Category sync you can walk away from, images that reach your channels, and templates that actually update

This one is mostly about things that quietly weren't working. A few of them looked like they were — which is worse — so several of the fixes below are about Fulify telling you the truth rather than doing something new.

Bulk category sync now runs in the background

Syncing a large category tree used to mean leaving the tab open and hoping. Close it, switch away, let the laptop sleep, and the run stopped partway with no obvious sign of where it got to.

It now runs on the server. Kick it off and close the tab — it carries on without you, and the progress bar picks the run back up when you return.

Syncing selected categories now actually sends your edits

This is the important one. If you edited a category that had already been synced, then selected it and pressed Sync, Fulify reported "All categories synced successfully" — and sent nothing. The channel kept the old name, the old description, the old image. Worse, it stayed that way, because every later sync skipped it for the same reason.

Pressing Sync now re-sends the category, every time. The only thing that still skips is Fulify resuming a run that was interrupted, which is what that behaviour was for.

If you've edited categories recently and wondered why the storefront didn't budge, this was why. Sync them again and they'll go.

Categories that aren't on the channel are no longer counted as done

Select ten categories where only three belong to the channel you're syncing, and Fulify used to say "All 3 synced successfully" — never mentioning the other seven. It now tells you exactly how many were skipped and why.

Related: picking a subcategory without its parent could create it at the top level of your store rather than under where it belongs, and still call it synced. Parents are now brought along automatically.

Category images now reach Shopify

Adding an image to a category and syncing it to Shopify could fail with image.src: Error updating collection with this image — a message that pointed at the image and was really about something else entirely. Our media service was refusing a routine check that Shopify makes before accepting an image. It doesn't any more. Category images sync cleanly.

Fulify now checks your image against the channels it's going to

Image rules differ per platform — different formats, different size limits — and Fulify used to apply one list to everyone, labelled for BigCommerce whichever channels you actually sell on. It was wrong in both directions: it accepted ICO files that no channel takes, and allowed images up to 10MB when BigCommerce refuses anything over 8MB.

Now, when you upload an image, Fulify checks it against the channels that product, brand or category actually syncs to and tells you up front if one of them won't take it — instead of you finding out from a failed sync days later. If some channels accept it and others don't, the upload still goes through; you just get told which is which.

WebP is now accepted everywhere, on products, brands and categories.

Editing a template now updates the products using it

Shipping, Returns and Warranty templates exist so you can write something once and use it on many products. Except editing one changed nothing — the products carried on showing whatever the template said on the day you picked it, while the editor still listed the template as the one in use.

Editing a template now updates every product following it. Products using Free Text are untouched, which is the whole point of that mode.

Fulify asks before throwing away your work

Switching to a channel tab in the product editor silently discarded any unsaved changes on the main record. No prompt, no warning — you'd come back and your typing was gone. It now asks first.

Similarly, syncing a category from its edit screen used to discard unsaved edits and send the old values to the channel. It now saves first.

Smaller things

• SEO fields no longer stop you mid-sentence. Page title and meta description used to hard-stop at 70 and 160 characters — you'd type and nothing appeared. Those numbers are where search engines trim your text, not a limit you're forbidden to cross. The counter now turns amber as you approach and red past it, and lets you decide.
• New categories start hidden and unsynced, matching products, so a half-finished category can't appear on a storefront the moment you create it.
• Channels are called by name. Screens that said "BigCommerce" regardless of what you actually sell on now name the right channel — or say "your channels" where several apply.
• Disconnected channels stop haunting you. Removing a channel left it showing on brand and category screens, sometimes with old sync errors attached. It's gone now.
• "Add Template" scrolls to the form it opens, so it no longer looks like the button did nothing.