Troubleshooting: Orders not updating platform (writeback)

Overview

This guide aims to help you find out why your orders are not updated in your system with tracking information and marking the orders as fulfilled/shipped after you generate your shipping labels. In Starshipit, we call this process of updating the source orders "Writeback". 

How does writeback work?

This process works by Starshipit using your marketplaces API to send back the correct tracking information based on the label you generated in Starshipit. You can configure writeback to happen either when you print your labels, or when you manifest them. To configure this, go to:

Settings > Integrations > Tick or Untick Write back order updates on manifest (otherwise it occurs on printing of labels)

Not sure what to choose?

  • Unticking the above setting will mean your orders will update the source system as soon as you generate a label in Starshipit. This is a good option to select if you wish to notify customers quickly that the label has been printed. This will mean that if you need to replace/redo the label after you have printed the order, you will need to manually update the order in your platform with the new tracking
  • Ticking the above setting will mean your orders will be updated after you manifest them in Starshipit. This option is good if you do not want to notify customers immediately upon generating a label and instead delay until you're ready to send the order. 

Troubleshooting

If you have noticed some orders have not updated your source system correctly, see below for steps on how to resolve. 

Initial Checks

  • If you have your account configured to write back on manifest, ensure all orders have been manifested and are not archived. 

Retrying the writeback

Starshipit will automatically retry the writeback on your account for all failed orders every 2 hours. If you would like to retry this sooner, you can trigger the writeback manually using the below steps:

For a single order:

  1. Search for the order and open it
  2. Retry the writeback:
    • UI 2.0:  In the top right, select the more actions menu and choose writeback to source system. Refresh the page and check to see if writeback has updated to "Up to Date" on the top of the page
    • Classic UI: 

For many orders:

UI 2.0:

  1. Go to the printed/shipped tab
  2. Identify orders that have failed to writeback by looking for the red exclamation mark in the Writeback column. 
  3. Select the orders 
  4. Select Writeback to source from the dynamic menu at the top

Classic UI:

  1. Go to the printed/shipped tab
  2. Filter the orders by typing "Failed" in the filter field
  3. Select the orders 
  4. Right click > Select Update selected orders in source system

Finding the error

If you're still having trouble, you will need to locate the error causing the order to not writeback. To do this:

  1. Search for the order that did not writeback
  2. Open the order and scroll to the order history section of the order at the bottom of the page. 
    • In classic UI: Find a log that says "Writeback to [Platform]" and click on it to expand the error message
      mceclip0.png
    • In UI 2.0: Find the error in the history section like below:
      mceclip2.png

Common Errors 

Once you have the error, see our list below on suggestions on how to resolve them. If your error is not listed here, check our community which has a comprehensive list of common errors that arise. 

Error Solution
API Limit If you see any errors around API limits, this means that the source system prevented us from writing back due to too many API calls. You can retry the request by using the above section 
403 Unauthorised Any errors regarding being unauthorised, means that Starshipit does not have access to update the orders in your source system. Go through the relavent set up guide for the integration and ensure that the user you have set up has Read and Write Permissions 
Location Not Found Shopify: This error occurs when the location you have specified in Settings > Integrations > Shopify Settings > Fulfilment Location doesn't exist anymore. Update this to the correct location and then retry the writeback
Stock Error The writeback will automatically mark the order is fulfilled. If you get an error related to stock, it is likely that your source system has run out of the item in the order, and as such won't let us update the status.
Ensure you have enough stock in the source system and then retry the writeback
Already Fulfilled/Packed/Authorised Starshipit can only writeback to unfulfilled, unshipped orders. If you get an error about the status of the order, make sure that the order in your source system is in the correct status to allow us to mark the order as fulfilled and send back the tracking 
[Carrier Name] Does not exist  Some platforms (i.e Dear/Unleashed) require you to set up carriers within the platform for the writeback to work. Check out their set up guides and ensure you have followed the required steps for mapping the carrier service
Writeback not required If the order says writeback not required, you may have accidentally disabled writeback. You can go to Settings > Integrations > Integration Settings and check you haven't ticked or unticked settings related to write back. 
Could not save a shipment, see error log for details This error from Magento 2 requires you to check the logs in Magento to find out the error. Please note multi source inventory is not supported with Magento and often the cause of this error 
The fulfillment order has been completed or closed This error is from Shopify and can mean a few things. Typically it is that the order has already been fulfilled. It may also mean that the order has a 3rd party platform as the fulfillment service which will not allow Starshipit to writeback 

 

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.