Slow product set updates and imports

There are a number of things that affect how fast (or slow) Product Sets import products into your site and how fast Product Sets update those products.

This article explains why your Product Set imports/updates might be running slow and how to speed them up.

Lack of Traffic

Product Set imports and updates are triggered by the WordPress Cron. The WordPress Cron is a built-in feature of WordPress that tries to execute specific tasks at specific times. We say tries because the WordPress Cron is not a true Cron Task... there's no guarantee that it will run every minute or every hour. The WordPress Cron is triggered by traffic to your site. If there is no traffic to your site, then your WordPress Cron will not be triggered and the time-specific tasks will not run "on time".

What counts as "traffic"?

The WordPress Cron will be triggered by any traffic to your site. This includes visitors browsing the content on your site, search engine bots crawling your site or an administrator navigating the WordPress Admin Area.

What if I have no traffic?

This is normal when you are first setting up a site. The only traffic to your site might be yourself and/or your team. Here's how to trigger "traffic" to your site when you otherwise have none:

1. Go here WordPress Admin Area > Product Sets.
2. Click the title of one of your Product Sets (it doesn't matter which one) and open the "Edit Page" in a new window or tab .
3. Leave the "Edit Page" open.

This method takes advantage of the WordPress Heartbeat, a background function that runs every 15 seconds responsible for revision tracking, session management, and more. Every 15 seconds, the "Edit Page" will process a "heartbeat" and that will in turn make a call to the WordPress Cron triggering any scheduled task.

Advanced Update Settings

If you have modified the settings here WordPress Admin Area > Product Sets > Configuration > Advanced Update Settings, try changing your settings back to their default values:

• Update Interval - Every 7 days
• Cron Interval - Every minute
• Products per Update - 100
• Products per API Request - 100
• Preprocess Maximum - 100
• Postprocess Maximum - 100

How can I make it faster?

One way to really speed up Product Set imports and updates is to change the Cron Interval from "Every minute" to "Every 10 seconds". This can really increase Product Set import/update performance as long as your server can process that many products in a short period of time.

Caching Plugins

Some caching plugins can cause Product Sets to import/update very slowly or not at all. Try deactivating your caching plugins to see if that improves your Product Set import/update performance.

What if I need a caching plugin?

If you need a caching plugin but are finding that your caching plugin is causing your Product Set imports/updates to be slow or stall, try disabling any Object Caching or Database Caching options your plugin might have. This can prevent your caching plugins from bypassing core WordPress functionality and letting the Product Sets run.

Out of Disk or Database Space

One reason why Product Sets can't import or update is because your server or your database (ie. MySQL) is all filled up and out of space.

Ask your web host if you have ample file storage space and database space for your website and increase as necessary.

Incorrect API Keys

Product Sets can't import or update products if your API keys are incorrect. Be sure you have entered your correct Datafeedr API keys here WordPress Admin Area > Datafeedr API > Configuration. You can get your Datafeedr API keys here https://members.datafeedr.com/api.

API Request Limit Reached

If you have used all of your available API requests for the month, your Product Sets won't be able to run. You can check your API Usage here https://members.datafeedr.com/api. If you need more API requests per month, you can upgrade your API plan here https://members.datafeedr.com.