---
title: Troubleshooting the Strands Recommender integration
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/integrating-3rd-party-systems/strands-recommender-integration.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/email-marketing/placing-strands-recommendations-into-marketing-emails.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

This page describes how you can resolve some of the situations that you may come across when using the Strands Recommender.

## Unable to insert Strands recommendations into emails

When inserting a strands recommendation widget into emails, you can receive an **Access Denied** error. You need a Kentico EMS license to insert Strands recommendation widgets into emails, as the functionality makes use of [contact management](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/contact-management.md).

Please make sure you contact [Strands support](http://retail.strands.com/talk-to-us/) if you need a Strands Recommender feature turned on.

## The Strands catalog feed is not uploaded to Strands

You can see, for example in [catalog upload history](https://recommender.strands.com/catalog/history), that the Strands catalog feed is not uploaded to Strands. If that is the case, make sure you:

1. [Update the Strands catalog feed upload settings](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/integrating-3rd-party-systems/strands-recommender-integration/integrating-the-strands-recommender-service-into-your-store.md). The **Save** button in Kentico's **Settings** (application) -> **Integration** -> **Strands Recommender** immediately starts a **Strands catalog feed** upload to Strands. The button also transfers the upload settings to Strands.
   1. You have to update the **Strands catalog feed** upload settings, for example, if your site **moved to a different address**. By updating the settings, Strands will know at what address it should now request the catalog.
2. Try setting up the import manually:
   1. Open the Strands [Catalog format](https://recommender.strands.com/catalog/format/) page.
   2. Navigate to the **Import Method** page.
   3. Select **Feed** in the **Choose Import Method** section.
   4. Enter the **URL** of the feed. The feed is generated in _/CMSModules/StrandsRecommender/CMSPages/StrandsCatalogFeed.ashx._
   5. Specify the **Pagination** – the number of products that each page that is being uploaded to Strands contains. The default value is 2000.
   6. Select the **Enabled** and **Full catalog** check boxes.
   7. **Save** your catalog.

      ![Changing Strands catalog upload settings](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/troubleshooting-the-strands-recommender-integration/strands_catalog_upload_settings.png "Changing Strands catalog upload settings")
3. Upload the catalog manually:
   1. Download the feed generated in _/CMSModules/StrandsRecommender/CMSPages/StrandsCatalogFeed.ashx_ as an ._xml_ file.
   2. Open the Strands [Catalog format](https://recommender.strands.com/catalog/format/) page.
   3. Navigate to the **Import Method** page.
   4. Select **FTP** (for catalog files larger than 5MB) or **Manual Upload** in the **Choose Import Method** section.
   5. Follow the instructions on the screen to finish the upload.

## System slowdown during Strands catalog feed upload

If you experience a **noticeable system slowdown** when the **Strands catalog feed is being uploaded**, you may want to change how the catalog is being split into pages (Pagination). **By default, the Pagination is set to _2_000 products per page**. To change the pagination value, you need to set the catalog import method on the Strands [Import Method](https://retail.strands.com/catalog/import/method) page.

To change the Strands catalog Pagination: 

1. Open the Strands [Catalog format](https://recommender.strands.com/catalog/format/) page.
2. Navigate to the **Import Method** page.
3. Select **Feed** in the **Choose Import Method** section.
4. Enter the **URL** of the feed. The feed is generated in _/CMSModules/StrandsRecommender/CMSPages/StrandsCatalogFeed.ashx._
5. Specify the **Pagination** – the number of products that each page that is being uploaded to Strands contains. The default value is 2000.
6. Select the **Enabled** and **Full catalog** check boxes.
7. **Save** your catalog.

   ![Changing the Strands catalog pagination](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k12sp/troubleshooting-the-strands-recommender-integration/strands_catalog_upload_settings2.png "Changing the Strands catalog pagination")
8. Try to use different **Pagination** values to find the value at which your system performs best.

## General Strands Recommender troubleshooting

With issues related to configuring individual Strands Recommender functionality and settings, please make sure you contact [Strands support](http://retail.strands.com/talk-to-us/).