{"title":"Initial sync when setting up the sync user","slug":"initial-sync","url":"https://support.storeconnect.com/articles/initial-sync","url_markdown":"https://support.storeconnect.com/articles/initial-sync.md","subtitle":null,"summary":"Setting up a sync user imports your catalog, not your existing customer records: what the initial import covers, why pre-existing Accounts and Contacts do not appear on your website, and what the Sync Summaries counts mean.","type":"Help_Documentation","video_url":"","keywords":"initial sync, sync user, bulk sync, first sync, SCID, StoreConnect ID, SC row count, SF row count, sync summaries, pre-existing records, accounts, contacts","last_modified":"2026-08-21T07:12:35+0000","body_markdown":"When you set up a StoreConnect sync user for the first time, StoreConnect imports your catalog data from Salesforce so your store has something to sell. It does not import your existing customer records. This is expected, and it is why a Salesforce org full of **Accounts** and **Contacts** produces a store with almost no customers on it.\n\n## What the initial import covers\n\nSetting up your store imports your catalog and the records the setup process itself creates:\n\n- **Store**\n- **Taxonomy** and **Taxon**\n- **Product**, **Price Book**, and **Price Book Entry**\n- **Media**, **Product Media**, and **Product Taxon**\n\nYour customer and sales records are not part of this. **Account**, **Contact**, **Order**, **Order Item**, **Campaign Member**, **Asset**, and **Lead** are not included in the initial import, so no pre-existing records on those objects are brought across when you set up your store.\n\n## How records reach your website after setup\n\nOnce setup is complete, records reach your website one at a time, as they change. Creating or updating a record on a monitored object in Salesforce raises a sync event, and that sync event carries the record to your website.\n\nA record that has sat untouched in Salesforce since before you installed StoreConnect has never raised a sync event, so it has never been sent anywhere. Nothing goes looking for it.\n\n:::note\nIf you add a `StoreConnect_Sync__c` field to a standard object, it narrows this further: only records where that field is set to `enable_sync` raise sync events at all. See [manage standard object sync](per-record-sync-opt-in).\n:::\n\n## Why pre-existing Accounts and Contacts stay missing\n\nYour website identifies your catalog records by their Salesforce record ID, so **Products**, **Price Books**, and **Price Book Entries** need nothing extra to work.\n\nCustomer and sales records are different. Your website has to be able to create these records too, so it identifies them by a **StoreConnect ID** (SCID) instead, stored in the `s_c__SC_Id__c` field. This applies to **Account**, **Contact**, **Order**, **Order Item**, **Lead**, **Asset**, and **Campaign Member**. A record on one of those objects without a StoreConnect ID has no usable identity on your website.\n\nSo two things have to be true before a customer record is usable on your website. It has to have been created or updated since StoreConnect was installed, and it has to have a StoreConnect ID.\n\nHow a record gets its StoreConnect ID depends on where it is created and what you do to it:\n\n- **Created on your website** — records created through checkout, registration, or POS are assigned an ID as they are created, and that ID travels with them when they sync to Salesforce.\n- **Created in Salesforce** — the StoreConnect package assigns an ID when the record is saved.\n- **Updated in Salesforce** — saving an update assigns an ID to any record that does not already have one. Opening a pre-existing **Account** or **Order** and saving it is enough to give it one, and it comes across at that point.\n- **Contact is the exception** — editing and saving a pre-existing **Contact** does not assign an ID. Only selecting **Reset Password**, **Send Confirmation**, or **Send Invitation** does.\n\nSo pre-existing **Contacts** are the records that most often need deliberate attention, because ordinary edits never bring them across.\n\n:::warning\nInstalling StoreConnect does not add StoreConnect IDs to your existing records. There is no automatic backfill, on any object. Every pre-existing **Account**, **Contact**, and **Order** starts without one.\n:::\n\n:::note\nWhen you add a StoreConnect ID to a **Contact**, StoreConnect also adds one to its primary **Account**. Contacts are never left on your website without their account.\n:::\n\n## What this looks like in Sync Summaries\n\n**SF Row Count** counts the records in Salesforce. **SC Row Count** counts the records on your website. For **Account** and **Contact**, a large gap between the two is expected after setup, because the initial import never covered those objects.\n\n| What you see | What it means |\n|---|---|\n| Large SF Row Count for Account or Contact | Expected. It counts everything in Salesforce, whether or not it has ever synced. |\n| SC Row Count is much lower, or near zero | Expected. Pre-existing customer records are not imported during setup. |\n| No new website logins or customer records appeared | Correct. Pre-existing **Contacts** need a StoreConnect ID before they can sign in or be matched at checkout. |\n\nSee [sync summaries](sync-summaries) for how to read these counts in full.\n\n## Bringing pre-existing records across\n\nYou can do all of this yourself in Salesforce. Saving a record is what sends it to your website, so a mass update through Data Loader or a list view is enough to bring a set of records across, whatever the object.\n\n- **Accounts, Orders, and other sales records** — update and save the records. Each save assigns the StoreConnect ID and sends the record across in one step, so no separate ID step is needed.\n- **Contacts** — a plain update is not enough, because it does not assign a StoreConnect ID. Use one of the methods in [syncing records with StoreConnect IDs](what-records-sync-to-your-website): invite the contact, trigger a password reset, add the **Sync to SC** quick action, or generate StoreConnect IDs and load them with Data Loader.\n- **Products and other catalog records** — update and save the records. Catalog records need no StoreConnect ID, so the save alone brings them across.\n\nStart with the **Contacts** you want on your website. Adding a StoreConnect ID to a **Contact** also adds one to its primary **Account**, so working from the contact side brings both across together.\n\nIf you have a large volume of records and only a subset belong in StoreConnect, set up [per-record sync opt-in](per-record-sync-opt-in) before you start, so you only bring across the records you actually want."}