Shopify CSV import errors stop your catalog upload cold, and the error messages are rarely clear about what to actually fix. This guide covers every common Shopify import problem, from the most-searched “inventory policy is not included in the list” error to image download failures, variant option conflicts, and the difference between product, customer, and order imports. Each section names the exact error Shopify displays, explains what causes it, and gives the specific steps to fix it.

Key Takeaways
1
The “Variant Inventory Policy” column controls what Shopify does when stock hits zero: “deny” blocks purchases, “continue” allows them. Both values must be lowercase with no extra spaces.
2
“Variant Fulfillment Service” must be “manual” or the exact handle of a fulfillment service already configured in your Shopify admin.
3
Image URLs in “Image Src” must start with https:// and point to a publicly accessible file under 20 megapixels and 20MB.
4
If your products use options (Size, Color), every variant row must include matching Option Name and Option Value entries. Missing or mismatched option columns trigger the “product options input is required” error.
5
Products, customers, and orders each use a different CSV template with different required columns and different error messages.
6
Saving your CSV as UTF-8 encoding before uploading prevents curly-quote and special character errors that trigger parsing failures.

What Columns Shopify Expects in a Product CSV

Most import errors come from one specific column being wrong. Knowing what each column does makes it much faster to find the issue. Here are the columns Shopify reads from a product CSV:

  • Handle: the URL-friendly identifier for the product (e.g. blue-cotton-shirt).
  • Title: the product name.
  • Body (HTML): the product description, with HTML allowed.
  • Vendor: the brand or supplier.
  • Type: the product category.
  • Tags: comma-separated tags.
  • Published: true or false.
  • Option1 Name / Option1 Value, Option2 Name / Option2 Value, Option3 Name / Option3 Value: variant options like Size or Color.
  • Variant SKU: your internal stock code.
  • Variant Grams: product weight in grams.
  • Variant Inventory Tracker: usually shopify or blank.
  • Variant Inventory Qty: whole number stock count.
  • Variant Inventory Policy: deny or continue.
  • Variant Fulfillment Service: manual or a configured third-party service handle.
  • Variant Price: numeric, no currency symbol.
  • Variant Compare At Price: numeric, optional.
  • Variant Requires Shipping: true or false.
  • Variant Taxable: true or false.
  • Variant Barcode: optional barcode string.
  • Image Src: full https:// URL to a publicly hosted image.
  • Image Alt Text: descriptive text for the image.

If an error message names a column, jump to the matching section below.

What Is the Variant Inventory Policy in Shopify?

The Variant Inventory Policy column tells Shopify what to do when a product variant runs out of stock. It accepts exactly 2 values:

  • deny: Shopify blocks customers from purchasing the variant once stock hits zero. The product shows as “Sold out” and the Add to Cart button is disabled. This is the correct setting for most physical products.
  • continue: Shopify still allows customers to purchase the variant even when inventory is at zero or below. Use this for pre-orders, made-to-order items, and digital products where stock limits don’t apply.

This column is separate from whether you track inventory at all. If your Variant Inventory Tracker column is blank (no tracking), Shopify ignores the Variant Inventory Policy value entirely. The policy only applies when tracking is active.

When you export existing products from Shopify admin, the Variant Inventory Policy column is always populated correctly. If you are building a CSV from scratch or migrating from another platform, this column is often left blank or filled with non-standard text, which is the single most common reason for Shopify import failures.

How to Fix Inventory Policy Values in Bulk

If your CSV has hundreds of rows with wrong inventory policy values, use Google Sheets to correct them all at once:

  1. Open your CSV in Google Sheets.
  2. Add a new column next to Variant Inventory Policy.
  3. Enter the formula =LOWER(TRIM(R2)) (adjust the column letter to match Variant Inventory Policy in your file).
  4. Drag the formula down to cover all rows.
  5. Copy the entire formula column, then use Paste Special and select Values Only to replace the formulas with plain text.
  6. Delete the original Variant Inventory Policy column and rename the new one.
  7. Save as CSV UTF-8 and re-import.

If any row still shows a value other than “deny” or “continue” after the formula runs, that row needs a manual correction before uploading.

Common Shopify CSV Import Error Messages and Fixes

Below are the specific error messages Shopify displays during a CSV import, along with what causes each one and the exact steps to fix it.

Inventory Policy Is Not Included in the List

This is the most-searched Shopify import error. The full message Shopify usually displays is: “there was an error importing your csv file. after you fix the error, try importing the csv file again. inventory policy is not included in the list.”

It means the value in your Variant Inventory Policy column is not one of the 2 accepted options. Shopify only accepts these:

Value What it does When to use it
deny Prevents purchase when stock reaches zero Most physical products
continue Allows purchase even when out of stock Pre-orders, made-to-order, digital products

Both values must be lowercase with no extra spaces. Common mistakes that trigger this error:

  • Entering “Deny” (capital D) or “Continue” (capital C)
  • Entering “Deny selling” or any other text with extra words
  • Leaving the cell blank
  • A trailing space after the value (invisible in Excel but breaks the import)

To fix this: open your CSV and find the Variant Inventory Policy column (column R in Shopify’s default template). Use Find and Replace to catch every variation. In Excel or Google Sheets, you can also select the entire column, use a TRIM formula to strip spaces, and convert to lowercase before saving. A correct product row looks like this:

my-product-handle,My Product,"

Description

",My Vendor,Widget,tag1,true,Size,Small,,,,,SKU123,500,shopify,10,deny,manual,29.99,,true,true,,https://example.com/image.jpg,Product image alt

Fulfillment Service Can’t Be Blank

This error appears when the Variant Fulfillment Service column is empty or contains a value Shopify doesn’t recognize. Every product variant needs a fulfillment service assigned to it.

If you fulfill orders yourself, set this column to manual. If you use a third-party fulfillment service like ShipBob or Amazon FBA, enter the exact handle of that service as it appears in Shopify admin under Settings > Shipping and delivery > Custom order fulfillment.

A common cause: copying products from another store or platform where the fulfillment service name doesn’t match what’s configured in your Shopify account. If you only use Shopify’s built-in fulfillment, put manual in every row.

Fulfillment Service Is Not Defined for Your Shop

This is a close cousin of the “can’t be blank” error. The column has a value, but that value doesn’t match any service set up in your Shopify admin. Shopify treats the named service as undefined.

To fix it: go to Settings > Shipping and delivery > Custom order fulfillment and check the exact handle of each service listed there. The value in your CSV must match one of those handles character-for-character, or be the literal word manual. If you migrated products from another store, replace each old value with manual (or the correct handle from your current admin) and re-import.

Ignored Line #-## Because Handle Already Exists

This shows up when a product row has a handle value but no product title. Shopify reads the handle, finds it already exists, and skips the line because it can’t determine what to do with it.

To fix this: look for any rows that have a value in the Handle column but an empty Title column. If the row is a variant of an existing product, the Title should be empty and the Handle must match the parent product’s handle exactly. If the row is supposed to be a new product, fill in the Title. If it’s a duplicate you don’t need, delete the row.

Product Options Input Is Required When Updating Variants

This error appears when you try to update a product that already has variants (e.g., Size: Small, Medium, Large) but your CSV is missing or mismatching the option columns.

When Shopify already has variants set up on a product, every row in your update CSV must include the same option structure. If the existing product has “Option1 Name” = “Size” and “Option1 Value” = “Small”, your update CSV must include those same column names and values. Common causes:

  • Your CSV uses a different option name than what’s already in Shopify (e.g., “Sizes” vs. “Size”)
  • Your CSV is missing the Option Name column entirely
  • You’re trying to add a new option to an existing product with variants. Shopify doesn’t allow changing option structure via CSV; you’d need to do that manually or via the API.

To fix it: export the existing product from Shopify admin (Products > Export), then edit the exported file to make your changes. The exported file will have the exact option column names already in place. Never build an update CSV from scratch for products with variants; always start from Shopify’s export.

Option Does Not Exist

The full error is usually “there is 1 error with this product: option does not exist.” This happens when a variant row references an option value that isn’t defined in the Option Name/Option Value columns of the parent product row, or when the option name in the variant row doesn’t match the option name set up on the product.

Steps to fix:

  1. Find the product handle that’s triggering the error.
  2. Look at the parent row (the one with the Title) and note the exact Option1 Name, Option2 Name values.
  3. Check every variant row for that handle. Each variant row must use the exact same option name (e.g., “Color”) with a specific value (e.g., “Blue”).
  4. A mismatch in capitalization or spelling between the Option Name in the parent row and a variant row will cause this error.

Illegal Quoting on Line

This error means your CSV contains a character that breaks parsing, usually a mismatched or curly quotation mark. Spreadsheet programs like Excel sometimes convert straight quotes (") into curly quotes, which Shopify can’t read.

To fix this: save your CSV with UTF-8 encoding. In Excel, go to File > Save As and choose “CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).” Then open the file in a plain text editor (like Notepad or VS Code) and search for curly quotes. Replace them with straight quotes. Also check for unmatched quotes: every opening quote needs a closing quote on the same field.

Incorrect Header Check

This error typically appears when an image reference in your CSV is corrupted or points to a file that can’t be read. The file might be in a format Shopify doesn’t support, or the image data might be damaged.

Try removing the image URL from the Image Src column for the affected row and re-uploading the CSV. If the import works without the image, the issue is with that specific file. Re-save or re-export the image as a JPG or PNG, upload it to a publicly accessible host, and update the URL in your CSV.

Invalid CSV Header: Missing Headers

Shopify requires your CSV to have a specific header row as the first line. If any required column names are missing, misspelled, or in the wrong order, you’ll get this error.

The correct header row for a standard Shopify product CSV is:

Handle,Title,Body (HTML),Vendor,Type,Tags,Published,Option1 Name,Option1 Value,Option2 Name,Option2 Value,Option3 Name,Option3 Value,Variant SKU,Variant Grams,Variant Inventory Tracker,Variant Inventory Qty,Variant Inventory Policy,Variant Fulfillment Service,Variant Price,Variant Compare At Price,Variant Requires Shipping,Variant Taxable,Variant Barcode,Image Src,Image Alt Text

Copy this header row exactly, including spaces and capitalization. A very common mistake is having an extra space or invisible character at the end of the header row. Open your file in a text editor and make sure the last character on line 1 is “t” (the end of “Image Alt Text”) with nothing after it.

Inventory Quantity Can’t Be Blank

This error means you have a row where the Variant Inventory Qty column is empty, but Shopify expects a number there. If you track inventory for this product, enter the actual stock count (even if it’s 0).

If you don’t track inventory at all for this product, you need to also leave the Variant Inventory Tracker column blank. When that tracker column has a value (like “shopify”) but the quantity column is empty, Shopify treats it as a conflict and throws this error. Either fill in both columns or leave both empty.

Inventory Quantity Is Not a Number

The Variant Inventory Qty column only accepts whole numbers. If it contains letters, symbols, decimal points, or special characters, Shopify will reject the row. Check for common issues like accidental currency symbols ($10), commas in large numbers (1,000 instead of 1000), or text like “in stock.” Replace the value with a plain integer.

Missing or Stray Quote on Line

This happens when your CSV has unmatched or extra quotation marks. Excel and Google Sheets sometimes add curly quotes or double up straight quotes in unexpected places, especially in product descriptions that contain HTML.

Open your CSV in a plain text editor and go to the line number mentioned in the error. Look for a quote character that doesn’t have a matching pair, or a field that has three quotes instead of two. In CSV format, if a field contains a comma or quote, the entire field should be wrapped in double quotes, and any quote inside the field should be escaped by doubling it ("").

Src Can’t Be Blank (Image Src Can’t Be Blank)

This error appears when a product row has an Image Alt Text value but no value in the Image Src column. Shopify can’t attach alt text to an image that doesn’t exist, so the entire row is rejected.

To fix it: find rows where the Image Src column is empty but Image Alt Text is filled in. Either add a valid image URL to the Image Src column (it must start with https:// and point to a publicly hosted file), or clear the Image Alt Text value so both fields are blank. Variant rows that should have no image must leave both image-related columns empty.

Validation Failed: An Error Occurred While Trying to Download the Image

Shopify couldn’t download the image from the URL in your Image Src column. The image file might have been deleted, moved, or the server hosting it might be blocking Shopify’s request.

Make sure the URL starts with https:// and that you can open it directly in a browser. The image must be publicly accessible: if it’s behind a login or on a private server, Shopify can’t reach it. Try re-uploading the image to a public host and updating the URL.

Validation Failed: getaddrinfo: Nodename nor Servname Provided, or Not Known

This error means the domain name in your image URL is invalid or can’t be resolved. Usually this happens when the URL is missing the protocol (https://) or contains a typo in the domain name.

Check every image URL in the Image Src column. Each URL must be a complete, valid web address starting with https://. For example, example.com/image.jpg will fail and needs to be https://example.com/image.jpg. Also verify that the hosting domain is still active and the image is publicly accessible.

Validation Failed: Options Are Not Unique

When a product has multiple variants, each combination of option values must be unique. This error means 2 or more rows for the same product handle have identical option values.

Check your CSV for duplicate rows under the same handle. For example, if you have 2 rows for “my-shirt” both with Option1 Value set to “Large” and Option2 Value set to “Blue,” 1 needs to be changed or removed. Also make sure you don’t have the same product listed twice in your CSV with different handles.

Validation Failed: Price Can’t Be Blank

Every product variant in your CSV must have a value in the Variant Price column. Even free products need a price of 0. Check the affected row and enter a numeric price value without currency symbols (e.g., 29.99, not $29.99).

Validation Failed: The Uploaded Image Exceeds the 20 Megapixel Limit

Shopify limits product images to 20 megapixels (roughly 5760 x 5760 pixels). If your image is larger than this, resize it before importing. For most product photos, 2048 x 2048 pixels is more than enough and will also keep page load times fast.

Product Shows 0 in Stock After Import (or Doesn’t Show at All)

A different kind of import problem: the upload succeeds with no error, but the product either shows 0 stock or doesn’t appear in the storefront. There are 3 common causes.

The first is a Variant Inventory Tracker and Variant Inventory Qty mismatch. If the tracker column is set to shopify but the quantity column is empty, Shopify stores the variant with 0 inventory. Re-export your products, fill in the actual stock numbers, and re-import. If the import is an update rather than a new product, make sure the Handle matches the existing product exactly (that is how Shopify knows to update instead of create a new product).

The second cause is the Published column. If it’s set to false (or blank in some templates), the product is saved to your admin but hidden from the storefront. Change the value to true and re-import, or toggle availability manually in the product admin.

The third cause applies to inventory updates specifically: if your CSV creates a new product instead of updating an existing one (because the Handle column doesn’t match exactly), you’ll end up with a duplicate product at 0 stock rather than an updated version. Always export your current products first, copy your changes into the exported file, and re-import. Never build an update CSV from scratch.

If you still don’t see the product after import, refresh the admin product list, then check the sales channel availability under the product page. Some templates default new products to “Unavailable” on the online store.

Importing Customers and Orders Has Different Rules

A lot of “Shopify import errors” actually come from someone trying to upload customer or order data using a product CSV. They’re 3 separate flows with 3 separate templates.

  • Product CSV: uploaded from Products > Import in the Shopify admin. Uses the column structure above.
  • Customer CSV: uploaded from Customers > Import. Required columns are First Name, Last Name, Email, plus optional fields for phone, addresses, tags, and accepts-marketing.
  • Order CSV: not natively supported by Shopify on lower plans. Use the Store Importer app (Apps > Store Importer) or an order-migration app. Required fields include order name, financial status, fulfillment status, line item details, and customer info.

If you’re migrating from another platform, Store Importer can handle WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Magento, and a few others end-to-end. For a step-by-step example, see how to migrate your Squarespace website data to Shopify, which walks through the export-then-import flow with 2 separate CSV files.

When the Native Import Isn’t Enough: Matrixify and Other Apps

Shopify’s built-in CSV import works well for catalogs under 15MB, but it has hard limits: no support for metafields, no bulk order import, no inventory-by-location import, and no way to import more than a few thousand products reliably in one go.

Third-party apps fill these gaps:

  • Matrixify (formerly Excelify): the most widely used Shopify import/export app. Handles products, customers, orders, metafields, smart collections, and more. Accepts Excel and CSV files well beyond the 15MB limit. Runs imports in the background and emails you when done. Good option if you’re hitting Shopify’s native import limits or need to import metafields alongside products.
  • Store Importer (free, by Shopify): built for full platform migrations from WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and Etsy. Not a replacement for the product CSV import, but handles the order and customer migration that the native import can’t do.
  • LitExtension: handles migrations from over 140 platforms and can run a live migration that keeps your source store open while data transfers.

If you’re getting errors on large imports, or your import keeps timing out, switching to Matrixify is often faster than trying to split a very large CSV into multiple chunks.

What to Do Before You Import

Most CSV problems can be caught in five minutes before you hit the import button:

  1. Check the file size. Shopify caps CSV uploads at 15 MB. If your file is larger, split it into chunks of 1,000 to 2,000 products each.
  2. Save as CSV UTF-8. In Excel: File > Save As > CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). This prevents curly-quote and accented-character errors.
  3. Open in a plain text editor. Confirm the header row is exact, no trailing spaces, and the first product row sits on line 2.
  4. Test image URLs. Open 3 or 4 Image Src URLs in a private browser window. If they don’t load there, Shopify can’t load them either.
  5. Run a 5-product sample first. Save the first 5 product rows as a separate CSV and import that. If it works, the headers and formatting are fine and any later errors will be data-specific to certain rows.

Still Stuck? Quick Diagnostic Steps

If your error message isn’t listed above, work through these in order:

  1. Read the line number in the error message. Open the CSV in a text editor and jump to that exact line.
  2. Compare the problem row to a row that imports successfully. Look for differences in quoting, missing columns, or extra commas.
  3. Remove that row and re-import. If the import succeeds without it, the issue is isolated to that row’s data.
  4. If many rows fail with the same error, the problem is structural: a wrong header, wrong column order, or wrong encoding.
  5. Re-download a fresh copy of Shopify’s sample CSV template, copy your data into it column by column, and try again.

If you’ve worked through everything and you’re still hitting the same error, reach out to Shopify support or a Shopify developer for help. For more technical setup work around your store, see our roundup of technical and developer tools in Shopify.