A batch is stuck or failed
Most batches finish within an hour for typical catalogs. If yours hasn’t progressed in a while, here’s what to check and what to do.
How to tell a batch is actually stuck
In the dashboard, a running batch shows a progress indicator. If the indicator hasn’t moved in 30+ minutes for a moderate catalog, it’s worth investigating.
Some normal-looking pauses:
- Slow start — large catalogs spend the first few minutes preparing the queue. The progress bar may sit at zero before suddenly jumping ahead.
- Platform rate limits — Amazon’s stricter API rate limits cause longer-feeling stalls on Amazon batches.
- Token throttling — if your batch hits your token allocation, it pauses cleanly. That’s not “stuck” — it’s “out of tokens.”
What you can do yourself
- Wait a few more minutes for slow starts and large catalogs.
- Check your token balance — a stalled batch may simply be out of tokens.
- Check your store connection — a disconnected store also stops a batch. See Reconnect your store.
- Open the failed products tab if the batch finished with errors. Each error has a reason and you can re-run failed products individually with express tokens.
What CataSEO does automatically
CataSEO automatically retries transient failures (network glitches, momentary platform 500s) for each product in the batch. Persistent failures get logged and the batch continues with the next product — one bad product doesn’t kill the whole job.
A self-serve batch cancel button isn’t available yet
If you need to stop a running batch, contact support. Tell us your store and we’ll cancel it from our side.
When the batch is done
You’ll get an email titled with your store name showing:
- Products optimized
- Errors (if any)
- Remaining batch token balance
The same numbers are visible in the dashboard.
FAQ
Are my tokens refunded if a batch fails? Tokens for products that successfully optimized are consumed even if the overall batch finishes with errors. Tokens for products that failed without producing output are not consumed.
If you edit a product directly on your storefront while its optimization is pending review, CataSEO refunds one batch token automatically.
Can I re-run only the failed products in a batch? Yes. Filter to failed products and run optimization on each — using express tokens for an instant retry, or letting the next batch cycle pick them up.
My batch finished but some products show no changes — why? Two common reasons: the product already had optimized copy that CataSEO judged equivalent or better, or the product was missing required fields and was skipped. Check the per-product status for the reason.
A batch has been “queued” for hours — what now? Batches run on a daily schedule. If your batch is queued and you need it to run sooner, contact support — we can trigger an immediate run.