to the feed, and select History. Check the latest entry: did it end with an error, and if so — what message is shown in the details?

  3. Run synchronization manually — in Feed Settings, click the Download Source Files button next to the feed and monitor the status. An error usually appears within a few seconds if the issue is related to the connection or file format.

  4. Verify authentication credentials — if the feed requires a login and password, make sure they were entered correctly when adding or editing the feed in Feed Settings.

  5. Check if the store uses Cloudflare or a similar tool — if so, Sembot's servers may be blocked by CDN rules. Add our IP addresses to the Cloudflare exceptions: 52.28.49.250, 51.77.44.22, 51.77.44.187, 51.38.111.87, 51.38.107.36. Detailed information about this configuration can be found later in this article.

  6. Check the store server logs — if the steps above do not reveal the cause, ask the store administrator for access logs. Identify whether Sembot is sending requests at all and whether the server is accepting them.

Products disappear after synchronization ​

A situation where products were visible before synchronization but disappear from the catalog after it completes typically results from one of the following causes.

Possible causes ​

Changes in the source feed

  • The store updated the feed and removed products from it (e.g., products discontinued from sale)
  • The product identifier (id) changed — Sembot treats a changed ID as a new product and removes the old one
  • The source feed was temporarily unavailable during synchronization — Sembot received an empty file and cleared the catalog

Filtering and transformation rules

  • Filtering rules are active in the feed configuration and are excluding products (e.g., filter by availability, price, or category)
  • Attribute mapping is incorrect — a required field (e.g., availability) is empty or has a disallowed value, causing the product to be rejected
  • Transformation rules contain a condition that removes products that do not meet a criterion

Availability settings

  • Products in the feed have availability: out_of_stock set — Sembot may be configured to skip such products
  • The excluded_destination value in the feed excludes products from Shopping Ads

How to diagnose ​

  1. Compare counts before and after — note the number of products before synchronization. After synchronization, check how many products are visible in Sembot.

  2. Temporarily disable filtering rules — in Rule Settings, deactivate active rules and run synchronization again. If the products returned, the issue lies in the rules.

  3. Check the source feed — download the feed file directly from the URL and verify whether the products that disappeared are present in it at all.

Feed works locally but not in Sembot ​

A situation where the feed opens correctly in a browser or local tools but Sembot cannot download it typically results from differences in how the server is accessed.

Possible causes ​

IP-based access restrictions

  • The store server blocks requests from IPs outside an allowed list (whitelist)
  • A firewall or CDN rule (e.g., Cloudflare) blocks traffic from Sembot's servers
  • The VPS / hosting server has active iptables rules restricting access

Solution: Add Sembot's server IP addresses to the whitelist on the server or CDN side. Our IP addresses are: 52.28.49.250, 51.77.44.22, 51.77.44.187, 51.38.111.87, 51.38.107.36.

SSL certificate

  • The server uses a self-signed certificate or one issued by an unrecognized authority
  • The certificate has expired but the browser has it cached

Solution: Install a certificate from a trusted CA (e.g., Let's Encrypt). Sembot does not support self-signed certificates for security reasons.

Different content for different clients (geo-blocking or A/B testing)

  • The CDN serves different versions of the feed depending on the requesting IP's location
  • An active A/B testing mechanism modifies the feed content

Solution: Disable geo-targeting and A/B tests for the feed URL, or create a separate dedicated URL for Sembot that is free of such mechanisms.

Rate limiting

  • The server limits the number of requests per unit of time and Sembot is hitting that limit

Solution: Increase the rate limits for Sembot's IP addresses, or configure the synchronization schedule to poll the server less frequently.