Troubleshooting Google Product Review Feed

Symptoms:

• Feed generates but contains no reviews
• XML file is nearly empty
• "0 reviews" shown in Feeds overview

Solution:

1. Check for approved reviews:

   • Go to Marketing → User Content → All Reviews
   • Filter by Status: Approved
   • Verify reviews exist for the target store view

2. Check store view scope:

   • Reviews must be visible in the store view you're generating for
   • Go to review edit and check "Visible In" field

3. Verify module settings:

   • Ensure General > Enabled = Yes
   • Ensure Feed Generation > Enable = Yes for this store

4. Check review-product association:

   • Reviews must be linked to products
   • Orphaned reviews (deleted products) won't appear

Prevention:

• Regularly moderate and approve reviews
• Verify store view visibility when approving

Symptoms:

• Error when clicking Generate in admin
• CLI command returns error
• No feed file created

Solution:

1. Check file permissions:

   ls -la pub/media/
   # Should be writable by web server
   

2. Check disk space:

   df -h
   

3. Review error logs:

   tail -100 var/log/google_product_review/error.log
   

4. Try CLI generation for detailed errors:

   bin/magento google-product-reviews:feed:create --store-id=1
   

5. Clear cache and try again:

   bin/magento cache:flush
   

Symptoms:

• Feed generates but products have no GTIN/MPN/SKU
• Google Merchant Center reports identifier warnings
• Low review matching rate

Solution:

1. Verify attribute mapping:

   • Go to Configuration → Data section
   • Check GTIN attribute is correctly selected
   • Verify the attribute contains data

2. Check product data:

   • Edit a product in admin
   • Verify the GTIN attribute has a value
   • Check attribute is set for the correct store view

3. Test attribute data:

   # Check if products have GTIN values
   bin/magento dev:query:sql "SELECT sku,
     (SELECT value FROM catalog_product_entity_varchar WHERE entity_id = e.entity_id AND attribute_id = YOUR_GTIN_ATTR_ID) as gtin
   FROM catalog_product_entity e LIMIT 10"
   

4. Verify attribute scope:

   • GTIN attribute should be Global or Website scope
   • Store-scoped attributes may cause issues

Symptoms:

• Feed uploads but shows errors
• Reviews not appearing in Google Shopping
• Validation errors in Merchant Center

Solution:

1. Common rejection reasons:

   Invalid XML structure:

   • Download feed and validate XML syntax
   • Check for special characters in review content

   Missing required fields:

   • Ensure Publisher is set
   • Verify reviews have content (not just ratings)
   • Check product identifiers are present

   Date format issues:

   • Timestamps should be in ISO 8601 format
   • Module handles this automatically, but check for database issues

2. Validate before submitting:

   • Use Google's feed testing tool in Merchant Center
   • Check "Diagnostics" tab for specific errors

3. Review content quality:

   • Reviews with only ratings (no text) may be rejected
   • Very short reviews might be flagged

Symptoms:

• Feed not updating automatically
• Last generation time not changing
• Manual generation works fine

Solution:

1. Check cron is running:

   bin/magento cron:run --group=default
   # Or check cron_schedule table
   

2. Verify cron configuration:

   • Feed Generation → Use Cron = Yes
   • Cron Frequency is set

3. Check cron schedule table:

   SELECT * FROM cron_schedule
   WHERE job_code LIKE '%google%product%review%'
   ORDER BY scheduled_at DESC LIMIT 10;
   

4. Look for cron errors:

   grep -i "google" var/log/cron.log
   

Symptoms:

• Reviews appearing for different products than expected
• Configurable/simple product mismatch
• Parent product reviews on child products

Solution:

1. Check Product Type setting:

   • Go to Data → Product Types section
   • Review "What product to use for Reviews" setting

2. Understand the options:

   • Use connected - Uses exact product review was submitted for
   • Force parent - Always uses configurable product
   • Parent and all simples - Links to all related products

3. For configurable products:

   • Decide if reviews should be at parent or child level
   • Adjust setting accordingly
   • Regenerate feed

Symptoms:

• Feed URL returns 404
• Cannot download feed from external URL
• Works in admin but not publicly

Solution:

1. Check file exists:

   ls -la pub/media/google_product_review/
   

2. Verify web server configuration:

   • Ensure pub/media is accessible
   • Check .htaccess rules aren't blocking XML files

3. Test direct access:

   curl -I https://yourstore.com/media/google_product_review/google-product-reviews.xml
   

4. Check for CDN issues:

   • If using CDN, ensure XML files aren't cached incorrectly
   • Verify CDN passes through to origin for this path