How often does my product info update?#
Renable fetches your incoming product feed every hour and checks it for changes — new products, price changes, updated descriptions, and so on. Any change automatically triggers Aimée to reprocess the affected products: rewriting ad copy, removing image backgrounds, and re-rendering ad creative as needed. Affected channels are then regenerated so things like price and availability stay current.
By default Renable picks the time within each hour automatically. If your shop publishes a fresh feed at a known time, you can pin the import to a specific minute past the hour with the Import time setting in the catalog's Product feed source dialog — see Keep your feed fresh.
After your templates, channels, and prompts are set up the way you want, Aimée handles most of this automatically from then on — always preserving any manual edits you've made.
I changed a setting or a prompt — when does it reach my products?#
Within minutes of publishing, not on the next hourly import. That covers a catalog's Settings tab (the Image processing section's background-removal steps and Categorize images switch, ad-copy extraction, Google category prediction, fallback languages), a prompt you publish, and a change to the project itself. Only the products the change actually affects are reprocessed — an image a changed step doesn't cover is left exactly as it was, approval included.
Two things to know:
- Approved images are not frozen against your own settings. Change the catalog's background-removal steps and an approved image is rendered again with the new setting; it then shows as unapproved until someone looks at it. Nothing is archived or replaced, and changing the setting back restores the approval. An image whose version you picked by hand keeps both the pick and the approval. See Image background removal and classification.
- Publishing an active prompt spends credits on every product in its scope, since each of them is written again. See Working with prompts.
Feed-side changes — rules, mapping, joined feeds — take effect when you publish the catalog too, through a fresh import; see Transforming your feed.
Why aren't all my products imported?#
Your subscription plan caps the number of feed items, catalogs, and channels you can use, and the feed item cap is shared across all your catalogs, not per-catalog. A feed item is one product in one catalog, so the same product sold through two catalogs uses two of them — see Feed items vs. products. The Free plan has the lowest limits of all — enough to keep a small catalog running, but not necessarily your full feed. (Your free trial is not the tight one: it runs on the 500 feed items plan's limits.)
When you're near or at a limit, Renable prioritizes:
- Your best-selling products (if you've connected Google Analytics (GA4) for top-seller ranking)
- Products you've already imported before (so refreshing your feed doesn't shuffle which products are active)
- Everything else, up to your plan's limit
If you hit these limits you'll see a warning in the catalog's Notes and events section saying how many feed items it could import. Visit Plans and limits to see how limits work, or /billing/plans to upgrade.
Why can't my images be retrieved?#
Renable needs to download your images to process them, which normally happens automatically as products import. It also downloads an image it doesn't process the first time a template or prompt shows it through Image link or Additional image link. If your website or CDN blocks scraping bots, image downloads will fail until you set a custom User-Agent and whitelist it. A failed download doesn't change what Image link and Additional image link carry in a channel's fields — those are your image addresses exactly as your product feed lists them — but the image can't be processed, and a template or prompt showing it has nothing to show until a retry succeeds. When one does, the image fills in on its own: the template's design is corrected on the channel's next run, and a prompt that skipped the product generates for it.
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Go to your project's Catalogs section and open the affected catalog.
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Expand Advanced settings and set a custom User-Agent. We recommend this value:
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Renable/1.0; +https://renable.com) -
Send that User-Agent string to whoever manages your website or CDN and ask them to whitelist it, so Renable is allowed to fetch images.
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Once whitelisted, click the ... menu on one of the affected images and choose Refetch image now to confirm the fix works immediately. The rest of your images retry automatically, but an image that has failed many times is only tried again every few weeks. When the catalog shows the error described below, Renable instead tries a few of the refused images every hour and downloads all of them again as soon as one goes through. An image shown straight from your product feed (one that isn't processed) has no menu; if Renable fetched it for a template or prompt and that failed, it's retried automatically in the same way.
"Your image host is blocking Renable's downloads"#
When most of a catalog's images are being refused by bot protection, Renable raises one error for the whole catalog, titled Your image host is blocking Renable's downloads, in the catalog's Notes and events and on your dashboard. It says how many of the images the catalog tried to download in the last six hours were refused, and by which host. Each image counts once, however many times it is retried. A single refused image doesn't raise it: it appears only when at least 20 images were refused and they are at least half of what the catalog tried to download. Once downloads have stopped, the error stays open and says how many of the catalog's images are still refused.
What it means: the server or CDN that hosts your images is treating Renable's downloads as unwanted automated traffic. Renable raises the error only when the answer carries a sign of a bot-protection service, such as a "checking your browser" challenge page. An individual image in this state shows a warning that begins "The image host blocked the download as automated traffic".
Some failures look similar but don't raise this error, because changing the User-Agent isn't the fix:
- "The image host refused the download": the host said no without any sign of bot protection. It can be a hot-link rule or an expired image link as well as a blocked download, so check whether the image opens in your browser first.
- "The image address returned a web page, not an image": most often the image link no longer exists and the shop shows a page instead. Check the image link in your product feed.
- "The image host asked us to slow down": the host limited how fast Renable downloads. These images are downloaded again automatically.
What to do:
- Check the User-Agent in the catalog's Advanced settings. The error quotes it. If the catalog has none, set one first (see the steps above).
- Ask whoever manages your website or CDN to allow requests that send that User-Agent. Renable's downloads don't come from fixed IP addresses, so allowing an IP address won't work; the User-Agent is what your host can allow.
While the error is open, Renable tries a few of the refused images every hour. Once your host allows them and one of those goes through, Renable downloads all the refused images again and the error clears on its own, usually within three hours of your fix. To check the fix right away, use Refetch image now on one of the affected images.
"Your image host isn't answering Renable's downloads"#
When the server or CDN that hosts a catalog's images stops answering Renable's downloads altogether, Renable stops sending it requests for a while and raises one warning for the whole catalog, titled Your image host isn't answering Renable's downloads, in the catalog's Notes and events and on your dashboard. It names the host and since when it hasn't answered — for example "cdn.example.com has not answered our image downloads since 4 October 2026, 10:00 UTC. 1,240 images of this catalog are waiting; we keep trying." The number counts the catalog's images on that host that Renable hasn't downloaded yet, and it is updated every hour.
What it means: the host has failed Renable's downloads — with errors, timeouts or no reply at all — for long enough that sending more would only add to its load. It says what Renable saw, nothing more: Renable can't tell whether your website is up for your visitors. A host that answers only some of the time doesn't raise this warning; Renable slows down for it and keeps downloading.
While the warning is open:
- Images Renable has already downloaded are still used in your ads.
- An image a template or prompt needs right now shows the warning "The image host is having trouble answering our downloads right now, so this image hasn't been downloaded yet. We will try again automatically.", and a prompt that needs a processed image from that host skips the product for now — see Why a prompt skips some products.
- Other images from that host wait. They don't count as failed.
There's nothing to change in Renable. Renable tries a few of the waiting images every hour, and once the host answers again it downloads the rest, a batch at a time, and the warning clears on its own. If the warning stays for long, check with whoever runs your website or CDN that your images can be downloaded.
If many unrelated image hosts stop answering at the same moment, the cause is more likely on Renable's side than on yours, so Renable holds this warning back until that has settled.
"Your image links aren't working"#
When a catalog imports, Renable first downloads a sample of up to 500 of its images, and only then the rest. If at least 80% of the sampled links fail — counted once at least 100 have been tried, or at least 20 on a small catalog — Renable pauses the rest of the catalog's image downloads and raises one error for the whole catalog, titled **Your image links aren't working — ** followed by the catalog's name, in the catalog's Notes and events and on your dashboard. It says how many of the images Renable tried failed, names the most common cause, and gives up to two of the failing links as examples. The rest of the error reads: "Renable has paused the rest of this catalog's image downloads so your image host isn't asked for images that don't exist. Check the rules that build the Image link and Additional image link fields, then import again — downloads start on their own with the next import — or use Retry image downloads on the catalog page."
What it means: the links themselves are wrong, so downloading the rest would only fail the same way. A link counts as failed when the address leads nowhere (not found), returns a web page instead of an image, isn't a complete web address (for example a rule that left out the https:// and the site's name), points to a file Renable can't use (an unsupported format or a file over 100 MB), or gets a server error or no answer in time for that link. A host that isn't answering, a host asking Renable to slow down, and a host blocking Renable's downloads never pause a catalog — those are the host problems described above, and they have their own error and warning.
A rule that builds the image address wrong — a missing part of the address, the wrong column, or a product ID where a file name should be — makes nearly every link fail at once. Open one of the example links in your browser to see what's wrong with it.
What to do:
- Open the catalog and check where Image link and Additional image link get their values: the feed column they're mapped to, and any Rules that set them. Compare the result with one of the example links. If the addresses are wrong in your product feed itself, fix them there.
- Publish the catalog if you changed it, then import again. The next import downloads a new sample, and if the links work, the rest of the images download on their own and the error clears. While that sample is checked, the import's report says "Image downloads are paused; Renable is checking a new sample of this catalog's image links."
While the downloads are paused, the catalog page shows the same error above its tabs, with when the downloads were paused, the counts, the most common cause and up to two example links, and a Retry image downloads button. If the links were never the problem — for example, your image host was briefly returning errors for every image — use Retry image downloads to start again without changing anything, or ask Aimée on the catalog page to retry them. A retry first tries again the image links that failed, as a new sample of up to 500 of the catalog's images. While Renable checks that sample, the error stays on the page, says Renable is checking a new sample of the catalog's image links, and the Retry image downloads button is unavailable. Unless at least 8 in 10 of them still fail, the rest of the images download on their own and the error clears; otherwise the downloads stay paused with the same error. Each import of a paused catalog checks a new sample the same way, so the button is also unavailable for a while after an import. An import that arrives while a sample is still being checked lets that check finish rather than starting another.
"Some of your image links aren't working"#
When at least 20% of the catalog's image links that Renable has tried fail — counted once at least 100 have been tried, and checked every hour as well as each time Renable finishes downloading a catalog's new images — but not so many that the catalog is paused, Renable raises a warning for the catalog titled **Some of your image links aren't working — ** followed by the catalog's name. It reads, for example: "240 of 1,000 images in this catalog couldn't be downloaded. Most common cause: … Renable keeps trying them on its own; the rest of your images are in use."
Only links whose image couldn't be downloaded count. Images waiting for an image host Renable has stopped asking — because the host isn't answering or is blocking Renable's downloads — don't count, and neither do images the host asked Renable to download more slowly or images that failed because of a problem on Renable's side. An image that timed out or failed before Renable stopped asking its host counts as a link that isn't working until it downloads.
There's nothing you have to do: the images that did download are used as usual, and Renable keeps retrying the failed ones. The warning clears on its own once fewer than 5% of the catalog's tried image links fail. Renable checks this every hour, so the warning clears within about an hour of the retried images downloading, even when your feed doesn't change. If it stays, the most common cause it names tells you where to look — a link that leads nowhere usually means the address in your product feed, or a rule that builds Image link or Additional image link, needs fixing.
Images larger than 100 MB#
Renable doesn't download an image file larger than 100 MB. If Renable hasn't downloaded the image before, it shows the warning "This image is larger than 100 MB, which is more than we can process. Please provide a smaller image.", and the product's other images are unaffected.
If Renable already has a copy of the image and the file at that address later grows past 100 MB, there's no warning: Renable keeps using the copy it already has, and picks up the new file once it's back under the limit.
To fix it, make the file smaller: export it at a lower resolution or with more compression, then either replace the file at the same address or point your feed at the smaller file. You lose nothing by doing this — Renable stores product images at no more than 1920 × 1080 pixels, and scales down anything larger.
Renable doesn't retry an oversized image every few minutes the way it does other failed downloads, since the file would still be too large. It checks again after a day, then at longer intervals. So once the smaller file is in place, use Refetch image now on the image to pick it up right away.
Image downloads that stall#
If a server starts sending an image and then stops, or sends it extremely slowly, Renable gives up on that attempt and the image shows a warning that begins "The image download stalled: the server sent the image too slowly or stopped sending it before it was complete." It's treated like any other temporary download failure: Renable retries several times over the next hour and keeps checking after that, so a one-off hiccup clears on its own.
If the warning keeps coming back, the server hosting your images is too slow or unreliable for automated downloads. Ask whoever manages your website or CDN to look into it, then use Refetch image now on the image to confirm the fix.
Why did my catalog's products disappear and then come back on their own?#
If your feed source returns a truncated or malformed response — for example, your server times out mid-response, or a proxy cuts the feed off early — Renable detects this as a broken fetch rather than a legitimate feed update. It does not delete any existing products, and raises a visible error on the catalog instead. Once your feed source returns a valid response again on the next scheduled fetch, everything picks back up automatically.
If you see products temporarily shown as missing or a catalog showing an import error, check whether your feed source had a temporary outage before assuming products were actually deleted.
Can I fix bad data in my feed before it reaches my ads?#
Yes. The catalog workspace lets you clean and reshape your feed before it ever reaches a channel. Use Rules — conditions plus actions — to change values only for the products that match: fix a mislabeled category, strip prohibited wording from titles, or exclude products you can't advertise. Use Mapping to line your feed's columns up with the fields channels expect. Every edit stays in a draft until you Publish. See Transforming your feed for the whole workspace and Fixing your feed data with rules for rules. You can also just describe the fix to Aimée and let her make the change for your approval.
Can I reuse the same rules across catalogs?#
Yes — that's what a ruleset is. Write the rules once under Rulesets, publish it, then use Apply ruleset on each catalog's Rules tab. Change a rule later, publish the ruleset, and every catalog using it is reprocessed. Where feeds name columns differently, fix it on that catalog, not in the ruleset. To bridge them, add a Set field action before the Apply ruleset action, in the same rule or in a rule above. See Working with rulesets.
Can I apply a ruleset to only some products?#
Yes. Apply ruleset works like any other action, so give the rule that applies it conditions and the ruleset runs only for the products that match. Put Apply ruleset in the rule's "Otherwise…" branch to run a ruleset for the products that don't match — one ruleset for the matching products and another for the rest is a single rule. See Working with rulesets.
Can I combine two feeds into one catalog?#
Yes. Add a second feed as an auxiliary source, then use a lookup to pull its values into your catalog — real-time stock from a warehouse feed, cost or margin from a supplier feed, or extra attributes your main feed doesn't carry. The lookup matches a value your feed already has, like a barcode or SKU, against a column in the other feed and returns another column. See Joining another feed with a lookup.
Can I map my own categories to Google's product categories?#
Yes. Use a Mapping table — a small table you fill in yourself — to convert many of your source values onto the correct ones at once, such as mapping your own category names onto the Google product taxonomy. Seed the keys from your feed, fill in the target values, and a lookup reads from it. See Mapping tables.
My feed has one row per product with all its sizes — can I split them into separate products?#
Yes. A single feed row that carries several sizes or colors can be split into separate products — one per variant — with the Split into variants rule action, so each size or color becomes its own catalog item for your ads. See Splitting variants into separate products.