Troubleshooting 'actions log' errors

When submitting operations through the bulk manager, bulk uploads, or automated rules, it's common to encounter errors indicating that not all operations were successful. Some errors may be permanent and unavoidable, but others can be circumvented in future actions. For those errors that can be addressed, alternative solutions and workarounds are available to aid in troubleshooting:

Persistent execution error

Item failed with the same error 3 times in a row. Aborting. Error was: {{ }}.

This error occurs when the same error triggers three times consecutively, causing the system to abort the operation. Review the specific error code for potential solutions.

To troubleshoot:

• Review the error description.

• Refer to the any of the sections below for potential solutions.

Refer to the 'Error codes' section in the Actions Log module for a list of specific errors:

Error messages

Campaign and ad group location errors

Failed to locate campaign. Aborting.

Failed to locate campaign+ad group. Aborting.

These errors happen when campaigns or ad groups can't be found, often during bulk operations involving children records, for example attempting to add ad groups within a campaigns or targeting within an existing combination of ad group and campaigns without necessarily including the parent entities in the upload.

To troubleshoot:

• Verify that the names of campaigns or ad groups are correct—you may need to wait for the changes to be properly indexed.

• Ensure no critical cells—campaign name and ad group name— include blank spaces before or after the content in the upload file.

Ad group targeting compatibility error

Ad group cannot have both keyword and product targets.

This error arises when incompatible targeting types are added simultaneously to an ad group, due to filters/conditions not configured properly.

Bulk manager

If you are submitting operations via the bulk manager (search terms add search terms action or ad groups add targeting actions):

• Adjust your filters to match the specific targeting type you're trying to add.

Automated rules

If your operations are triggered by automated rules:

• Adjust your rule conditions to match the specific targeting type you're trying to add.

Examples

• On the search terms page, filter by whether the search term contains or does not contain "B0" (for regular ASINs), or begins or does not begin with "1" (if your ASINs include books, which have a different ASIN structure).

• On the ad groups page, filter either by campaign and/or ad group names that you know include the type of record you are attempting to add, or exclude the names that you know are of the other type of record.

Archived entity creation error

Parent entity is archived forbids child creates.

This error occurs when there's an attempt to add targeting to an archived ad group entity.

To prevent future create targeting operations in archived entities:

• Visit the bulk manager ad groups page.

• Filter ad groups by status equals "archived".

• Lock the filtered records using lock actions.

Targeting limit exceeded error

Number of targeting clauses per ad group exceeds the limit.

This error happens when the limit of targeting added to an ad group is exceeded. It is very common in old campaigns.

To prevent attempts to create targeting in ad groups that have exceeded or are close to exceeding the limit:

• Visit the bulk manager ad groups page.

• Filter ad groups by targeting count/negative targeting count greater than "990"—or a threshold you consider fitting.

• Lock the filtered records using lock actions.

Archived entity modification error

Archived entity cannot be modified.

This error appears when trying to modify archived entities.

To prevent future update operations in archived entities:

• Visit the campaigns, ad groups and/or targeting pages.

• Filter records by status equals "archived".

• Lock the filtered records using lock actions.

Bid value errors

Keyword was specified with a wrong bid or empty value : {{ }} [minBid: {{ }}, maxBid: {{ }}.

Bid cannot be updated. Outside of allowed range. : {{ }}.

Bid is lower than the minimum allowed by the marketplace.

Bid cannot be negative.

Typically, when performing bidding calculations—often using increase or decrease options—some bids may exceed or fall below Amazon's limits or result in negative values. Although the maximum bid cap on Amazon is usually quite high, exceeding the campaign's budget value can also trigger this error.

To prevent bidding value errors:

• Set bid boundaries within Amazon's limits.

• Ensure campaign budgets are sufficient to accommodate bid values.

Auto-targeting modification error

Auto-targeting targeting clauses cannot be changed manually.

This reflects failed attempts to manually modify legacy auto-targeting records, which are reported as individual targeting records, even though they do not exist as such within amazon.

To prevent future update operations in legacy auto entities:

• Visit bulk manager targeting page.

• Filter targeting by contains "targeting_auto".

• Lock the filtered records using lock actions.

Ended campaign modification error

Ended campaign cannot be updated without end date extension.

This issue arises when modifying campaigns with past end dates.

If you are looking to allow the ended campaign(s) to serve:

• Log into amazon console.

• Either extend the campaign's end date or remove it entirely.

• Submit your change again via the app, after making sure the change executed in amazon has been indexed.

If you do not wish to modify ended campaigns further:

• Visit bulk manager campaigns page.

• Filter campaigns by end date is not blank AND end date is less than {{ TODAY }}—write today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format.

• Lock the filtered records using lock actions.