Preventing StoreFeeder from Updating Specific Listings

This guide shows you how to use the Listings Import Export page to stop StoreFeeder updating specific listings. Use it when you want StoreFeeder to manage most of your listings on a channel, but not a handful you manage yourself.

What "Controlled by StoreFeeder" means

Every listing in StoreFeeder has a Listing controlled by StoreFeeder setting. When you set it to No for a listing, StoreFeeder stops sending these to the channel for that listing:

stock level updates
price updates
listing detail updates and uploads, such as title, description and other listing fields
automatic relisting on eBay

The listing stays mapped to its product, and it still appears in Listings > Manage Listings. Orders for the listing keep downloading into StoreFeeder, because order download is set per channel, not per listing.

You can change this setting one listing at a time on the listing's own page. When there are several listings to change, the Listings Import Export page lets you do them all in one file.

Note: This is not the same as Ignore Listings. Ignoring a listing only hides it from view. A mapped listing that is ignored is still controlled by StoreFeeder, so its stock and price keep updating.

Before you start

The Listings Import Export page only works with listings that are already mapped to products. Unmapped and ignored listings can't be changed with this method.
The import covers one channel at a time. If the listings you want to exclude are on more than one channel, repeat these steps for each channel.
Decide which listings to exclude. You'll need their Listing SKU or Listing ID. The export in Step 1 gives you both.

Step 1: Export your listings for the channel

Go to Listings > Listings Import Export.
Open the Export tab.
Choose the channel from the Channel dropdown.
Under Fields to Export, tick Controlled by Storefeeder. It isn't ticked by default. Listing ID (Read Only) is always included, and Listing SKU is ticked by default. Leave both in.
Click Export and save the file.

Step 2: Mark the listings you don't want StoreFeeder to manage

Open the file in your spreadsheet editor. The Controlled by Storefeeder column shows True for listings StoreFeeder manages and False for listings it doesn't.

Delete the rows for every listing you want StoreFeeder to keep managing. Your file then only contains the listings you're changing, which makes it much harder to update the wrong listing by mistake.
In the Controlled by Storefeeder column, enter False for each listing that's left.
Delete every other column except Listing SKU or Listing ID (Read Only). You'll use one of these to find the listing.
Save the file as .csv, .xls or .xlsx. The maximum file size is 20 MB.

Your finished file should look like this:

Listing SKU	Controlled by Storefeeder
BLUE-MUG-01	False
RED-MUG-01	False

The column accepts True/False, Yes/No, Y/N, On/Off or 1/0. It isn't case-sensitive.

Warning: Excluding a parent (variation) listing also stops stock and price updates for all its child listings. To exclude only some variations, list those child listings individually and leave the parent controlled.

Step 3: Import the completed file

On the same page, open the Import (Update Existing) tab.
Choose the same channel from the Channel dropdown.
Set Update to Channel as you like. Nothing is sent to the channel for listings that aren't controlled by StoreFeeder, whichever setting you choose.
Click Select File... and choose your file.
Under Key Field, choose the column your file uses: Listing SKU or Listing ID (Read Only). StoreFeeder uses it to find each listing.
Check that the Controlled by Storefeeder column is mapped to the Controlled by Storefeeder field. It maps automatically if you didn't rename the column header.
Leave Skip Blank Fields set to Yes.
Click Import.

When the import finishes, StoreFeeder tells you how many rows were updated and lists any failed rows at the bottom of the page. Large files may finish in the background, and you'll get a message once they're done. Don't run another listing import until the first one has finished.

Step 4: Check the listings are excluded

Go to Listings > Manage Listings and set the Controlled By StoreFeeder column filter to No. The listings you imported should be in the results.

You can also open one of the listings and check that Listing controlled by StoreFeeder is set to No.

Handing a listing back to StoreFeeder

Repeat the steps above with True in the Controlled by Storefeeder column. For a single listing, you can instead open it, set Listing controlled by StoreFeeder to Yes and save.

What happens next depends on the channel's Upload Listings setting:

Upload Listings on: StoreFeeder sends a full listing update for that listing to the channel.
Upload Listings off: nothing is sent to the channel straight away. StoreFeeder picks the listing up again the next time something triggers an update, such as a stock change on the product.

Note: If Upload Listings is on, the full update overwrites the listing on the channel with StoreFeeder's details. Any changes you made directly on the channel while the listing was excluded will be replaced. Copy those changes into StoreFeeder before you turn control back on.

Things to watch for

Re-downloading listings turns control back on. On every channel, if you re-download listings from the channel, StoreFeeder imports them again as a new listing so controlled by StoreFeeder will be enabled by default. This includes listings you excluded. After any listing download, re-import your file from Step 3 to exclude them again.
New listings start as controlled. Listings StoreFeeder downloads from the channel later are controlled by default. Exclude them too if you need to.

Troubleshooting

"A listing with the Listing SKU '…' does not exist."
StoreFeeder couldn't find that listing on the channel you chose. Check the SKU or ID is spelled exactly as it appears in the export, and that you picked the same channel on the import tab. Listings that are unmapped or ignored also show this error. Map or unignore them first.

"The Listing SKU '…' is not unique so it cannot be used as a key field."
More than one listing on the channel shares that SKU. Use Listing ID (Read Only) as the key field instead. Every listing has its own ID.

"'…' is invalid for the 'Controlled by Storefeeder' field. This value should be true, false, yes, no, on, off, 1 or 0."
The cell has a value StoreFeeder doesn't recognise, often a stray space or a word like Disabled. Replace it with False (or True) and import again.

The import says rows were updated, but stock is still changing on the channel
Check that you excluded the listing on the right channel. If you sell the same product on several channels, each channel has its own listing, and each needs excluding separately. Also check the item isn't a child of a parent listing that another tool has set back to controlled.

Still stuck? Contact StoreFeeder support with your account name, the channel name, the file you imported, and the Listing SKU of one listing that isn't behaving as expected. Include the row errors shown at the bottom of the import page, if there were any.