Shopify Product CSV Checker › Guides
When Shopify rejects a product CSV, the cause is usually something small: a header with the wrong case, a non-UTF-8 character, or a column that depends on another column you left out. Here are the errors Shopify documents, and the fix for each one.
Shopify says product CSV imports can't be canceled once they begin, and there's no history of past imports (recent changes show up in your store's activity log). Back up your product data first. Shopify also warns that sorting a CSV in Excel or Apple Numbers can separate products from their image links, and those images can be lost. The file can't be bigger than 15 MB. If an upload fails or times out, split it into smaller files.
Shopify says this means your column titles don't exactly match the template headers. Header names are case-sensitive. To fix it:
The only column you can add is Collection. Shopify says any other extra column breaks the format. Older column names (like Handle or Variant Price) still work for backward compatibility.
This happens when your file contains non-UTF-8 commas or quotation marks. Curly quotes (“ ”) are a common cause. Shopify's fix is to save the file with UTF-8 encoding before importing. See our encoding and Excel guide.
If odd symbols show up in your titles or descriptions, the file probably wasn't saved as UTF-8. Shopify suggests three fixes: correct the affected products by hand, import an older copy that was saved correctly, or re-save the file as UTF-8 and import it again.
Title is the only required column. If you add variants, URL handle is required too.URL handle and Title.SKU or Weight value (grams) need Option1 name and Option1 value as well. Shopify warns that if you leave those out, existing variants are deleted and a new default variant is created.Barcode and Barcodes.Shopify says this can happen when you move an existing option value to a different option position, for example moving Size from Option 1 to Option 2. The workaround is to import with a temporary option name (such as Size. with a period), then import a second file that changes it to the name you want. Our checker can't detect this one, because it would need your store's current data.
If you turn on Overwrite products with matching handles, a blank cell in a non-required column replaces the existing value with a blank. A column that isn't in the file at all is left unchanged. So remove any column you don't intend to change instead of leaving it empty.
Image URLs must be publicly accessible. Shopify says to use https:// with no password protection, and file names can't end in _thumb, _small or _medium. Local file paths won't work. Upload the images to Content > Files or another host first. Videos and 3D models aren't supported in the CSV, and a product can have up to 250 images.
It flags missing, duplicate and unknown columns, having both Barcode and Barcodes, partly filled packed-product columns, option problems, local or http:// image URLs, _thumb-style file names, and garbled characters. It reports these without changing them. Fixes are only made when the right value is clear, such as encoding, delimiters, or price symbols.
Run your CSV through the free Shopify Product CSV Checker. Your file is processed in your browser and never uploaded. It fixes only the problems that have one clear answer, reports the rest without changing them, and gives you a change log listing every edit. A fixed file can still fail in Shopify, and Shopify can skip some products even when it says "Products imported". We cannot guarantee Shopify will import every product, so review the change log and check your product count after importing.
$12 per file. Pay with Stripe, then email your CSV to hello@agentstackmedia.com. We reply with the corrected file and a change log. Reply to your delivery email within 5 days and we will re-fix the same file once, free. We deliver by email, by hand, so delivery is not instant. We only make changes that have one clear answer, we list anything left for you to fix by hand, and we cannot guarantee Shopify will import every product. Card details go to Stripe and we never see them; we keep your file confidential and use it only to fix it and reply to you.
Sources: Shopify Help Center, Using CSV files to import and export products and Importing products with a CSV file (both read Oct 25, 2026). What our checker does is described from its own documentation. Not affiliated with Shopify. Shopify can change its rules, so check the help pages if something here doesn't match what you see.