product import tick box clarification

Hey there!

But what will happen exactly when it’s UNTICKED.

If you choose not to enable update existing products, any products in the import that match existing products will be skipped. That’s true even if changes have been made to the product in the CSV file. The entire product will be ignored and you won’t get duplicates.

If you enable update existing products, then any changes you make to the product in the CSV file will then overwrite the product in the WooCommerce site. Products that don’t exist will be skipped.

Then what if I want to have existing products updated but NOT SKIPPING adding in non-exist products?

You’d need to run the importer twice with the settings that you need. I’d recommend having a new file for new products, as those aren’t part of the Woo site yet. When you’d like to update existing products, export a new version from the site so that you know that you have the latest information. Once the products are part of the Woo site, they’ll be included in that export.

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For your reference, here are my testing notes:

1. Exported simple product “sunglasses”
2. Changed price in CSV from 90 > 50
3. Tried to import without enabling update existing products. Result: A product with this ID already exists.

1. Continued with the same CSV, where sunglasses price has been changed from 90 > 50
2. Copied the product and renamed it to sunglasses-2, removing the product ID
3. Imported with updating existing products enabled > original sunglasses product price was updated from 90 > 50, new product was skipped.