A list of common store-related errors in ShipStation, what they may mean, and what actions may resolve them.
Below is a list of common error messages that can occur with selling channels connected to ShipStation. These are generic error messages that are common across most websites.
When you see a red exclamation mark next to the Import button at the top of your ShipStation account, hover over the button and click Error updating - see more beneath your store. This will open the Store Errors pop-up window and display the full error message.
If you are receiving one of the errors listed below, but the Possible Solutions do not help you resolve your issue, please contact ShipStation's Support team .
A 400 error is due to some kind of bad request that was not understood on the receiving end. A 500 error is a generic internal server error that takes place on the receiving end.
The 400 and 500 errors listed below are the most common errors you are likely to see when ShipStation sends a request for orders or a shipment notification to your connected selling channel.
Click any error in the list below to see what the error means, the most likely cause, and steps to take to troubleshoot or remedy the error.
When this error occurs:
This error typically appears during the shipment notification to the selling channel or as a result of an invalid character present in the order feed. Think of this as the computer saying, "Does not compute" when trying to process a request.
Reasons for this error:
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You split an order into two orders and your selling channel doesn't recognize the Order ID it is trying to update. (Affects ShipStation Legacy only.)
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There is a special or unsupported character in the order feed. For instance, the phone number for an order shows 512-48@-#282 instead of a valid phone number.
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Check the recent order data for anything that seems out of place, such as special characters or additional products.
Possible solutions:
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Check the recent order data for anything that seems out of place, such as special characters or additional products.
If everything appears normal, contact ShipStation's Support team for further review.
When this error occurs:
This error typically results from an invalid username and password. If you receive this error, verify that you are using an up-to-date username and password to connect the selling channel.
Possible solutions:
If the store is already connected to ShipStation, reconfigure the store connection with the updated credentials.
If you reconfigure the store connection and the error persists, there may be an IP block prohibiting ShipStation from communicating with your selling channel. Whitelist ShipStation URLs to see if this allows the connection to work properly.
The 403 Forbidden error can occur for a couple of reasons:
When this error occurs - Attempting to import orders:
If you receive this error when attempting to import orders, it means the selling channel is rejecting our request. This may be due to some incorrect store connection details.
Possible solutions:
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Try to reconfigure the store's connection to ShipStation.
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Check your selling channel or hosted cart to ensure there are no security plug-ins or other third-party applications that may be interfering with the integration. You may need to whitelist ShipStation to access your site.
When this error occurs - Attempting to notify the selling channel of a shipment:
If you receive a 403 error when ShipStation is attempting to notify the selling channel of a shipment, this is often caused by a security plug-in on the store side.
For instance, if you are using WooCommerce, they can send the orders to ShipStation without issue, but a security plug-in could be redirecting the shipment notification from ShipStation to another location in your WordPress account.
Possible solutions:
You may need to whitelist ShipStation in the plug-in to allow the notifications to go through correctly. In some rare cases, a 3rd-party plug-in may not be compatible with ShipStation, in which case you must disable it. ShipStation's Support team can help you determine if this is the case.
When this error occurs:
This error message means ShipStation was not able to communicate successfully with the endpoint for your store.
Reasons for this error:
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New URL: Your store URL has been updated on the store side, but not in ShipStation.
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Plug-in: If your store uses a plug-in to connect to ShipStation, the plug-in may be out of date.
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Maintenance mode: Your store is in maintenance mode.
Possible Solutions:
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New URL: Reconfigure the store's connection to ShipStation.
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Plug-in: Update the plug-in, or reinstall it.
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Maintenance mode: Make sure your store is live.
Try visiting the URL for your store. If you cannot access it, chances are ShipStation cannot access it either.
When this error occurs:
This error typically occurs when sending shipment notifications to the store.
Reason for this error:
The number of requests from ShipStation to update information is being limited by the store. This is also sometimes referred to as throttling.
Possible solutions:
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Resend the shipment notifications after a few minutes and the error will usually go away.
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If the error persists or you see this error when you try to connect or update your store, contact the ShipStation Support team so that we can review the requests ShipStation makes to the store or marketplace.
When this error occurs:
This error message occurs if the server that hosts the system you are trying to reach is either down or currently unavailable. This is a generic error and can occur for various reasons.
Possible solutions:
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If you've recently made any changes to your store, marketplace, or the server they are hosted on, reconfigure the store's connection to ShipStation.
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If the store is self-hosted, contact your developer to generate a more detailed error log.
When this error occurs:
This error means there is a miscommunication or a bad request between two systems.
Reason for this error:
The store URL could be unavailable or incorrect, or the receiving server is temporarily down.
Possible Solutions
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Check the status of your store platform to ensure there is no temporary outage of their service.
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Reconfigure the store's connection to ensure ShipStation is set to contact the correct endpoint.
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If the store is self-hosted, contact your developer to generate a more detailed error log.
When this error occurs:
This error message means the URL endpoint is not available or otherwise not responding to external communication.
Possible Solutions:
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Check the status of your store platform to ensure there is no temporary outage of their service.
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Reconfigure the store's connection to ensure ShipStation is set to contact the correct endpoint.
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If the store is self-hosted, contact your developer to generate a more detailed error log.
When this error occurs:
This error generally occurs when requests are too large to be handled between the servers that are communicating with each other.
Possible solutions:
If you have a hosted cart and you receive this error when importing orders (especially a small number of orders), you may need to increase your server's timeout value. Ask your web host or website developer to verify the configuration.
The following error messages are other types that you may see when importing orders from a connected store or notifying the store of a shipment. Click any error below to see its meaning, its possible cause, and possible solutions.
Error message:
Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel
When this error occurs:
This error message occurs when ShipStation is trying to connect with a secure URL (https://) but is not able to verify the SSL/TLS certification.
Possible solutions:
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If your site is not hosted on a secure URL, connect ShipStation with the unsecure URL (http://).
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If your site is hosted on a secure URL, review your SSL/TLS certification to ensure it's up to date. If you need to renew your SSL/TLS certification, contact your webmaster or web host.
Error message:
Invalid XML. Error: ''', hexadecimal value 0x1B, is an invalid character. Line [Number], position [Number].' We received: '[String]'
When this error occurs:
This error message typically occurs during store imports because one or more orders has a carriage return in the Ship To address.
Possible Solution:
Check your recent orders (any orders that have not imported into ShipStation) to make sure the addresses are correct and do not contain any carriage returns. The character may not be easily visible, so you may need to edit the address on the store or marketplace to review it.
Error message:
The remote name could not be resolved: '[URL]'
When this error occurs:
Similar to the (503) Service Unavailable error, the remove name error message means the URL endpoint that ShipStation is trying to contact is not available or otherwise not responding to external communication.
Possible solutions:
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Reconfigure the store's connection to ensure ShipStation is set to contact the correct endpoint.
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Check the store platform to ensure there is no temporary outage.
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If the store is self-hosted, contact your developer to generate a more detailed error log.
Error message:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object
When this error occurs:
This error message means ShipStation has communicated with your store but the data is missing one or more required values.
Possible solutions:
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Check your most recent orders (any orders that have not imported into ShipStation yet) to see if there are any values that are out of place. For example, an address in the Company field.
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If the error occurs when ShipStation sends a shipment notification to your store, ensure all products are still in the order. The store or marketplace may reject the call if products are missing. If you split the order in ShipStation, you may need to update the marketplace manually.
Error message:
Input string was not in a correct format
When this error occurs:
This error message means that ShipStation has communicated with your store, but one or more of the values in the order data is missing or in a format that ShipStation cannot process. For example, a weight or unit price sent over as a word instead of a number, or HTML / CSS code is in an unsupported field.
Possible solutions:
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Check your most recent orders (any orders that have not imported into ShipStation yet) to see if there are any values that are out of place.
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Check the order's notes or item options to ensure there is no HTML or CSS in those fields. If HTML or CSS exists in those fields, modify the order on the store and import the orders again to update the orders in ShipStation.
Error message:
See the inner exception for details.
When this error occurs:
This error message typically occurs during store imports.
Reason for this error:
ShipStation encountered an error but does not have a formal message for the error.
Possible solutions:
This is a generic error caused by a few different issues. Most commonly it's caused by a value that is much too large, like a weight or unit price in the billions. Check your most recent orders (any orders that have not imported into ShipStation yet) to see if there are any large values that seem out of place and correct them as needed.