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Troubleshooting Feed Sync Issues

This article covers the most common reasons XML feed syncs fail and how to resolve them.

Diagnosing the issue

  1. Go to Jobs → Feeds.

  2. Click the feed with Error status.

  3. Go to the Sync logs tab.

  4. Click the most recent failed sync to read the error details.

Common errors and fixes

"Feed URL unreachable"

Cause: Wonderkind could not connect to the feed URL. This happens when:

  • The URL is incorrect or has changed

  • The server hosting the feed is down or blocking the request

  • The URL requires authentication that Wonderkind cannot provide

Fix:

  1. Open the feed URL in a browser to verify it works.

  2. If the URL has changed, go to Feed Settings → Feed URL and update it.

  3. If the URL requires a login or IP allowlist, contact your Wonderkind administrator to configure access.

"Invalid XML structure"

Cause: The feed response was received but could not be parsed as valid XML.

Fix:

  1. Open the feed URL in a browser and inspect the raw content.

  2. Validate the XML using an online validator (e.g., xmlvalidation.com).

  3. Common issues: unclosed tags, special characters not escaped (& should be &), BOM character at the start of the file.

  4. Contact your ATS or feed provider to fix the XML formatting.

"Field mapping error: [field name] not found"

Cause: A required field (usually title, location, or application URL) was not found at the expected XML element path.

Fix:

  1. Open the feed URL in a browser and inspect the XML structure.

  2. Go to Feed Settings → Field Mappings.

  3. Update the mapping to point to the correct XML element containing the missing field.

  4. Save and trigger a manual sync.

"Jobs imported: 0"

Cause: The sync completed successfully but found no jobs. Possible reasons:

  • The feed is empty

  • All jobs match the deactivation condition (e.g., all jobs have <status>closed</status>)

  • The feed uses pagination and only the first page was fetched (no jobs after page 1 in your mapping)

Fix:

  1. Inspect the feed XML to confirm jobs are present and not marked as closed/inactive.

  2. If the feed uses pagination, contact Wonderkind support to configure paginated feed handling.

"N jobs deactivated" (unexpected)

Cause: Jobs that were in the previous sync are no longer in the current feed. This is expected behavior for roles that have been filled or removed from your ATS.

If the deactivation was unexpected:

  1. Inspect the feed to see if those job IDs are still present.

  2. Check if the feed URL has changed or if the feed provider had a data issue.

  3. If needed, re-activate the jobs manually from the Jobs page.

Manual sync after fixing

After updating field mappings or fixing the feed source:

  1. Go to Jobs → Feeds.

  2. Click ⋯ → Sync now on the feed.

  3. Watch the sync log for success confirmation.

Preventing future issues

  • Monitor the Feed Health dashboard regularly (Jobs → Feeds overview).

  • Enable email notifications for Feed errors in your notification settings.

  • When your ATS updates or migrates, check feed URLs and XML structure before the migration completes.

Related articles

  • Setting Up an XML Feed

  • Feed Sync & Health Monitoring

Related Articles
Adding Jobs Manually
Setting Up an XML Feed
Feed Sync & Health Monitoring
API Credentials & Access
Frequently Asked Questions
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