Shippo - Common Errors
Andrej Janev avatar
Written by Andrej Janev
Updated over a week ago

Shippo: no label is created

A common reason you have not seen anything show up yet on our side might be related to the Shippo account status.

For some recently created Shippo accounts, we receive from Shippo the following message for your account "Your account has been suspended. Please reach out to support@goshippo.com to re-activate your account.".

In the Shippo dashboard, there should be a chat widget (if not, look for a support link). Check in with them about what the issue is with your account. This is usually resolved quickly by the Shippo team, and the account is then ready to create labels.


Shippo Error: The data you sent was not accepted as valid: {"shipment":[{"parcel":[

The full error shown is:

The data you sent was not accepted as valid: {"shipment":[{"parcel":["This field is required."]}]} (label could not be created & sent to customer)

This happens for older Shippo accounts (>1.5 years) using an out-of-date API version.

To solve this, in your Shippo dashboard, go to Settings / API / Under Versioning, see if an update is available, and click on upgrade.

For a better understanding: the old Shippo API required a parameter "parcel" to be present. The current most up-to-date version requires the parameter "parcels" (plural).


Shippo: USPS (Military Shipments)

Maybe you have stumbled upon the following error message: ⚠️ USPS: Customs declaration is required for military shipments via the USPS. (label could not be created & sent to customer) ⚠️

Customs declarations are not supported for international prepaid labels at the moment; see also:

In this case, a label will not be created. The prepaid label must be created manually outside our platform and sent directly to the customer.


Shippo: The web service user could not be authenticated (DHL Germany)

When this error occurs, it is likely that the password for the DHL account has been changed and not updated in Shippo. Shippo is trying to log the user with the previous user/password combination, which DHL does not accept. Background: DHL routinely requires account holders to change their passwords.

A few simple steps will do the trick here:

In Shippo, you would access your DHL account and details over here. Next:

- Click on "Your accounts" and then on "Edit."

- You can change the password by clicking on the password field

- Then head over to your Rich Returns dashboard and click "Create a label" for returns where the label creation failed.

Voila! Labels will be created successfully.


Shippo: Missing or invalid ship from state province code

If you've encountered this error message, you've come to the right place.

For UPS, the state field should not be filled for returns outside the US. If it is, this leads to an error with the following error code: Missing or invalid ship from state province code.

As Shippo points out in their documentation, UPS only requires a State field for shipments headed to the US, Canada, Ireland, and Australia. The State field should be blank for shipments going to other countries.


Shippo: invalid credentials

When this error message shows up, this can indicate several things:

  • Make sure you have the shippo_live_ part in front of the key itself. The live Shippo API Key always starts with the part mentioned above.

  • You are probably using the Shippo Test API Key. You will recognize it by the first part, which starts with shippo_test_.

Please ensure that you have the live Shippo API Key entered into your Rich Returns dashboard. You will find this key when you head to the following link: https://app.goshippo.com/settings/api/.


Shippo: USPS - Could not find a rate

Don't worry - you are not alone in this. This is a common error, and it can be resolved pretty quickly.

This is a case where your selected USPS rate only supports shipments until 1lb. The error occurs for a shipment where the product that is being returned exceeds this limit, hence why USPS is not showing a rate here.

To solve this, head over to our settings where you added the API key for Shippo (Return Settings > General > Prepaid Labels > Configure) and then select "First-Class or Priority (based on weight)" and click save. We will then select the cheapest rate from USPS automatically based on the weight of the return shipment.

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