Whoa! What happened to sync between Square and Square Online

[purplebutterfly]

We used to have a setting that allowed us to designate that new items created in Square Dashboard would sync over to Square Online but would be marked "unavailable." That was great. It satisfied my way of working. I would create an Square dashboard. When I had time, I would go to Square Online and add a photo, description, categories and any other thing particular to online sales. THEN, I would mark it Visible.

Not, the bright product managers have given us only and option to have items automatically sync to Square Online and become available  (without photos, descriptions, categories, etc). or to have some other way to syncing that is totally unclear. So, you have to turn this option on.

Note, they rolled this out with auto sync turned off. HUH??? I had to call them to find out what the hell was happening with sync after items that I created in Square Dashboard hadn't shown up for three days.

Give us back the old option to sync automatically but with item Unavailable.

[#2]

Hello @RobinM and @purplebutterfly and everyone who has been watching this thread. I'm happy to report that the issues you've been experiencing should be resolved as of today. If you come across any problems or anything unexpected, please let me know (but also reach out to the support team to report any potential bugs). Thank you all so much for your patience. 🙏

[#3]

Hi @purplebutterfly, @RobinM, @keicollective, @Thevioletfox and all. The Square Online team let us know this was not an intentional change and they are working to get it fixed. I know this is annoying and causing a lot of issues for you all, so hopefully this will be resolved soon. Thanks for your patience - I'll follow up here as soon as we have an update. 

[HarborBead]

I totally agree. They need to put it back the way it was. I liked being able to add my products using Squares excel Upload features. That way I could add all the new products at once but not have them available on the website until I went and added photos and set it to available. I don't like having to add items from library just to move them over to the online site and then go back and switch them to unavailable until I have all their pictures ready. Takes me way more time than I'd like or have available to do. Especially when I'm only 1 person trying to manage everything. I like to use my time for other important things, like customer service.

[purplebutterfly]

Is anyone from Square monitoring this thread???  If so, why no official response to what is a serious failure in critical thinking to implement this change. Restore the proper sync methodology or at least make what people what an option and keep what your product managers misguidedly believe makes sense as a workflow.

[RobinM]

I wonder too - is anyone from Square monitoring this post?  An update, even if "we are working on it" would be really helpful!!! I just spent double the time necessary to load new items.  This is ridiculous!  AND...I'm still waiting for an email, or call back from when I first called customer service about this - now nearly 2 weeks? 

[FGFgifts]

To be possibly the lone voice of dissent here... I, too, was taken off guard by the new arrangement, but having had a week to digest it, here are my thoughts...

On the frustrating side:

• There should definitely have been some kind of pop-up letting us know this change was coming. It obviously struck a nerve, and we're served notifications for all kinds of other things, so it seems it would have been easy enough to do.
• Having an option to sync as "unavailable" is an option that needs to be added back in for those who have found it more functional to work that way.
• The "Add Items From Library" button does disappear when using a filter, and only seems to come back if the filter is removed AND the page is reloaded.

BUT, on the useful side:

• I've been playing with the auto-sync turned OFF, and am finding it easier to locate the items that need to be dealt with right now. Previously I just scrolled through my item list alphabetically (or searched for specific items individually) looking for items without pictures. The A's and B's got lots of attention...everything else, not so much.
• As an experiment I went through and removed everything that didn't have an image--it was over a quarter of my 3000+ SKUs. And a lot of those are back-end items that don't even need to be listed in my online items, so they'll stay out of the list going forward.
• Items are listed most-recent first, so they're grouped more by vendor/alike items since that's the order they got created in the system. Much more intuitive than alphabetical for this part of the process.
• I can also filter for items that have X number in stock, so I can deal with things that I've just ordered and haven't come in yet, or items that have been languishing in stock but unrepresented on the website.

Still playing with it, and it's taking some getting used to, but I am finding it to be helpful in several ways--once the initial shock wore off 😖

[ElisabethB]

Hi @purplebutterfly and everyone - thanks for sharing your feedback and experiences here. I'm not aware of any launches that should have caused the things you're describing, but our Square Online Community Manager @AdamB might have more information for us. 

[AdamB]

Thanks for the tag, @ElisabethB - I am checking with the Square Online team to see why that option is no longer shown. I checked my own account and it wasn't there for me, either.

[Thevioletfox]

So what happens if we create an item in Square Online? Does it not sync to Square anymore?

[Ria]

Hi @Thevioletfox - So nice of you to pop in on the discussion The Seller Community is always excited to see you 😊

Great Question.

The sync between Square and Square Online is still functioning. Some sellers have expressed that they have run into some trouble and our engineers are actively working to get those issues resolved. We are keeping an eye on the conversation to ensure that every issue is promptly addressed. Please feel free to let us know if you experience any issues with the syncing on your account. 

As always, feel free to stop by The Community with question, concerns and even feature requests. We are more than happy to assist. ✨

[Thevioletfox]

Thanks, @Ria  🙂

[purplebutterfly]

@Riahave you read the thread?????  Yes, sync is technically working (if you turn it back on after Square turned it off) but it syncs with items Visible. We NEED an option (we used to have) to sync with items UNavaiable  make that happen. 

[RobinM]

Yes, this exactly!!!! 

We MUST have the option to have items synced unavailable.  

SQUARE, you are IGNORING the issue! 

[Thevioletfox]

Sounds like they're working on it and we should have an update soon.

[purplebutterfly]

Living in La La land.

[ElisabethB]

Hi @purplebutterfly, @RobinM, @keicollective, @Thevioletfox and all. The Square Online team let us know this was not an intentional change and they are working to get it fixed. I know this is annoying and causing a lot of issues for you all, so hopefully this will be resolved soon. Thanks for your patience - I'll follow up here as soon as we have an update. 

[gouldstore]

Hi @ElisabethB Thank you for the update from the Square Online Team 🙂 

[purplebutterfly]

Tick Tock. The clock is clicking and nothing has changed. I suspect you're being less that honest that it was "unintentional" and will be fixed soon. Patience is running out. 

[RobinM]

Elisabeth, 

Any updates on this yet?  your last post was 3 weeks ago.  

Thank you

[ElisabethB]

Hi @RobinM, @purplebutterfly, and everyone else waiting on this issue. I'm sorry I haven't provided any updates recently, but I just re-pinged the responsible product team to ask for news. I'll let you know if I hear anything different, but for now it's safe to assume they are still working on it. Thanks for your patience - I know this is frustrating for you. 😞

[ElisabethB]

I just heard back from them - they let me know that they're starting the QA process now, so hopefully not too much longer. I'll follow up here when I have updates. Thank you again!

[ElisabethB]

Hello @RobinM and @purplebutterfly and everyone who has been watching this thread. I'm happy to report that the issues you've been experiencing should be resolved as of today. If you come across any problems or anything unexpected, please let me know (but also reach out to the support team to report any potential bugs). Thank you all so much for your patience. 🙏

[gouldstore]

Hello @ElsabethB. Thank you for the update- but on my Square Dashboard, I still have add to Library. Can you tell me what the Support Team fixed?

Thank you 😄