PS 1.6.1.0 Product Import CSV ID issue - cant over-write existing product

[BTutt]

I have tried to import a product CSV file to update some existing products.

If the ID exists (product already in PS), the CSV will not import for those items.
This is a major headache. I don't want to keep creating new products every time I need to update a product. I also do not want to have to delete products before I import a revised product CSV. 

Does anyone have a solution?

[RogueWaveLimited]

If you import to an existing ID it should overwrite whatever fields are in your CSV. You can use ID to import but normally I use the reference field (and the ID is not imported in the CSV). The ID is really an internal database "thing".

 

For testing try importing only one row using the reference instead of the ID. (Removed the ID field from the CSV).

[BTutt]

Thank you for the tip. I can try that, but I have been using ID when managing products because product combinations are applied based on product ID. There are thousands of products and all of them have tons of combinations. Categories can be easily updated using ID. Everything else seems to be tied into ID.

[BTutt]

It seems the issue was not updating a product with an existing ID. The problem was my HTML code in the CSV file. I was using HTML in the descriptions. Some of the HTML had quotations. I changed those to single quotes and that seemed to solve the issue.

So, you can update a product using ID if you select "force ID". Just be careful when using Quotes.

Example:
 

<a href="somelinkhere.html">The quotations messed this up</a>

<a href='somelinkhere.htm'>Using single quote seemed to correct the issue.</a>

Edited August 26, 2015 by BTutt (see edit history)