Articles on: Troubleshooting

🛠️ What to do if my synchronization is not working

Sometimes, things don’t sync as expected. SyncBase is designed to make integrations as smooth as possible — but like any system relying on APIs and webhooks, things can occasionally break. This guide helps you identify what went wrong and what to do next.



1 - Look at your Status tab (in the app)


Open SyncBase App in your Shopify admin and go to the Synchronization tab.


There, you can quickly verify three key elements:


  1. Airtable Token Status. Your Token should be Active. If it's not, the sync won't work. Check our Token troubleshooting guide to fix a broken token.
  2. Webhooks. Should be Active — which webhooks should be active depends on your sync direction. Learn more in our Understanding Webhooks guide. If one isn’t active, simply refresh it.
  3. Task Queue. Shows updates waiting to be processed. 👉 See how the queue system works
  4. Errors Monitoring. Surfaces recent sync errors directly in the Status tab. 👉 See how to monitor errors with the Errors sync tab


If any of these four are inactive, broken, or show errors, your synchronization cannot work properly.


If your Task Queue shows tasks stuck waiting to be processed, check the queue article above. Tasks are normally cleared automatically — a large or growing backlog usually means your inputs need to slow down.



2 - Check the “Errors sync” tab (in the synced base)


  1. Open your synced Airtable base.
  2. Go to the tab named Errors sync.
  3. Look for any entries matching the item ID you’re trying to sync.If you find one, click it to see the details.If you don’t find anything here, proceed to the next steps.


👉 Not sure what an error means? Find errors and solutions in the article Monitoring errors with the Errors sync tab


3 - Check the "Last successful update" fields


This is one of the quickest ways to confirm if your sync is actively running.


Each table in your base includes fields showing the last time a successful update was made (from Airtable → Shopify or from Shopify → Airtable).


  1. Make a quick update (for example, change a product title).
  2. Wait a few seconds (sometimes up to a minute).
  3. If the timestamp updates, your sync is working correctly.
  4. If the timestamp does not change, it means the update hasn’t been processed and there may be an issue.




4 - Check if Shopify triggered a webhook


In some cases, Shopify doesn't send any webhook — which means no update is received on our side.


👉 See the list of actions that do not trigger webhooks in Shopify


If the update you're expecting isn’t covered by a webhook, that could explain the issue.



5 - Check your workflow


Some sync issues come from how an update was made, not from a bug.


Common causes to rule out:


  • Auto-generated fields edited manually — Don't manually fill in ID fields (Product ID, Variant ID, Handle...). These are generated by Shopify and filled in by SyncBase automatically. Setting them manually can block or duplicate a record.
  • Linked or lookup fields edited directly — If you're updating a value through a linked record or lookup field instead of its original source field, the change won't sync. 👉 See how linked tables and lookup fields work
  • Large bulk paste or CSV import — Pasting a large volume of data at once can hit Airtable's own rate limits before SyncBase can process every row. This will result in a big number of taks in the queue, making things really slow. Space out large updates using the Bulk Operations guide, or use the bulk update feature instead.
  • Multiple inventory locations — Creating products from Airtable in a store with several Shopify locations and only one location syncs? Shopify only auto-activates the first one. 👉 See the special case for multi-location stores


A delay of a few seconds up to a minute is normal (see step 3). If it's been longer and none of the above applies, move to step 5.


6 - Check if Shopify or Airtable is down


In rare cases, the issue isn't SyncBase itself — it's Shopify or Airtable having an incident on their side. When either platform is down or degraded, syncs can slow or stop until they recover.


Check their official status pages:



If an incident is reported, the sync will usually catch up on its own once the platform is back up — no action needed on your side.


7 - Contact us via our live chat


If nothing shows up in the Errors sync tab and Shopify should have triggered a webhook, please reach out.


You can:



To help us resolve your issue as quickly as possible, make sure to include:


  • Was the sync going from Airtable → Shopify, Shopify → Airtable, or both?
  • The Shopify ID of the item involved (product, variant, order, metafield, etc.).
  • A short explanation of what you tried (e.g. updated a product name, added a new variant, created multiple metaobject entries, etc.).


The more precise you are, the faster we can investigate.


Speed things up: grant us access


If you haven’t already, grant us access to your synced Airtable base — it makes a big difference in how fast we can solve your issue.


👉 See how to share your base with SyncBase

Updated on: 14/07/2026

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