Error Bypass & Auto-fill for Missing Data
These settings let you keep products in your feed even when they are missing required fields — instead of excluding them, the module fills in defaults or relaxes the validation rules.
Available since v1.6.0
Overview
Facebook's product catalogue specification requires every item to have an identifier (EAN, UPC, or brand), a description, and clean HTML content. If a product fails any of these checks, it is excluded from the feed by default.
For many stores this is too strict. Handmade goods, vintage items, and store-brand products often lack standard barcodes. Products migrated from another platform may have no description text. Visual composers and page builders may inject shortcode tags like [vc_row][/vc_row] that Facebook rejects.
The Error Bypass settings, found under Product Options in the module configuration, give you fine-grained control: you can auto-generate missing descriptions, assign a fallback brand, suppress GTIN output, or collect every error for a product instead of stopping at the first one.
Configuration
- Go to Modules > Module Manager and click Configure next to Facebook & Instagram Product Catalogue Feed Pro.
- Open the Product Options tab.
- Scroll down to the Error Bypass section.
- Adjust the settings described below and click Save.
Settings Reference
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Allow products without EAN, UPC or Manufacturer | Yes | When enabled, products that have no valid barcode are kept in the feed instead of being excluded. |
| Mass assign manufacturer to products without identification | Shop name | A brand name applied to every product that has neither a valid EAN/UPC nor a manufacturer already assigned. |
| Generate Missing Descriptions | Yes | When enabled, the module creates a description for any product whose description field is empty. The generated text uses the template you enter in Description Generation. |
| Description Generation | {name}, {category}. {meta-description} | The template used to build auto-generated descriptions. Supports four tokens and is stored per language. |
| Get all product errors? | No | By default the module skips a product at the first error it encounters. Enable this to collect every error for each product so the Errors tab shows the complete list. |
| Remove non valid HTML from description | No | Strips shortcode-style tags (e.g. [tag][/tag], [/vc_row]) from descriptions before writing them to the feed. Use this when you have a visual composer that leaves tag syntax Facebook cannot parse. |
| Disable GTIN Generation | No | Omits the <g:gtin> field entirely from every product entry. Use this if your store auto-generates placeholder barcodes that fail Facebook's GTIN validation. |
How Each Setting Works
Allow products without EAN, UPC or Manufacturer
Facebook requires at least one product identifier. The module validates that a product has either a valid EAN-8, EAN-13, UPC-12, or UPC-14 barcode. If it has none, it also checks for a manufacturer name as a fallback.
When Allow products without EAN, UPC or Manufacturer is disabled (the strict mode), any product that fails this check is excluded and appears in the Errors tab under the "identifier" error type.
When it is enabled, that check is bypassed and the product stays in the feed. To satisfy Facebook's feed spec, you should also fill in the Mass assign manufacturer field so every product without a barcode still carries a brand name.
Mass Assign Manufacturer
This field works as a safety net alongside the bypass above. If a product has no valid barcode and no manufacturer assigned in PrestaShop, the module writes the value you enter here as the <g:brand> field. It does not modify any product data in your store — the assignment only appears in the generated feed file.
The default value is your shop name (taken from the PrestaShop global setting PS_SHOP_NAME). You can change it to any brand or store name that describes your catalogue.
If you enable "Allow products without EAN, UPC or Manufacturer" you should always set a value in "Mass assign manufacturer". Leaving it blank may produce feed entries with no identifier at all, which Facebook will reject during catalogue review.
Generate Missing Descriptions
Facebook requires every product to have a description of at least a few words. When this setting is enabled, the module checks each product's description field. If it is empty, the module builds a description on the fly using the template in Description Generation and includes that text in the feed. The original product data in your store is not changed.
The minimum length check used by the module is 10 characters for the final selected description. If the generated text from your template also resolves to fewer than 5 characters (after stripping spaces), it is treated as empty and the product is still excluded.
Description Generation Template
This is a per-language text field. You can write a different template for each language in your store. The module replaces the token placeholders with values from the product at generation time.
Available tokens:
| Token | Replaced with |
|---|---|
{name} | The product's name |
{meta-title} | The product's SEO title |
{meta-description} | The product's SEO meta-description |
{category} | The name of the product's default category |
You can combine tokens freely with static text. See the examples section below.
Get All Product Errors
By default, when the module finds the first error for a product (for example, a missing name), it stops checking that product and marks it as excluded. This saves processing time but means the Errors tab only shows the first failure for each product.
When you enable Get all product errors, the module continues checking even after finding an error, so every failing condition is recorded. The product is still excluded from the feed, but the Errors tab shows all the reasons — making it easier to fix them in bulk.
Enable this setting temporarily when you are diagnosing why many products are missing from the feed. Disable it again once you have resolved the issues, so the generation cycle returns to its faster default behaviour.
Remove Non Valid HTML from Descriptions
Some page builder modules (like Visual Composer or WPBakery) insert shortcode syntax into text fields. When imported into PrestaShop these tags often end up in description fields as text, for example: [vc_row][vc_column]Product details here[/vc_column][/vc_row].
Facebook's catalogue ingestion rejects descriptions containing this syntax. When you enable this setting, the module strips any [tag] and [/tag] style content from both the full description and the rich text description fields before writing them to the feed.
Disable GTIN Generation
When this is enabled, the module omits the <g:gtin> element from every product entry in the feed. The field is simply not written — it does not appear with an empty value.
Use this if your store uses a plugin or custom code that auto-fills EAN/UPC fields with dummy numbers. Facebook validates GTIN values against a global database; fake or auto-incremented numbers cause catalogue errors. Disabling GTIN output entirely is safer than submitting invalid values.
This setting affects all products. If some of your products have genuine barcodes and others have fake ones, consider cleaning the fake values in PrestaShop's product catalogue instead of disabling GTIN globally.
Usage Examples
Example: Handmade goods with no barcodes
You sell handmade ceramics. None of your products has an EAN or UPC. Enable Allow products without EAN, UPC or Manufacturer and set Mass assign manufacturer to your studio or brand name (e.g. "Studio Ceràmica"). Every product will appear in the feed with your brand name as the identifier, satisfying Facebook's requirement.
Example: Products imported without descriptions
You migrated 500 products from another platform and many have empty description fields. Enable Generate Missing Descriptions and set the template to {name}. {meta-description}. The module will build a description from each product's name and SEO meta-description for any product where the main description is blank.
Example: Visual composer shortcodes in descriptions
Your previous theme used a visual composer. Descriptions like [vc_row][vc_column]Great product[/vc_column][/vc_row] are causing Facebook to reject entries with "invalid description" errors. Enable Remove non valid HTML from descriptions. The module will strip the shortcode tags, leaving only "Great product" in the feed.
Important Notes
- The Description Generation template is multilingual. If you store has two active languages, configure a template for each language using the language switcher next to the field.
- All error bypass settings apply during feed generation only — they do not modify any product data in your PrestaShop database.
- The generated description must resolve to more than 5 non-space characters after token substitution, otherwise the product is still treated as having no description.
- Allow products without EAN, UPC or Manufacturer bypasses the identifier check but does not suppress the
<g:identifier_exists>false</g:identifier_exists>flag — the module still informs Facebook that no identifier is available. - These settings are stored per-shop in a multi-shop environment.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Products are still excluded even with "Allow without EAN/UPC" enabled | Check the Errors tab — the product may be failing for a different reason (no image, no name). Enable Get all product errors to see every issue at once. |
| Generated descriptions appear as the raw template string | The template field is multilingual. Make sure you have saved a template value for the language currently being generated, not just the default language. |
| After enabling "Remove non valid HTML", descriptions are now too short and products are excluded | The shortcode tags made up most of the description content. You will need to add real description text to those products in PrestaShop. |
| Enabling "Disable GTIN" did not resolve catalogue errors about invalid GTINs | Facebook may have already cached the invalid values. Re-submit the catalogue manually from your Facebook Commerce Manager after regenerating the feed. |
| The Errors tab still shows "identifier" errors after enabling the bypass | Save the configuration and regenerate the feed. The bypass only applies to the next generation cycle — old error records are from a previous run. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does enabling "Allow products without EAN, UPC or Manufacturer" mean Facebook will approve all my products?
Not necessarily. Facebook will receive the products, but it may still flag items without unique identifiers for manual review. Using a consistent brand name in the manufacturer field improves your chances of catalogue approval, especially for handmade or custom products.
Will the auto-generated description appear on my product pages in the store?
No. The generated description is written directly into the feed file at generation time. It is never saved back to the PrestaShop database, so your product pages are not affected.
My products have both valid barcodes and fake auto-generated ones — which does the module use?
The module validates the EAN13 and UPC fields and checks that the value length is 8, 12, 13, or 14 characters. If either field passes, the GTIN is used. To avoid submitting fake values, clear the auto-generated numbers from the products that have them, or enable Disable GTIN Generation to omit the field entirely.
Can I use the {meta-title} token even if my products do not have a custom SEO title?
Yes. If the product has no custom SEO title, PrestaShop typically returns the product name for that field, so the token will still resolve to something useful rather than being blank.
If I enable "Get all product errors" will my feed generate more slowly?
Slightly, because the module continues checking all conditions for every product instead of stopping at the first failure. The difference is small for most catalogues. Disable the setting once you have finished your diagnostics.