Google Data Blocker

Google Listing is out of sync because a GBP (Google Business Profile) Owner has updated the listing directly.

Ordinarily the Listings Hub platform is able to manage and update Google listings that have been connected by a user. However, if a GBP user who is an Owner within GBP updates the Google listing directly after the platform connection has been established, this will lock the platform out of being able to manage any specific fields that were updated.

This condition is called a stale data blocker and is intended by Google to serve as a safety mechanism to ensure that GBP Owners are always able to retain control of their listings regardless of which other parties have been delegated management authority. In Google's eyes, updates made by an Owner directly on the Google listing have a higher precedence than any third party who is managing the listing on their behalf-- hence why we will be blocked from updating those fields on the listing.

The resolution to this condition for someone who has direct access to the GBP listing but is not an Owner (such as a Manager) to log in to GBP and overwrite any fields that had been updated on Google directly. Once the most recent updater on Google's end is no longer the Owner, we'll be able to resume managing those fields.

To mitigate recurrences, if a location is connected to GBP in the GatherUp Listings Hub, we highly recommend that listing updates only be made from the platform. Our platform is intended to be treated as the single source of truth (it assumes that the location profile info we have is correct and that anything else is wrong), and managing listing updates exclusively from the platform ensures that:

• We don't get locked out from being able to manage Google listing fields because they were updated on Google (if the GBP user in question is an Owner).
• Important updates that are made directly on Google don't just get overwritten the next time the platform runs a sync check (if the GBP user in question is not an Owner).

Identifying a Stale Data Blocker

The platform won’t tell you directly when the stale data blocker applies to a Google listing. However, if the Google listing for a location is successfully connected and has a status of “updating” for more than 24 hours, it’s usually a safe assumption that a data blocker is preventing us from updating one or more fields for the listing:

Google typically updates very quickly and stale data blockers are one of the most common culprits for listings updates to fail.

If needed, please feel free to send an email to support@gatherup.com for further assistance. Our customer success team can review the API logs for our Google integration and tell you which specific fields the platform is unable to update.