Step 6: Update Your Catalog at Regular Intervals
As a content provider participating in catalog ingestion, you should ensure that your processes related to catalog updates and uploads meet the following guidelines and set your expectations accordingly with regards to various wait times after uploading a new catalog.
Update Interval Requirements for Catalog Files
To keep your catalog data current, Amazon requires the following refresh intervals for updating your catalog:
- Amazon requires your catalog to be uploaded at least once per week, regardless of whether the catalog has changed. Your upload process should be scripted or otherwise automated so that the current catalog is uploaded on at least a weekly interval.
- If your most recent successfully ingested catalog file is more than three weeks old, Amazon will disable catalog integration for your app. (In other words, if your catalog is stale for more than three weeks, or fails catalog ingestion for more than three weeks, Amazon disables the catalog ingestion.)
Refresh Intervals for Catalog Content
When you update your catalog content, the new updates are not immediately available to viewers. Instead, the updates will appear on devices after the following events:
- Amazon ingests your catalog: Amazon will validate and ingest newly uploaded catalog files at regularly defined intervals. For Fire TV, the ingestion interval is every four hours. Thus, after uploading a new catalog, for Fire TV you might have to wait up to four hours to see if the ingestion was successful.
- The on-device cache expires: Devices have an on-device cache that can persist longer than the catalog refresh interval. For example, the on-device caches for shows and seasons on Fire TV can persist for up to 10 hours. As a result, some content could have up to a 14-hour delay in availability to viewers (4 hours for the ingestion interval, and 10 hours for the on-device cache) after catalog upload.