Troubleshoot Automation Rules

Reprocess automation rules to reapply all currently active automation rules and product defaults to all orders currently in the Awaiting Shipment status. Reprocessing the rules can help troubleshoot if there are missing criteria and fix any absent settings not applied during the initial rule processing.

Once you have reprocessed automation rules, check the order activity log for clues as to what caused the issue.

Check if a rule was successfully applied to an order by checking the Order Activity log in the Order Details window. If the rule did not apply, the order may not have met the rule's criteria.

If the rule did apply but did not affect orders as you were expecting, it could be that the changes the rule made were overridden by another automation rule. The activity log will help you find which other rules were applied to the order that may have overridden the desired rule.

Ensure that no additional characters or letters are entered into the criteria. When using criteria that call for a number (such as Order Total, Total Quantity, or Total Weight) only the numerical value must be entered.

For example:

Also, ensure that each rule has at least one criteria (or is set to apply to all orders) and one action. The selected criteria and actions should not be blank.

Leaving blank criteria or actions will cause an automation rule to fail, and can also cause all subsequent automation rules to fail to run as well. If you find that a large number of your automation rules are not running, even though the rules themselves appear to be valid, check the previous rules in the list to see if any are missing their criteria or action values.

Many automation rule actions update carrier-specific shipping options. Ensure that there is automation that sets the shipping service on the order before any automation rules set a carrier-specific shipping option.

For example: Use product defaults, service mappings, or an automation rule to set the shipping service to a UPS service before any automation rules that enable UPS-specific settings.

In the below image, 16oz UPS Ground Service is set prior to UPS Insurance being added. If this was not the case, the Add UPS Insurance rule may fail.

Similarly, the criteria for an automation rule may be dependent upon another automation being applied first.

For example: A rule is configured to use an order tag as its criteria. If no other automation applies the tag to the order first, the rule may fail.