If you sell used or refurbished goods, Google needs to know each product's condition. When it is missing or wrong, Merchant Center can show "Inconsistent condition between your product data and your website" or "Automatic updates: Mismatched condition". This guide explains when condition is required, what causes these issues and how to fix them.
When condition is required
Google's condition attribute page says condition is optional for new products and required for every used and refurbished product. So a store selling only new stock can usually leave it out, while a store with any second-hand or restored items cannot. The supported values must be submitted in English.
| Value | What Google means by it |
|---|---|
| new | Never used, in original unopened packaging |
| refurbished | Professionally restored to working order, with a warranty |
| used | Second-hand, opened or missing packaging, or modified from the original |
What the issues mean
The two issues have different weights. "Inconsistent condition between your product data and your website" means the condition on your landing page does not match your product data, and Google's help page says the account has been warned or suspended because of it. "Automatic updates: Mismatched condition" means Google changed the condition itself, to match the product's other details, because automatic item updates were on.
- Inconsistent condition: Account-level warning or suspension
- Automatic updates: Google overwrote the value for you
- Usual trigger: A used item sent as new, or no condition sent at all
Find the affected products
In Merchant Center, open Products, go to the Needs attention tab and filter by the issue name. Download the list as a .csv file if there are many. Then compare each product's condition with the words on its page, title and description. Google says to use plain terms such as "used" or "second-hand" rather than informal words like "pre-loved".
Fix the data
For one product, click its title on the Needs attention tab, choose Edit product, set the condition and save. For many, correct the values at the source and resubmit. Shopify's help notes that some data Google uses is not part of a product's standard details and has to be added through the Google & YouTube channel.
- Rule-based fix: Google's attribute rules can set Condition to a fixed value, such as "new", for a whole data source
- Mixed catalog: Set the default with a rule, then set used and refurbished items individually
- Account warning: After fixing, request a review in Merchant Center
Prevent it coming back
Keep condition, title and landing page telling the same story. Google's automatic item updates compare your condition value with your other product data and can correct mismatches, which helps prevent disapprovals, but it does not replace accurate data.
- ✅ "Used" or "refurbished" in the title and on the page when that is the condition
- ✅ A condition value on every used and refurbished product
- ❌ Sending used stock as new
- ❌ Calling an item refurbished when it has no warranty
For other attribute gaps, see how to fix disapproved products.
Doing this at scale
FeedFix checks every product against Google Merchant Center and Meta Catalog rules and scores each one from 0 to 100 per channel, so you can see which products have data problems. It drafts compliant title and description rewrites you review as before/after diffs and apply in bulk, with every change audit-logged. See FeedFix.