Shopify CSV import errors: two mug variants, three mistakes.

1. Write down what should exist

Our fictional source record describes one new product, Café Mug, with handle cafe-mug and two Color variants. Both cost 18.00. The intended review status is draft, but our selected-field fragments deliberately omit status and publication fields.

Keep an untouched original and a working copy. Record expected product and variant counts before editing. The checker cannot know whether a Cream mug actually exists.

2. Find three mistakes

Download the flawed synthetic CSV fragment.

URL handle,Title,Option1 name,Option1 value,SKU,Price
cafe-mug,Café Mug,Color,Blue,MUG-BLU,$18.00
cafe-mug,,Color,Blue,MUG-BLU,$18.00

1. The title is garbled: our source says Café Mug.
2. Blue appears twice where the source expects Blue and Cream.
3. The prices contain currency symbols.

Open the Shopify Product CSV Checker, select new products mode and choose the flawed fragment. Expect three errors: two invalid prices and one repeated option-value combination. Expect zero warnings and no formatting-fixed download, because there are no mechanical formatting changes to apply.

The checker does not flag this garbled title or the repeated SKU. Café is valid UTF-8 text, even though it is wrong here. Resaving it as UTF-8 will not recover the spelling. Use a trusted source, reopen your export, and inspect accents and leading-zero identifiers.

3. Check the corrected practice file

Download the manually reviewed synthetic CSV fragment.

URL handle,Title,Option1 name,Option1 value,SKU,Price
cafe-mug,Café Mug,Color,Blue,MUG-BLU,18.00
cafe-mug,,Color,Cream,MUG-CRM,18.00

Choose Check another file in the checker. Keep New products selected and choose the reviewed fragment. Expect zero checker errors and warnings, and no formatting-fixed download. The merchant decisions came from our fictional source; the tool did not repair the title, price or variant.

Keep the shared handle. Repeated handles group variants and can also identify additional image rows. Never delete repeated handles wholesale. The checker detects repeated variants by handle plus option values, not SKU. Repeated or changed SKUs need separate manual review.

This is a new-product exercise only. Changing option values on existing products can replace variant IDs and break integrations. Use your actual export's headers and dependencies for any real preparation. The checker supports the current headers used here and legacy aliases without renaming them. Review Shopify's import guidance before changing existing products.

4. Find one missing photo filename

Use the separate synthetic unique-SKU photo catalog and synthetic filename list. No image files are supplied.

Open Product Image Coverage Check and follow these steps:

1. Under Catalog CSV, choose the separate SYNTHETIC-NOT-FOR-LIVE-IMPORT-photo-catalog.csv you downloaded above. Do not use the flawed or reviewed product fragment.
2. Select its SKU column.
3. Choose 1 required slot (one photo per product), separator _, and numbering 01.
4. Paste the filename below into the filename box, then choose Check filename coverage.

Filename to paste:

MUG-BLU_01.jpg

Expect one matched slot and one missing slot: MUG-CRM_01. There should be no ambiguous slots or orphan filenames.

A matching filename proves neither correct image content nor hosting. Shopify needs publicly accessible image URLs, not local paths such as /photos/local.jpg. The CSV checker checks URL syntax without opening links; filename coverage reads metadata, not image pixels. Neither tool accesses your store.

Optional: chose the wrong import mode?

The checker can recheck the same original CSV as New products or Updates to existing products without selecting the file again. On the result, choose Recheck as updates to existing products or Recheck as new products. The previous results and report buttons are replaced; already downloaded files remain on your device.

For a synthetic example, Title followed by one record DEMO mug passes the new-product checks, but update mode reports a missing Handle column. Switching back removes that update-only error. Choose the mode that matches your actual intended import; switching modes does not repair data or prove that a product exists in your store. Inputs stay only in this tab’s memory until cleared or replaced.

Optional: keep a repair checklist

After checking the flawed fragment, choose Download review checklist CSV. This separate report lists the two price errors at records 2 and 3 and the duplicate variant at record 3, with fields, issue codes and review guidance. Record 1 is the header; a quoted description can span several text lines.

Download the synthetic three-issue review checklist. This is the checker’s report for the flawed teaching fragment in new products mode. It contains validation mode, full error and warning totals, and the number of issues exported.

A repair checklist is not a Shopify import file. Use it beside your working CSV to review changes against a trusted source, or hand it to the person repairing the file. Product cell values and the source filename are excluded, but field labels can contain your header text: inspect the report before sharing. Formula-like report cells receive a leading apostrophe for spreadsheet safety.

The checklist does not fix the mistakes. A formatting-fixed CSV is a separate download, available only when safe formatting changes exist; it can still contain errors. Broken quotes can produce a checklist even when no formatting-fixed copy can be created. Reports keep the first 500 issues, explicitly disclose omitted issues, and retain full totals. Fix these issues and check again. Unusually long headers may exceed the separate 20 MB report limit.

Shopify CSV updates: blank cells are not omitted columns

For an existing matching handle, Shopify’s Overwrite products with matching handles setting controls whether CSV values replace stored values. Without that setting, matching products are skipped. With it, a blank Vendor cell clears the stored vendor; leaving the Vendor column out preserves it. See Shopify’s overwrite rules.

Suppose our fictional product demo-mug currently has Vendor DEMO Pottery. These selected-column fragments illustrate only the Vendor difference. They are not complete import files or variant-safe templates; never import them into a live store.

Vendor included but blank: the final comma creates an empty Vendor cell.

URL handle,Title,Vendor
demo-mug,DEMO Mug,

Vendor omitted: there is no Vendor header or cell.

URL handle,Title
demo-mug,DEMO Mug

Do not generalize this to every field. Required fields, defaults and dependencies have separate rules. In a real export, preserve the necessary variant columns: Shopify warns that omitting Option1 name/value can replace existing variants with a default variant. Changing option values can replace variant IDs and break integrations. Review the CSV field and dependency reference before removing columns.

Selecting Updates to existing products in our checker does not select Shopify’s overwrite setting. The checker does not compare your CSV with stored products or predict which stored values will be cleared. It does not fill blank Vendor cells. Review intended changes against your original export and Shopify’s import details; a clean local report cannot establish safe overwrite behavior. No store import was performed for this example.

Before any actual import

Use the checklist and retain product exports and image originals; this is not a one-click undo plan. Test one complete product group in an appropriate, already authorized test store, rather than the first arbitrary row. This exercise requires no store access or account creation.

Review draft status, publication and overwrite choices separately. Use the blank-versus-omitted example to review optional fields and dependencies. Imports cannot be canceled once started. See Shopify's import instructions.

Compare actual product and variant counts, SKUs, options, prices, title, status and images with the intended source. Stop on any unexpected result before expanding. Local file checks do not establish Shopify acceptance, inventory behavior or image availability.