Troubleshooting

Issues with imports are one of our most common support related queries. As a result we've put together the ultimate troubleshooting guide for you to follow.

Please read through the common issues below:

My import isn't running

The first thing to establish in this case is:

i) Is the import not executing at all

or

ii) Is the import running, but facing an error

The best place to check for both of these is the logs. View the logs and see whether log entries are being created.

If there is no log at all and the imports simply aren't executing it's likely down to automated tasks not running. We have a section on 'Automated Tasks' in our 'Requirements' guide.

If there is a log then look in the logs to see what error(s) are showing.

My import isn't completing

Your imports are automatically running. That's great. But they're not finishing?

This is almost always down to imports timing out.

If you have it set to store media as 'Media Files', importing these images and floorplans etc take a while to download and resize (and optimise as well if you're using a plugin like Smush).

In this case you have a few options:

  1. Keep letting the import run until all media has been imported. If this is a new import it's common for media to take a long time to import as it's all imported for the first time. Each time it runs it should get a little further.

  2. Enable the 'Download media in background queue' setting in the import settings:

    This will ensure the property data is processed first, and then a separate background process will import any media separately.

  3. Store media as URLs. This removes the need to physically download the media but does come with other drawbacks.
  4. Increase the timeout limit on the server. This is normally a PHP setting called max_execution_time but there can be other timeout related settings depending on your hosting. Your hosting company should be able to assist with this.

My property is importing but with the wrong data

If the field not importing correctly is a custom field like property type, status or price qualifier, it's almost guaranteed to be an issue with the fact the 'Custom Field Mapping' part of the property import isn't complete. You'll need to ensure all the mappings have been completed and a full feed has re-ran.

If the field not importing correctly is another field (bedrooms, postcode etc) the first thing to do is to see what is being sent by the CRM.

To do this you can search for the property in Property Hive, click into the property record and at the top click 'Show Import Data':

This will expand to show a dump of the data received from the CRM the last time the property was imported:

If the data in question is wrong here it's a question for the CRM.

If the data in question is correct here but wrong in Property Hive, that needs further investigation.

My properties aren't getting removed

There are a few common reasons why properties might not get removed from Property Hive, even though they're no longer present in the feed from the CRM:

  1. The imports aren't completing. The removal part of the import happens last so if the imports aren't completing and aren't getting that far, then no removals will be taking place.
  2. The property is actually still being sent in the feed. To confirm this you can check the logs and see if the property reference or ID is mentioned there.

  3. The property was added manually or via another import. An import will only be responsible for properties that it originally imported.

    If you have Import A and it runs and imports Property A, then you delete Import A and setup Import B, Property A will always remain unaffected.

    You can check if this is the case by searching for the property in Property Hive, click into the property record and at the top you'll see a message like this:


  4. The last possible reason for a property not getting removed is that you have the 'Don't remove properties automatically' setting ticked in the import settings:

I want to import a custom field

If there's a field sent in the feed from the third party that you want to import, but Property Hive doesn't have such a field, the solution is as follows:

  1. Create an 'Additional field' (link) using the free Template Assistant add on.
  2. Add a custom snippet. Let's pretend the additional field you've created was called 'Pool', and the feed by the CRM was in JSON and their field was called 'pool', your custom snippet might look something like so:
add_action( "propertyhive_property_imported", 'import_custom_field', 10, 2 );
function import_custom_field( $post_id, $property )
{
    if ( isset($property['pool']) )
    {
        update_post_meta( $post_id, '_pool', $property['pool'] ); 
    }
}

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