Feed broke again after reconnecting the Google & YouTube app? Make your fix in Shopify, not only in Merchant Center. Then check two things on one affected product: its ID stayed the same, because Google says a changed ID overwrites the product and its history, and its availability matches on the page, in the data and at checkout.
Feed fixed itself, then broke again? Check these before you reconnect one more time.
Common patterns:
- After a reconnect, products slowly drift back to "page unavailable", sometimes hundreds at once.
- The feed syncs after a small tweak, then breaks again for months.
- Disconnecting and reconnecting the app doesn't stop the problem coming back.
- The feed repopulates on its own and your manual fixes in Merchant Center disappear.
Checks:
- Fix the data at the source, in Shopify. The Google & YouTube channel syncs your products from Shopify to Merchant Center automatically, and you update listings from your Shopify admin. A fix made only in Merchant Center can be replaced by the next sync. (This last point is our reading of how syncing works; Shopify and Google don't state it directly.)
- Compare product IDs before and after the reconnect. In Merchant Center, look at the ID of one affected product. Google says to keep each product's ID stable, and that changing it overwrites the product and its history. If a reconnect produced new IDs (for example a different country code inside the ID), the old items and their history don't carry over. (Google states the ID rules. That a reconnect can change IDs is our reading, not something Google or Shopify states.)
- Match availability on the page, in the data and at checkout. Google disapproves a product when availability differs between the landing page, structured data, checkout and your product data. Check variants one by one; each variant's availability must match its page.
- Check the landing page itself. "Page unavailable" style errors are about the page Google is sent to. Use the landing-page/URL guide v1.1 checks on one affected product.
- Change one thing, then wait. Note the date, make one fix in Shopify, and let the next sync and Google's recheck run before judging it. Reconnecting again in the meantime makes it hard to tell what worked. (This is practical advice, not a Google rule.)
Next step: pick one product that keeps breaking. Write down its ID, availability and link in Merchant Center, then the same values in Shopify and on the live page. Fix the mismatch in Shopify, not in Merchant Center.
Not covered here: why a specific store's app connection fails. That needs the store's own Shopify and Merchant Center diagnostics, or Shopify/Google support.
Synthetic example (made up for illustration, not a real store)
Before reconnect: ID shopify_CA_111_222, availability in_stock, page says "Sold out" -> disapproved.
After reconnect: new ID shopify_ZZ_111_222 appears as a new item with no history; the page still says "Sold out", so it is disapproved again.
Fix: set the variant's stock correctly in Shopify so the page and synced data both say in stock or both say out of stock.
Next step
If the issue is an allowlisted feed-field fix, request the CAD 149 done-for-you job. Shipping and URL problems stay on the free diagnostic path today.