Data Sync & Status

When you add a business location to Local SEO, theStacc reaches out to Google to pull in your live data - your star rating, your reviews, and a starter set of local keywords. This page explains exactly what gets synced, how to read the sync status, when to run a manual sync, and what happens if part of a sync fails.

What syncs after you add a location#

The moment you confirm a business (or add a new location), theStacc kicks off a background sync. You don't have to wait on the page - it runs on its own and the dashboard updates as it goes.

A sync pulls three things, in order:

1. Business info - your current star rating and total review count, pulled straight from your Google Business Profile listing.
2. Reviews - up to 100 of your most recent reviews, imported so you can read and respond to them inside theStacc.
3. Keywords - 10 starter local keywords generated for your business, so you have something to work with right away. You can add, edit, or remove keywords later from your keyword settings.

A note on rating and review count#

Your rating and review count always come from Google's actual listing - they are never calculated from the handful of reviews theStacc imports. A sync only imports a sample of your reviews (up to 100), so averaging that sample would give a wrong number. This is why your displayed rating matches Google exactly, even when theStacc has only imported some of your reviews.

If Google has no rating data for your listing yet (common for brand-new businesses or those with a very thin profile), theStacc records that the sync ran but leaves your rating blank, showing a dash (-) instead of a misleading 0.

Fetching reviews can take a moment#

Pulling reviews from Google is the slowest step. Taking 30 or more seconds is completely normal - theStacc has to ask Google for your reviews and wait for the results to come back. The dashboard shows "Fetching reviews (this may take a moment)..." while this happens. It is not stuck - just let it run.

What each review brings in#

For every review theStacc imports, it captures:

• Author name - the reviewer's name
• Author photo - the reviewer's profile image
• Star rating - 1 to 5 stars
• Review text - what the customer wrote
• Date posted - the timestamp of the review

These are the fields you'll see on the Local SEO > Reviews page. New reviews come in marked as "new" so you can spot which ones still need a response. See Reviews for how to read, filter, and respond to them.

Reading the sync status#

While a sync is running, the dashboard shows where it is in the process. There are six possible states:

A sync always moves through these stages in order: idle, then syncing business, then syncing reviews, then syncing keywords, then either completed or failed. The dashboard updates the message automatically as each stage finishes, so you can watch the progress in real time.

Running a manual sync#

Your data refreshes automatically the first time you set up a location, and again on a return visit if your data has gone stale. But you can also refresh it yourself at any time.

To run a manual sync:

1. Open your Local SEO dashboard for the location.
2. Click the Sync Data button (it has a refresh icon).
3. Watch the status message - it will move through "Syncing business data," "Fetching reviews," and "Generating keywords" before showing "Sync complete! Data refreshed."

When to use Sync Data:

• You just got new reviews on Google and want them pulled in now rather than waiting for the next automatic refresh.
• Your star rating or review count changed and you want the dashboard to match Google.
• A previous sync failed and you want to try again.
• Your data looks stale - for example, the "Last synced" timestamp is old.

Running Sync Data requires editor access to the project. If the button is greyed out, you have view-only access; ask a project owner or admin to run the sync or grant you editor rights.

If you click Sync Data while a sync is already running, theStacc won't start a second one - it simply lets the in-progress sync finish.

Partial syncs: when one step fails but others succeed#

The three steps - business info, reviews, and keywords - run independently. If one step fails, theStacc keeps the data from the steps that worked rather than throwing everything away.

For example: if your business info syncs successfully but the reviews step fails (this can happen for some international listings, or if Google is temporarily slow to respond), your rating, review count, and keywords are still saved. The sync is marked completed because useful data came through. You simply won't have the reviews from that run.

A sync is only marked failed when *all three* steps fail - meaning theStacc couldn't pull your business info, your reviews, *or* generate keywords. In that case nothing useful came back, and the dashboard shows the error.

How to retry a partial or failed sync#

Either way, the fix is the same: click Sync Data to run the whole sync again. A retry re-attempts every step, so a step that failed last time gets another chance. Reviews and keywords you already have are preserved - theStacc skips anything it has already imported and only adds what's new, so retrying never creates duplicates.

If retrying doesn't resolve a failure, see Error Handling & Sync Failures for how to read the error details and what each type of failure means.

Stuck syncs and the 5-minute rule#

Very occasionally a sync can get "stuck" - for example, if the server restarts in the middle of one. Without a safeguard, the location could stay frozen in a "syncing" state and the Sync Data button would appear to do nothing.

theStacc guards against this automatically. If a sync has been in progress for more than 5 minutes, it's treated as stale. The next time you click Sync Data (or the next automatic sync runs), theStacc clears the stuck sync and starts a fresh one in its place. You don't have to do anything special - just click Sync Data again and it will run.

This means a wedged sync can never block you permanently. The worst case is a single click that doesn't appear to respond, after which the next click takes over cleanly.

How sync errors are recorded#

When a sync fails, theStacc stores the details so the dashboard can show you what went wrong instead of leaving you guessing. A stored error includes:

• An error code - a short label for the type of failure (for example, a temporary AI overload versus a generic sync failure).
• A message - a plain-language explanation of what happened.
• A retry-after hint - for failures that are temporary (like a busy AI service), how long to wait before trying again. For most errors this is zero, meaning you can retry right away.
• A timestamp - when the failure occurred.

When the failure is a temporary AI overload, the dashboard shows a retry badge with a button so you can try again in one click. For other failures, the dashboard shows the error message along with the Sync Data button to retry. The error is cleared automatically the next time a sync completes successfully.

For a fuller breakdown of error types, what they mean, and how to recover from each one, see Error Handling & Sync Failures.

Related#

• Reviews - reading, filtering, and responding to the reviews a sync imports
• Error Handling & Sync Failures - understanding sync errors and recovering from failures
• Local SEO Overview - the full Local SEO dashboard and what each metric means