Shopify CSV import errors
If your Shopify CSV upload fails, it’s usually caused by a formatting issue (columns, quoting, delimiter, encoding) or a Shopify-specific field rule (like handles, required headers, or variant rows). This guide covers the most common causes and how to find every affected row quickly.
Most common causes in Shopify CSV imports
- Missing or misspelled headers (Shopify expects specific column names)
- Wrong number of columns due to extra commas / malformed quotes
- Handle problems (blank, duplicates, or invalid characters)
- Variant row structure issues (variant rows not aligned to the right product handle)
- Encoding issues (UTF-8 vs Latin-1, BOM, smart quotes)
Examples that commonly break Shopify imports
1) Extra commas / wrong number of columns
Handle,Title,Body (HTML)
my-shirt,My Shirt,Great for summer, lightweight
my-hat,My Hat,Classic fitRow 1 contains an extra comma in the Body field, so Shopify (and many importers) read the row as having too many columns.
2) Malformed quotes
Handle,Title,Body (HTML)
my-shirt,My Shirt,"Great for summer
my-hat,My Hat,"Classic fit"Row 1 opens a quote but never closes it, which can cause Shopify to mis-parse the rest of the file.
3) Duplicate or blank handles
Handle,Title
,my product with no handle
my-shirt,My Shirt
my-shirt,Another ShirtHandles should be present and unique per product. Blank or duplicate handles often cause Shopify import failures or unexpected overwrites.
4) Encoding / smart quotes
Handle,Title
my-shirt,“My Shirt”
my-hat,“My Hat”Smart quotes can appear from copy/paste. Some systems treat these as invalid characters or misread them depending on encoding.
How to diagnose Shopify CSV issues quickly
Shopify errors can be misleading because one bad row can cause failures downstream. CSV Checker scans the entire file and reports all structural and encoding problems at once—so you can fix everything before re-uploading.