Most Odoo issues come down to permissions or an expired key, not field configuration. This article follows that order.
Start with the Permissions tab
Odoo is one of the two CRMs with a Permissions tab, along with Microsoft Dynamics. You will find it under Integrations → Odoo → Configure → Permissions. It is its own panel in the setup modal, alongside Sync configuration and Field mapping.
That tab checks live what the connected API key can actually do: whether it can read, create, and update contacts, companies, and leads, and whether the Leads feature is enabled in your Odoo.
Note: Before investigating anything else, look at this tab. It answers the "why is nothing showing up?" question in most cases.
Connection problems
Symptom | Usual cause | Fix |
The card shows Reconnect | The API key expired or was revoked | Generate a new key in Odoo and reconnect. You do not lose your configuration |
We could not find an Odoo server at that URL | The address has an extra path, or is wrong | Use the base address only, with no |
That database does not exist on this instance | The instance was renamed, or the name is not the subdomain | Reconnect with the new name |
Invalid login or API key | Key copied wrong, revoked, or expired | Generate a new key |
Your Odoo Online plan does not include API access | The plan is not Custom | Upgrade the plan, or connect an on-premise or Odoo.sh instance |
An import comes back empty
Check in this order:
Permissions. If the key cannot read that entity, there are no results and no error.
Record rules in Odoo. Even with module access, rules may limit which records the user sees.
The filters. Make sure they do not contradict each other.
The tag type. Contact tags and CRM tags are separate lists.
The lead fields will not load
If your workspace exports people as leads (Default object when exporting set to Lead), the contact import searches Odoo leads. When Enginy cannot read the lead structure, the import panel shows:
Warning: Could not load the Odoo lead fields. Check that the CRM app is installed and the connected user can read leads, then try again.
There are two usual causes:
The CRM app is not installed in Odoo. Without it there is no
crm.leadmodel to read.The connected user cannot read leads. The Permissions tab tells you straight away.
Enginy deliberately does not fall back to the contact fields here. The search still runs against leads, so offering contact fields would hand you a picker full of fields the search cannot use.
Fields are missing from an import
The fields mapped in Field Mapping for that entity come in. Anything not mapped does not travel. Check there first.
Records fail on export
An export can finish with some records created and others failed. The report shows the reason for each failure.
The most common causes:
Reason | What to do |
An Odoo business rule rejects the value | Check the field named in the error. It is usually an empty required field or a format Odoo does not accept |
The API key has no write permission on that entity | Check the Permissions tab and widen the user's permissions in Odoo |
The record no longer exists in Odoo | Someone deleted it. Enginy removes the link; export again to recreate it |
Note: If an export takes longer than usual and there are problematic records, that is expected: Enginy is isolating which one fails so the rest still get created.
Duplicates appear
Check that your Enginy records have the identifier field filled in.
Check that the configured identifier is the one you use in Odoo. If you store VAT numbers but name matching is configured, you will get duplicates.
Check that the API key can read those records. What it cannot see, it cannot find.
Everything is slow
Odoo publishes no rate limits, but on Odoo Online the real pace is one request per second with no parallelism. With large volumes, the slowness is on the Odoo side.
Run large operations when no other syncs are in progress.
Activity is not showing up in Odoo
Check that the contact is linked to an Odoo record. Without a link there is nowhere to write.
Check in Permissions that the key can write to that contact.
Remember that tasks completed in Odoo are picked up periodically, not instantly.
A task note will not clear
Editing a task syncs its subject, note and due date to the Odoo activity, but an empty note is skipped rather than applied. You cannot blank a note from Enginy; replace its text instead.
Warning: Deleting a task deletes the Odoo activity outright. Odoo removes the record instead of archiving it, so it cannot be recovered from Odoo afterwards.
If none of the above fits
Write to us with:
What you were doing: importing, exporting, or connecting.
The exact error message, or a screenshot.
Your Odoo version and whether it is Odoo Online, Odoo.sh, or self-hosted.
A screenshot of the Permissions tab.