¶ Troubleshooting ShipStation
The following are some common issues that can occur when using ShipStation. These issues are typically only attributed to the initial setup or when certain configuration changes are made. If you are experiencing issues with the ShipStation integration, please verify that your initial configurations within ShipStation have not been changed.
¶ Error: "The ShipStation integration provider is not properly set up."
This typically indicates that the credentials are incorrect or have been modified. You should verify that the username & password are correct, specifically the case sensitivity and that they did not contain any special characters.
¶ Error: 403 Forbidden
This typically indicates that the account is not setup correctly within the Integrated Providers Accounts section. Please verify that the account exists with the correct Username & Password as well as set to Active.
The ShipStation account used to create the Custom Store must have administrative privileges. If the account does not have these privileges, a permission 403 error will be returned, and the account will not be allowed to create the Custom Store. Additionally, only accounts without administrative privileges can test the connection.
¶ Test Connection returns a 404
When testing, ShipStation only looks at the last 5 minutes. Thus, if no order has been created or modified in that time frame, it will return with a 404 error. Therefore, you may have to create or modify an order and try again within 5 minutes if you receive this error.
The ShipStation API call might be using UTC as their timeframe (start and end date), which is 4 hours ahead. If so, you will need development team to manipulate an order to match the order posted timeframe of that ShipStation API call.
Another possible cause of a 404 error is accidentally ending the url with a "/". Please ensure sure there's no trailing slash.
¶ Errors Retrieving orders
The most common cause for this is an incorrect country abbreviation. ShipStation expects a 2 character country abbreviation where other values can cause errors when retrieving the orders, therefore you must verify that the configured country abbreviation is 2 characters.
Departments > Administration > Setting > Georgraphic > Countries
¶ Tracking or Order Status Not Being Updated
This can be caused by 2 common issues:
- The Order Status Mappings are incorrect within ShipStation. For Status Mappings, please see the Custom Store Setup article.
- The Shipping Method or Carrier returned by ShipStation do not match what is configured within Freedom. Please verify your current shipping methods - the carrier selected on the shipping method will be listed as Shipper ID. You can also verify or define additional carriers if needed.
Shipping Methods: Departments > Administration > Settings > Shipping > Methods and Rates
Carriers: Administration > Settings > Shipping > Carriers
¶ Not All Orders Retrieved by ShipStation
There are 2 scenarios where this may occur and the solutions for these are usually very easy to accomplish.
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When the orders placed before the integration was enabled are not pulled into ShipStation. In most cases, ShipStation pulls orders that arrived within a specific 24 hour period requested in the API call. As such, orders placed before this period might not be picked up. You can contact ShipStation for them to override the dates when pulling the orders to retrieve any impacted past orders.
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A less common issue occurs if multiple requests to retrieve orders fail or are not made due to configuration changes. ShipStation usually requests orders multiple times per day with an overlap of several hours to ensure that any missed orders are automatically corrected. If the time period between successful calls is too long, it is possible that orders might fall outside of the rolling 24 hour period. If this occurs, you can unpost and repost the orders to push them into a more recent period. Alternatively, you can contact ShipStation for them to override the dates when pulling the orders to retrieve any impacted past orders.
¶ Order Resent to ShipStation
The ShipStation integration uses more than just the order date to retrieve orders, and as a result, other modifications made to the orders can cause the orders to be picked up by the export order request made by ShipStation. if this occurs, please verify if the order was modified using the order audit report.
Audit Trail: In Freedom, go to the Order # > Administration > Audit Trail