As part of the push to process accessible metadata, Amazon has made the long-awaited switch from processing ONIX 2 to ONIX 3. This is great news! Because it means they are up to industry standard and able to process all your hard won accessible metadata.
The only downside is that this switch means that some files that were processed without issue previously, are now failing. And unfortunately, if any ONIX issues occur in a single distribution the entire file will fail and nothing will update on Amazon’s storefront.
That means that if you added in your accessibility metadata for 100 books, but one of the below errors occurs in even 1 of those books, none of your accessibility metadata will process. As these errors/failures are brand new, they are not coded into the CoreSource system, so it will look like everything went through successfully.
As a way to help navigate these new errors, we’ve created this guide on the main issues that are causing these failures and how to fix them.
Missing Copyright Year
Problem: Incomplete copyright metadata is causing the entire file to fail.
Solution: Add copyright YEAR for each title that already has copyright holder info.
Duplicated Country/Region Pricing
Problem: Unnecessary country/regions codes added to each price are causing duplications, creating an invalid file.
Solution: Remove country/region info for each price/currency that already has WORLD rights.
How to Fix Both Problems Using a Metadata Extract
For publishers who use an ONIX provider, this will have to be corrected in your feeds directly. Following the below solution will be overwritten once your next feed is sent out.
For publishers who use either the spreadsheet or the CoreSource website to update titles, the below directions can be followed.
1. Log into CoreSource
2. Click on Reports > Metadata Extract
3. Select ‘Full’ and the DE-select ‘Select All’
4. Under Time Period select Max and change the dates to reflect a range that would include all your titles uploaded via eBOUND:
5. Scroll down the screen and select only the below categories:
- Price
- Copyright Details
6. Scroll back up and hit Export in the top right corner.
The report should be emailed to you directly, but it will also be available shortly via Reports > File Extracts
7. The metadata extract will be an Excel file, once you have it, open it up and make the below changes. NOTE: do NOT rename this file. It must remain with the name it had when being created.
8. For any row that is missing ‘Copyright Year’ as pictured below, add in the year it was published:
9. For any row that is associated with a title that already has WORLD rights and has any additional ‘Countries Included’ and/or ‘Regions Included,’ remove the country codes and/or region codes entirely.
10. Save the Excel file. Remember you cannot rename it. So it should look something like: MetadataExtract_4151383_20250627_1008.xlsx
11. Upload the updated file to CoreSource via My Titles > Ingest Files > Choose Files > Upload
12. Resend a ‘Metadata Only’ distribution to Amazon by going to My Titles > All Titles > Select All > Distribute
13. Change the ‘Process Type’ to ‘Metadata Only’ > Select your Amazon channel > hit ‘Continue’
14. Make sure that the distribution went through to Amazon successfully and contact your Technology Specialist if you notice any errors or listings still missing accessible metadata.