Find the run behind any import, export or sync — where each one is listed, what its status means, and how to read its steps and log files.
Anything the platform does for you runs in the background: an import, a channel export, an asset sync, a bulk change. Each time one of these runs it leaves a run — a status, a start time, a list of steps, and any log files those steps produced. Finding the run is the first step of almost every answer in this section.
Depending on the size of your catalog, a run may take a while. That is why this work happens in the background: once it has started, it is safe to close your browser or shut down your computer.
Finding a run
Section titled “Finding a run”There are several ways to a run, depending on what you already have in front of you.
| You want | Where to go |
|---|---|
| The latest run of one channel or data source | Channels, or Integrations → Data sources. The Last run column shows each entry’s most recent run |
| The details of that run | Select the status in the Last run cell — it opens Run details |
| Older runs of one entry | The row menu (⋮) → Run history |
| Runs of an asset inbox that syncs from a remote server | Settings → Assets → Inboxes → the row menu → Executions. An inbox that does not sync from a remote server has nothing to run, and the menu does not offer the item |
| Everything this account has run | Settings → Background tasks |
| The runs you started yourself, right now | The Active jobs button in the header |
The Last run column keeps itself up to date while you watch it. You do not need to reload the page to see a run start, progress or finish — and that applies to every run, not only the ones you started. A run begun by a schedule, by the API, or by a colleague appears in the column the same way.
A cell reading Not run yet means exactly that: this channel or data source has no runs at all.
Starting a run yourself
Section titled “Starting a run yourself”Hover over the Last run cell and a play button appears beside the status. It starts a run of that entry, after asking you to confirm. The same action is in the row menu as Run now.
Not everything can be run on demand, and the control is simply absent where it cannot: a data source that receives pushed files has nothing to fetch, so neither the play button nor Run now appears on its row. The same is true of a channel whose connector does not support being run manually.
Starting a run does not cancel one that is already going. If a run is already queued or in progress, the confirmation says so, and starting another adds a second run rather than replacing the first.
What a status means
Section titled “What a status means”| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Queued | Created, but not started yet — it is waiting for a free worker |
| Running | In progress now |
| Finished | Ended without an error |
| Failed | Stopped because of an error. The details will say what went wrong |
| Skipped | Superseded by a newer run of the same thing, so this one did not need to run |
Finished does not mean every record was updated. A run can finish having skipped records it could not match, or having written warnings. To see what actually happened, open the run and read its steps.
Reading a run
Section titled “Reading a run”Selecting the status in a Last run cell opens the run in a window titled Run details. Run history lists an entry’s earlier runs, in a window still titled Latest Executions; select one for the same details. On Background tasks the run opens in the panel beside the list rather than in a window.
However you got there, what you are looking at is the same thing.
A run is made of steps, one per unit of work it did. Each step carries its own message, and a step can attach:
- log files, which list what happened record by record — this is where to look when a run finished but the result is not what you expected;
- files the step read or produced, such as the file an import was given.
If a run failed, the step that failed is the one to read first: its message names the reason, and its log files carry the detail.
Downloading what a step read
Section titled “Downloading what a step read”A step’s files sit under Input and result files, with a Download beside each one. A file listed as Input is the one that step actually read — the bytes the run worked from, kept as they were at the moment it read them.
That is the point of keeping them: by the time anyone looks into a run that went wrong, the file on the supplier’s server has often been replaced, so downloading it again answers a different question. The copy under the step does not change.
A run whose files have already been cleared lists none, and its downloads are no longer offered. That is expected — see how long runs are kept.
An import’s steps
Section titled “An import’s steps”An import leaves a step for each dataset it took on, naming that dataset’s file. What those steps say, and what to do about each, is in importing data.
How long runs are kept
Section titled “How long runs are kept”A run whose files have already been removed is expected, not a fault — the run record and the files it read are cleared separately.
| What | How long it is kept |
|---|---|
| The run and its logs | 30 days |
| The import files the run read | 30 days, or the most recent 5,000 runs of that data source — whichever comes first |
After that the run no longer appears in Run history or in Background tasks, and its files can no longer be downloaded or used to start the run again. Because the two clean-ups run on their own schedules, a run’s files can go a few hours before the run itself does.
Files you dropped on the hosted FTP server are kept there under their own rule, which that page states.