thread Re: variation names in Payments Troubleshooting

Item Import: Variations error message

chacheek — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 20:48:13 GMT

I have no variation names and thought it could be left empty. BUt I got the following error message that is preventing me from uploading. Why am I getting this message and how to get arounf it and upload.

An item and its variations must have the same description. Update the descriptions for the following rows

Re: variation names

Goldneye — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 14:43:35 GMT

HI, would you be able to give more information or add a screenshot?

Terri

🛍 Shop my store

Resale Collection - http://bit.ly/HangerHues

Re: variation names

chacheek1 — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 00:33:24 GMT

HI,

Thanks for responding. Hope these pics help. I am a potter and have mostly unique items so don't have variations but many have the same item names. There are many duplicate item names like "bowl" "vase". I could copy all the Item names to the Variation names but I tried that and got the same error message. I uploaded it several times and each time I got a different 4 or 5 items that I was supposed to go check and see if the names were the same.

Charles

Re: variation names

Goldneye — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 01:17:49 GMT

HI, thank you for the screenshots. I'm not familiar with importing inventory, I'm more the website editor side of things. Hopefully someone will come with more information. Hoping for good luck forward.

Terri

🛍 Shop my store

Resale Collection - http://bit.ly/HangerHues

Re: variation names

JustinC — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 13:11:27 GMT

@chacheek1

I think I know what's going on, items that share the same name cannot have different item descriptions. For example - Let's say you have 3 of the same style bowls but different colors, your spreadsheet should look like this:

item variation description

bowl white heat safe ceramic bowl

bowl blue heat safe ceramic bowl

bowl red heat safe ceramic bowl

If you don't have variations of the same product, each product needs to be named differently.

Re: variation names

chacheek1 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 14:51:52 GMT

Thanks. This is a best answer though I don't see anyway to mark it as such. Another secret instruction somewhere? I wish Square was as clear. Examples are always best.

Re: variation names

JustinC — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 13:16:44 GMT

Awesome! Glad I pointed you in the right direction. As for marking best answer - you should see a yellow Mark As Best Answer button below my post that looks like this:

Note, you need to be signed in to mark it. I went ahead and did it for you, so no worries 🙂

@chacheek1

Re: variation names

aarontw — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 19:43:17 GMT

Hey @chacheek1/@chacheek !

We were a little alarmed that you couldn't see the Best Answer button so we did some digging.

To be able to mark a Best Answer, you need to either:

Be the Author of the original post
Have Community Admin Permissions

In this case, you have logged in with 2 different accounts so you could not see the post with only one button. As to why you ended up in a position where you needed to create 2 accounts, that is something we are responsible for and want to work with you on.

-Aaron

Re: variation names

chacheek1 — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 21:40:03 GMT

I am not real sure why I had to create two different accounts. The second time I logged in the program said I was not registered or something. Since I am new I don't know if it was just a password thing but it said it did not recognize me and my password was not good. So I registered again and have had no problem. Is there any way I can get rid of one of the accounts. Preferably the second one if I can still keep the questions and answers. If not just get rid of the first one (chacheek).

Re: variation names

AdamB — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 21:37:36 GMT

It looks like you selected a different location one of the times you logged in so it created a different account. When you log into Seller Community, choose the location that is not your main location and that will get you into the account that isn't using the "1" in your username. If you want to have the usernames swapped so your main location is tied to that username, let us know!

Re: variation names

aarontw — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 18:28:47 GMT

We are working on a fix for this, it should be coming soon! It is very complicated to administer however, so I cannot give a firm timeline.

Re: variation names

MLS-Jessica — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 22:02:07 GMT

HI, I'm having the same issue. Did you ever figure out the solution?

Re: variation names

JJ_ — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 21:15:42 GMT

Hello @MLS-Jessica

In cases like these, it's better to reach out to our Support team over the phone so they can look into the file you are trying to upload and point you in the right direction. Please reach out by phone when you have a moment by logging into your Square account and heading here.

P.S. Welcome to the Seller Community ✨

Re: Item Import: Variations error message

Balocoloc — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 17:36:25 GMT

Talked to support team. You cannot have items with same name and different descriptions even if from different vendors. If you want to play with descriptions of the item you can work with Categories and Variations but description must be the same (or change the name like BowlVendorName1, BowlVendor2 etc.)