Variations not uploaded with CSV

Hi Nic,

Thank you for reaching out!

I understand that you’ve attempted to import some of the products using the default importer/exporter but after the upload, the “Used for variations” checkbox isn’t ticked and variations are not created.

I’ve attempted to export a test variable product, delete it on the site and re-import it, and the attributes were marked as used for variations.

As per our documentation, To tell the importer to use an attribute for variations use the column attribute_data:pa_attribute replacing pa_attribute with your attribute name; Read the column reference’s document to know more about these columns and for usage examples.:

https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/product-csv-import-suite-importing-product-variations/

In this case, the best course of actions is to create a dummy variable product on that site, export it, open it in Google Sheets, compare it to your own .csv file on order to see whether the structure of your own file is correct, do the changes and re-import.

If you’ve done that already and the “used for variations” checkbox is still un-ticked – there’s a chance that the parent products have ended up with IDs that are higher than the variation IDs. The fix for this was to completely delete the variable products that you are going to import, and also clear them from the trash. After that, Delete orphaned variations from WooCommerce > Status > Tools:

https://cld.wthms.co/8KUjyL

I hope this helps!

Hi there,

Thank you for your reply, sadly i am unable to make it work.
As i mentioned i did this:
In this case, the best course of actions is to create a dummy variable product on that site, export it, open it in Google Sheets, compare it to your own .csv file.
And just replaced the needed fields but the box stays unchecked.

I also tried just the variations with the parent id etc as the downloaded CSV suggested but then they just become orphaned.

Before that i tried uploading a CSV with both the parents (variants) including ID AND the variations with “parent ID” and the other columns again the same as the downloaded CSV.

This at least makes them upload correctly in the way that the products are there including variations.

BUT it only does this when i DONT click update existing products and so the become duplicates with just a different URL and ID (forcing me to delete the others and changing all URL’s manually..).

If i select update they are not uploaded at all (they are all skipped).

And offcourse if i upload them without an existing parent they are not uploaded as well.

What more can we try?

Hi there,

Thank you for the update!

I understand that you’ve tried uploading two separate files but you’re still only able to get variations to show up if variations are uploaded separately.

Have you tried deleting these products and re-uploading, as suggested in my previous reply?

If you’ve done that already and the “used for variations” checkbox is still un-ticked – there’s a chance that the parent products have ended up with IDs that are higher than the variation IDs. The fix for this was to completely delete the variable products that you are going to import, and also clear them from the trash. After that, Delete orphaned variations from WooCommerce > Status > Tools:

https://cld.wthms.co/8KUjyL

You may also want to head to WooCommerce >> Status >> Tools and click delete orphaned variations before re-importing.

Let us know if that helps!

Hi there,

No i am only able to get variations to become a variation of the parent product when i include the parent products in the same sheet with the ID from the original same parent product.
But then i get the parent products to become duplicated (since i didnt check the box “update existing products”).

I then have to remove all original parent products and then change all parent product URL’s.

BUT i tried every other option:
sheet with only variations including the proper parent ID… they become orphaned
sheet with only variations including the proper parent ID AND checking “update existing products”… no variations are added
sheet with parents and variations…. AND checking “update existing products” no variations are added
sheet with parent and variations WITHOUT checking “update existing products” (the one explained at the top)

I have deleted all parents and orphaned products but still this happens.

Hi there,

Thank you for the additional details!

Is there a chance this is happening because of incorrect SKUs? Variations are matched to parent products according to the ID or SKU.

If that doesn’t help – please upload your .csv file to a service like Wetransfer and paste a link in this thread.

Thank you!

Hi there,

Sorry for my late reply but it does not seem that way.
I added the file through wetransfer:

https://we.tl/t-Z5x9yVLB2A

thank you

Hi @elaxxl,

Sorry for the delay.

I’ve checked out the link you’ve posted above but it seems like the file is no longer available:

https://d.pr/i/UPaAmn

Hi @elaxxl

Just checking-in on this for you again.

Could you provide us a link to the file once again? The link you share via WeTransfer is no longer available: https://we.tl/t-Z5x9yVLB2A

Upon trying to visit it, we are not able to access it, as seen in the following screenshot: https://d.pr/i/UPaAmn

It would be immensely helpful if you could provide us the link to your CSV again.

Thank you!

Hey @elaxxl,

Since we haven’t heard from you in a couple weeks and the file is not accessible, I’m going to close out this thread for now. However, if you still need assistance with this issue, open a new thread and make sure the file is accessible to us so we can take a look. Thanks!