Common CSV upload errors and how to fix them

Validation errors during CSV upload are good - they happen before your file touches Etsy, so nothing’s broken in your shop. Here’s the quick fix for each one.

1. Encoding errors (special characters render as é or ?)

Symptom: Accented characters, emoji, and curly quotes show up garbled in the preview.

Fix: Re-save your CSV as UTF-8.

• Excel: File → Save As → choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited).
• Google Sheets: File → Download → Comma-separated values (.csv) (always UTF-8).
• Numbers (Mac): File → Export To → CSV → Advanced Options → Text Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8).

2. “Title is required” / “Quantity is required”

Symptom: Required-field rows are blank.

Fix: Open your CSV, sort by the offending column, and fill in the gaps. Required fields are: title, description, price, quantity, who_made, when_made, taxonomy_id, shipping_profile_id.

3. “Tag exceeds 20 characters”

Symptom: A tag like handmade silver pendant necklace is too long.

Fix: Etsy enforces a 20-character-per-tag limit (spaces count). Shorten the tag, split it into two tags, or drop it. See the tags best practices guide.

4. “Materials exceeds 13 entries” / “More than 13 tags”

Symptom: Too many tags or materials in one cell.

Fix: Etsy caps both at 13. Remove the excess. The CSV template uses pipe-separated values (silver|copper|brass) for these fields; count the pipe-separated entries.

5. “Renewal type must be ‘auto’ or ‘manual’”

Symptom: A column expects an enum and got something else.

Fix: Use the exact values shown in the template’s hint row. Common enums:

Field	Allowed values
renewal_type	auto, manual
state	active, draft, inactive
who_made	i_did, someone_else, collective
when_made	made_to_order, 2020_2026, 2010_2019, 2006_2009, etc.
is_personalizable	true, false

6. “Shipping profile ‘X’ does not exist”

Symptom: You named a shipping profile that doesn’t match any in your shop.

Fix: Either create the shipping profile in Etsy first, or use one of the profiles Everlyst lists in the upload preview’s dropdown. Profile names are case-sensitive.

7. “Section ‘X’ does not exist”

Symptom: Same problem, sections.

Fix: Create the section in Etsy first (Shop manager → Listings → Sections), or use an existing section name exactly as written.

8. “Image URL is unreachable”

Symptom: A row’s image_url_1 returns 404 or is behind login.

Fix: The image URL must be publicly accessible (HTTPS, no auth required). Etsy fetches it directly. Re-host on a public CDN, Cloudinary, or your own site, then put the public URL back in the CSV.

9. “Numeric value out of range”

Symptom: A price is negative, or quantity exceeds 999.

Fix: Etsy ranges:

Field	Range
price	0.20 – 50,000.00 (USD; other currencies similar)
quantity	0 – 999
processing_min / processing_max	1 – 30 (days)

10. Mid-upload errors after partial success

Symptom: 47 of 100 listings created, then a network blip stops the rest.

Fix: Everlyst keeps a per-row status report. Click Retry failed rows to resume only the unfinished ones - already-created listings are skipped automatically.