Question about catalog sync

I am wondering how the catalog sync exactly works. In the settings under the tab “Product Sync” we have product sync set to disabled. Still, all new products are synced to the catalog on Facebook.

Huh, that is odd!

Do you want to keep the products you have on the Facebook side? If not, you might try using this method:

https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/facebook-for-woocommerce/facebook-for-woocommerce-delete-or-reset-all-facebook-products/

… to delete them all, and then see if new ones show up after that.

Failing that, try going to this link, but on your own domain:

https://www.example.com/wp-admin/options.php

Once there, search for wc_facebook_enable_product_sync. What does that option contain as a value?

Lastly, when you create a new product, can you try changing this option:

https://d.pr/i/WeYy3I/4dDnmdT53l

… to prevent it syncing?

Hello and thanks for your answer!

This was actually discovered after a misunderstanding at work. I had disabled the syncing of products because our Facebook manager person did not want the shop page to appear on our page. At the same time, I guess they figured out how to disable it. I thought that the disabling of product sync did the trick, but those managing Facebook actually want the products to sync because of ads!

So we have gone for half a year where I have thought no products have been synced and they have had all new products synced to use in ads. We have specific products we absolutely don’t want to sync, and those are disabled on a per product basis. That seems to work.

wc_facebook_enable_product_sync is set to “no”, and has been that way for at least 6 months. Products that did not exist in our store until last week are in our Facebook catalouge.

So I guess I just wanted to know what is supposed to happen with the different options. The way it is now is fine, but if a new update can suddenly disable product sync because it is set to “no”, then I will need to activate it again!

Hi @dekadinious,

The way it is now is fine, but if a new update can suddenly disable product sync because it is set to “no”, then I will need to activate it again!

Glad to know it works just fine for you at the moment.

Updating the plugin is not expected to change your current settings. Please keep close eyes on the behavior after updating the plugin.

Best!

Sorry, I might be a bit OCD about this, but I need to understand how it works. Why do the products sync when product sync is disabled? Even if we want the products to sync, I need to understand why they sync when they supposedly should not?

Because if we later want them to not sync, that setting should do it, right? But it doesn’t?

This comment by one of our developers should shed some light on what seems to be happening:

https://github.com/woocommerce/facebook-for-woocommerce/issues/2022#issuecomment-861814079

I believe (but I’m still trying to confirm) that even with the product sync setting unchecked, Facebook is likely still pulling the feed file of product data from your site. That’s why new products are still being added to the FB catalog.

To disable the feed file as well, you would need to manually set the wc_facebook_legacy_feed_file_generation_enabled setting to no, here:

https://www.example.com/wp-admin/options.php

(Of course, replace example.com with your own domain.)

That said, it sounds like your Facebook folks do want the products to sync over for ads. In that case, I’d probably not touch anything if how you have it now is working OK. ??

Does that make sense? Let us know if not.