Has Square Online Started to Merge/Sync Categories with Square POS?

[lennys26]

In the past week or 2 I have noticed that my categories in the Retail system are now all duplicated, although frustratingly the items within the duplicates are slightly different.

One of the two 'versions' says that it is "Hidden from all sites", and one has a symbol that when hovered over a pop-up appears referencing "...categories transferred from Square Online..."

• Does anyone (Square?) know what is going on?
• Is Square finally implementing a category sync between the platforms? Did I miss the notification?
• Can I erase one of these duplicates? Do users need to do or be aware of anything?

[FoxandLion]

Yes there has been notifications over the last month or so.  

I had the same question though, I see that on my site some of the photos are mission from categories so when I went in to figure it out I saw this same Hidden from all sites as you have.  

Should we delete one of these or merge them somehow?

[lennys26]

@FoxandLion - Oh! Where did you see notifications about this update?

[FoxandLion]

It looks like August 5th was the first one, and then August 27th.  We had the option to do the update early as well.  Did you get any response about how to manage the duplicates?

[lennys26]

Nope - no response yet.

Once a month or so I get an email from a thread which discusses some changes made, although the changes never seem to have anything relevant to me or the product(s) I use.

I just dropped an email to the support team.

[lennys26]

Just to keep the information flow going, I have reached out to Support and they have asked me for a video of my screen. I am not sure what value that is, nor how that would provide anything additional to the photo that I sent (also in this thread). Now Support have gone dark and are no longer responding. 😑

Anyhow this is affecting my business as I can not add new products (because I cant figure out what categories to put them in), nor can I clean up the categories that exist (because although duplicated, they have different items in each).

Sigh...

Any comments from anyone as to how they have dealt with this? I am tempted to take an inventory dump/backup and then try deleting the duplicate categories, but actually, since the Online platform seems pretty independent from the core Square platform, I am afraid I will break everything.

[asimpleseller]

Here's what we did, after we initiated the merge we deleted the duplicate categories that were not listed as part of Online, and after some work that part seemed to go well.

The trouble we're having now, is that when we go to create a new item, we have two options: the Item section in "Online," which is how we've always done it, and the Item section that exists on its own and that we can choose from the main menu.

Both are completely buggy.

When we go through the old way, the Create Item page is the page we know, and it all goes smoothly ... until we try to add it to a category. There's no way to do that anymore. The category section is a link that brings you off to the store categories.

So if we choose the new Item page off the main menu, we can add the categories. But we can't add quantity! And this page is different, with all kinds of different options, and it looks like ZERO effort was made in terms of user interface, so it's very disturbing and hard to work with.

What I've ended up doing is adding the item using the way we always did (through Online), and then once it's added, going to categories, and in each category we want it to be part of we have to scroll through our inventory and select the new item.

This is obviously a huge hassle and I'm very disappointed in Square for releasing such half-baked software, and doing it with no warnings, no apologies, no discounts, no help.

I really hope they can resolve this quickly and get us back up to speed. We invested so much in this new site, and have had zero sales for a week while this mess has been happening. And it looks so unprofessional. It would be reassuring to know that they are working on a fix.

[lennys26]

@asimpleseller - It is interesting to hear that you add items via the Online side. I have never used the Online section to add items, they just seem to appear there when I add them in the POS side.

Thanks for the feedback. Based on your comments, I am reluctant to do anything... and even more confused as to where/in which system to make the/any future changes. 

Square? Community Managers? Support? Can someone explain what was done, and how users should correct the errors caused? @FoxandLion If you can find a link to any notification you received, perhaps it will help -- either to explain what changes were implemented or as a place to raise isses 

[asimpleseller]

Hey everyone, we have a very happy update to report!

So we've been adding items the old way, with the Create Item page, but this past week we saw that Categories have finally appeared on that page. And you know what? It now works BETTER than ever!

I hope someone from Weebly/Square sees this, because I really want to thank them for everything they did.

In the past, when we would add an item, the Categories section would always lead to trouble. We stream music in our store showroom from the same computer that we use to enter items to the website, and we always hated entering items when customers were in the store, because whenever we got to the "Categories" part and chose them for an item, it would temporarily freeze the computer, the internet connection would hose up, and the music in the showroom would stop. It was so horrible, and yes, very unprofessional.

So now, the Categories section works as it's supposed to. There's no hold up, no hogging the internet connection, no slowdown. It's GREAT!

Bugs are fixed and it's better than ever. Thanks!

[lennys26]

While poking around the Online section of the configurations, I have just noticed that one of my items there shows 3 different categories (!!) while the Square side of the system is only showing 2 categories for that product. I am not sure how that came about as it is a product that has been live and untouched by me for months.

As for any followup from support, they have not replied to anything since Wednesday when someone by the name of Lejohn asked for a screenshot that I had already provided. My guess at this point is that they have closed the case and will just ignore any further contacts about it. In the past, this has repeatedly been my experience when support don't have an answer. They just stop responding.

Being that I am almost blocked from adding products and adjusting my webpage, I may just try taking a backup, and then reload it wiping out the existing data, to see what happens. It cant really get any worse. 

[RobynR]

Hey @lennys26,

I'm sorry to hear you're still experiencing trouble.

Just to confirm, did you reach out to Square or Weebly for support? I checked your support history and didn't see any calls or messages related to the merge or your Square Category, nor any requests for a screenshot or video. However, I see the screenshot you've provided above, and I will go ahead and escalate this to our ECOM team for further insight.

Thank you for your patience and time.

[lennys26]

Hi @RobynR. I raised the case to Square as I always do. Through reading posts I have gathered that Weebly run the online/web portions however officially I do not know about Weebly and, I dont believe, I have seen their name anywhere as a support path, have ever been directed to them, nor know how to contact them.

At this point there are 2 cases, 98475657 and 98705794. I initially had contact with Lejohn and Taku, and most recently Robert O. contacted me to inform me that, "one or more pieces of the information provided does not match what we have on file", whatever that means, and that I needed to call by phone for security reasons.

[Along with providing my name, address, company name, bank account details/number and hardware info,] I have provided screenshots, explanations, pointed the team members to this community thread and even, in an effort to 'assist' support, hinted that the duplicates could be related to work that had been done by Square. But, as is the situation all to often in my experience, when the fix is not a simple, or one of user error which can be easily pointed out, Support just goes silent and stops responding after a response or 2.

[RobynR · Accepted solution]

@lennys26 Thank you for providing those case numbers. It seems that when you initially reached out, the cases were not tied to your account, which is why our representative needed to confirm the correct account information before proceeding. I completely understand how frustrating this has been, and I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Our ECOM team has advised that for some users, categories were duplicated during the category migration. The best workaround for this issue is to simply delete the duplicate category that is marked as "hidden from all sites."

I hope this helps. 

[lennys26]

@RobynR - Thanks. In the meantime (i.e. before I saw your message), I deleted the "hidden from all sites" as you have now suggested and so far, I don't see any negative impact.

If this is a known issue, as you say, I cant understand A) why no one would simply acknowledge this in the first place, or B) why, really, any security concerns exist which blocked any assistance in this instance.

Can I make a suggestion that Square consider switching to some sort of organized trouble ticketing system rather than relying on emails -- Something like Zendesk or the like which is accessible and viewable by the customers? Currently when contacting Support by email, cases are lost, unconfirmed and unresponded to. Apart from the initial auto-reply, case numbers are never noted anywhere and email subjects are always a very generic "Message from Square Support". Emails don't contain the conversation histories, therefore as the ticket is passed between agents and groups, all troubleshooting steps and test results are completely lost (noting that cases seem to rarely stay with the same support person). 

[RobynR]

@lennys26,

Thank you for your feedback! I’m glad to hear that removing the "hidden from all sites" setting hasn’t caused any issues for you so far.

I also appreciate your suggestion regarding a more organized trouble-ticketing system. While our teams do send out emails about upcoming product updates, for any major service disruptions or known issues, we post updates directly on our site here. You also have the option to sign up for outage notifications sent directly to your phone or email.

I understand how frustrating your experience with email support must have been. I’ll be sure to pass along your suggestion to the appropriate team, as we’re always looking to improve the support experience. One thing to note—if email cases aren’t being linked to your account, it might be due to using a different email than the one associated with your main account. I recommend double-checking that you’re using the same email to ensure your interactions are properly linked.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and helping us improve!

[lennys26]

@RobynR The Outage Notification link you provided brings me to the dashboard and nowhere special, and the online help page that refers to 'Outage Notifications' has a link that goes to employee teams and has nothing to do with outages that I can see.

Every step is so painful. My head feels square.

[RobynR]

@lennys26, that's odd. I double-checked the links I sent, and they should be directing you to our Status Page and your Square Dashboard settings where you can set up outage notifications.

No worries—I'll be happy to list the steps here:

To get the latest updates on any system issues, visit www.issquareup.com.

To set up outage notifications (via email, text, or push), log into your Square Dashboard:

1. Select the three horizontal lines.
2. Go to Settings > Account & Settings > Business Information > Outage Notifications.

I apologize for the inconvenience and hope this helps!

[karamae6]

Hello, I am having some similar issues with with the website categories, when the new update took place it moved all the categories from online to the item library. Which is fine and all the items that were in their specific categories are still in them. My issue is that when on my website and you click on the specific category it shows that there are no items in that category. even though it shows on in the item library that there are items in that category. I was wondering if you had the same issue or know of a way to fix this problem.

[lennys26]

Hi @karamae6 . I didnt notice that issue. Sounds like [another] disconnect in the 2 systems. You can try the nuclear option of taking an inventory backup and then reloading it, overwriting what is there. That is what I would try. (Or you can try the Support route).

Just as a note and PSA, I did notice that yesterday (Specifically noticed around 18-20 hours ago) that the platform was not running well -- the platform syncing (Square vs Online) was running VERY slow, other updates were appearing to be set, yet not taking effect, etc.

[JKO]

I am having a similar problem. The categories from the POS are grayed out as "hidden from all sites." But, for example, the "earrings" category, which is marked as hidden from all sites shows 129 items. The "earrings" category that is actually displaying on my site has only 80 items. I shouldn't have to compare them item by item. Without knowing the logic Square was using, I have no idea how to figure out if there is a problem or not.

[FranV]

We had this issue and our updates were not working properly, such as items showing up that were set at unavailable or items set at visible not showing up.  Items with stock showing up as 'out of stock'.  This was occurring before and after deleting the duplicate categories that 'Hidden from site'.  After contacting support, they reindexed our site.  This took care of the issue on the website.  However, now ALL the reporting categories are missing.  While we can import them in, we over 1,000 items and someone has to enter the data on the spreadsheet to import.  Not fun, very time consuming.