Feedsmith downloads each shop's products at the times you choose, and then rebuilds every channel of that shop. You set this up on the shop's Settings tab, under Update schedule.
Pacific/Auckland.06:00 and 18:00. You can add up to 24 times, and each time can only be used once.Feedsmith checks the schedule every minute. When an update time has passed and the shop hasn't been downloaded since then, Feedsmith starts a download. So if Feedsmith was briefly unavailable at 06:00, the download still happens as soon as it's back.
To download outside the schedule, use Refresh products now. See Refresh products now and Activity.
Click Pause updates to stop all downloads for the shop. Your feeds keep serving the products from the last download. Click it again to resume.
Feedsmith tries again by itself when a download fails for a reason that might fix itself, e.g. a network error, a timeout, or a busy server. It tries up to 3 times, waiting 30 seconds and then 60 seconds. It doesn't retry problems you need to fix, e.g. a wrong password or a broken file address.
If the download still fails, the shop shows Failed and the error appears at the top of the shop's pages under "Last download failed". After 3 failed downloads in a row, the shop shows On hold. Feedsmith keeps trying at your update times, and the next good download sets the shop back to Active.
Your feeds never go empty because of a failed download. They keep the products from the last good download.
Sometimes a source sends far fewer products than usual, e.g. because a supplier file was cut short or a Shopify app hid most products. Products drop protection compares each download with the number of products in the last good download.
Leave a box blank to turn that check off. You can use both, e.g. an alert at 10% and keeping the previous products at 30%.
For example, say the last download had 1,000 products and the alert is 10% and the keep setting is 30%:
| New download | Drop | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 950 products | 5% | Feedsmith uses it. No email. |
| 850 products | 15% | Feedsmith uses it and emails you. |
| 600 products | 40% | Feedsmith keeps the 1,000 products and emails you. |
If the drop was real, e.g. you removed a whole brand from your store, click Force accept next to the "Download held" message. Feedsmith downloads the shop again and uses the result even if it is still smaller. The guard then compares future downloads with the new, smaller number.
Feedsmith emails the owners and admins of your organisation when:
You get one email for each problem, not one for every failed attempt.