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Metafields Syncing Guide

How to sync custom product and variant fields between Shopify stores

Rayman avatar
Written by Rayman
Updated over 3 months ago

Metafields syncing is a Shopify to Shopify only feature.


This feature is part of the optional Product Settings add on

Contents:


What is Metafields Syncing?

When activated, Syncio's metafield syncing allows:

  1. The Metafield definitions for products and variants from the source store to be copied to a connected destination store.

  2. Product and Variant metafields can be synced:

    1. On initial import of a new product after the [Sync] button is clicked.

    2. Continuously every 24 hours if there is a change to be synced.

    You can keep track of the metafields on the destination store's synced products by clicking into a product/ variant.


How do I use Metafields sync?

Metafields will only sync when both settings on the source and destination side are active.

  1. To use metafields sync, the source store must provide permissions to sync this data first.

  2. The source store can find the toggle to allow metafields sync in their product settings page:

    *Don't forget to save before closing the page.

  3. Once the source store has granted permission to sync their metafields. Any connected destination store can go into their own product settings page and enable the Metafields: Product and variant option.


    The Metafields option can be found under:

    - Product settings
    - Product
    - Ongoing sync

    *Don't forget to save before closing the page.

4. Once both settings are turned on, please try syncing a test product to check if your metafields sync over.

5. Syncio will then request for Shopify to scan and bring over all supported metafields to any synced products after 24 hours.


Considerations

  • Shopify limits 200 metafields per store.

  • Syncio is only able to sync the first 50 metafields.

  • Updates from ongoing metafields sync should complete within 24 hours.

    • Syncio prioritises Shopify network resources for order, stock and standard Shopify fields first.

  • New! Syncio will not overwrite content from matching metafields on destination store only, and will avoid updating metafields that are unique on the destination store.

    • Example: If the destination store has an exclusive metafield for USA size guides, Syncio will leave this metafield alone.

    • In summary metafields sync aims to only copy and sync new metafields and content from source and destination


Supported list of metafields

In addition to the above conditions with the number of metafields Syncio can sync. Here a current list of supported metafields:

Metafield type

One Value

List of Values

Text

Supported

Not supported

Number: Integer

Supported

Not supported

Number: Decimal

Supported

Not supported

Reference

Supported

Not supported

Date and Time

Supported

Not supported

Measurement: Dimensions *

Supported *

Not supported

Measurement: Weight *

Supported *

Not supported

Measurement: Volume *

Supported *

Not supported

Text: Rich Text

Supported

Not supported

Reference, Collection

Supported

Not supported

Reference, Product **

Not supported **

Not supported

File

Not supported

Not supported

Reference, Variant **

Not supported **

Not supported

Reference, Page **

Not supported **

Not supported

Reference, Metaobject **

Not supported **

Not supported

Other: Color

Supported

Not supported

Other: URL

Supported

Not supported

Other: Money

Supported *

Not supported

Advanced: JSON

Not supported

Not supported

Advanced: Mixed reference

Not supported

Not supported

Multi Text

Supported - NEW!

Not supported

*Ensure that the units are the same on both source and destination store metafield definitions.

** We currently do not have permission to sync metafield content that is exclusive to a specific store, for example: a blog page, or product collection.

However, our team is working hard on finding solutions to cover as many metafields as possible.


Should I use metafields sync?

Metafields syncing is best for multi-store use cases. We recommend using metafields syncing if your Shopify stores require a one to one copy of metafields data across all stores.

Metafields syncing is not recommended if you require unique metafields. For example: if your Shopify stores are in different languages.

Additionally for stores using Syncio for dropshipping purposes, we recommend not using this feature as syncing metafields from the source store may add product data that is not useful to the destination account.


Recommendations

Since the current version of metafield sync aims to sync all supported product and variant metafields from source to destination.

Metafields sync is best for destinations that do not have any metafields yet.

For stores already populated with metafields. We have plans to implement additional controls to allow you to pick and choose which metafields to sync over in the near future.


If you have any questions about using this feature, please reach out to: [email protected], or send us a message in app to discuss your needs.

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