Google Merchant Center Feed Errors: How to Fix Each Type (2026)
Feed errors vs policy disapprovals. Feed errors are data quality problems in your product feed: wrong format, missing required fields, invalid values. They prevent products from being processed or approved. Policy disapprovals are a separate category where your product or landing page violates Google's advertising policies. This guide covers feed errors only. For policy disapprovals, see the ad policy disapprovals guide.
Where to Find Feed Errors in Merchant Center
Log in to Merchant Center and go to Products → All products. Products with errors show a red status. Click on any product to see the specific error code and a description. For a bulk view, go to Products → Diagnostics. The Diagnostics tab shows every error type affecting your feed, sorted by how many products are impacted. Start with the errors affecting the most products first.
You can also download a full error report from Products → Feeds → [your feed name] → Processing results. This CSV file lists every product that failed processing with the error code and affected attribute next to each one. For feeds with hundreds or thousands of products, this CSV is faster to work through than clicking individual products.
[invalid_value] Errors: Price Format
The [invalid_value] error on the price attribute is one of the most common feed errors. Google requires prices to include the currency code in a specific format. The correct format is a number followed by a space followed by the ISO 4217 currency code.
Correct: 29.99 USD
Also correct: 14.50 GBP, 49.00 EUR
Incorrect: $29.99, 29.99, USD29.99, 29,99 EUR (comma as decimal separator)
Note the decimal separator: Google requires a period (.), not a comma. Feeds generated from European e-commerce platforms often use a comma as the decimal separator, which triggers this error for every product. If your feed is generated automatically, fix the decimal separator in the feed template or export settings, not product by product.
The same [invalid_value] error can appear on the availability attribute. Google accepts only three values: in_stock, out_of_stock, or preorder. Values like "In Stock", "Available", or "Yes" will fail. Check your feed template and make sure the availability field outputs one of these three exact strings.
How to fix: Update your feed template to output prices in the format [number].[cents] [CURRENCY]. For availability, map your internal stock status values to the three accepted strings. Re-upload the feed and click "Request review" on affected products.
[missing_value] Errors: Required Attributes
Google requires a minimum set of attributes for every product in a Shopping feed. Missing any one of these causes a [missing_value] error and prevents the product from being processed. The required attributes for most product categories are:
- id: a unique identifier for the product in your system. It must be consistent across feed uploads.
- title: the product name, up to 150 characters. Must be a descriptive product name, not a marketing phrase.
- description: a text description of the product. Minimum useful length is around 500 characters, though there is no formal minimum.
- link: the URL of the product's landing page on your site. Must return a 200 status code.
- image_link: the URL of the main product image. Must be publicly accessible to Googlebot.
- price: the product's sale price in the correct format (see above).
- availability: one of
in_stock,out_of_stock, orpreorder.
Apparel products require additional attributes: google_product_category, color, size, and age_group. Electronics often require brand and mpn or gtin.
How to fix: Download the Diagnostics CSV. Filter for [missing_value] errors. The affected attribute column tells you exactly which field is missing for each product. Fix at the feed template level for systematic gaps, or fix individual product records for one-off issues. Re-upload and re-process.
[image_fetch_failed] Errors: Image URL Accessibility
The [image_fetch_failed] error means Google's crawler could not retrieve your product image from the URL you provided in the image_link field. The three most common causes are: the URL requires authentication to access, the URL is only accessible from certain IP ranges (geo-blocking or firewall rules), or the image file no longer exists at that URL.
Google's image crawler does not send authentication headers or cookies. If your image is hosted behind a login, a Cloudflare challenge, or any access control layer, the crawler will fail. Product images must be publicly accessible to any HTTP client without authentication.
To diagnose: paste the image URL into a browser in incognito mode. If it loads, the issue is likely IP-based blocking. Check your CDN, Cloudflare settings, or server firewall rules for any restrictions on the IP ranges used by Google's crawlers. Google publishes its crawler IP ranges in its Googlebot IP range file.
Also check that the image URL uses HTTPS, not HTTP. Google may reject HTTP image URLs in certain account configurations. Use HTTPS for all image links.
How to fix: Verify the image URL is publicly accessible without authentication. Remove any IP restrictions for Google's crawler ranges. Confirm the image exists at the URL (check for broken links after product deletions or URL restructures). Re-upload the feed after fixing.
[landing_page_error] Errors: URL Returns Non-200 Status
The [landing_page_error] error means Googlebot could not access your product's landing page successfully. The most common causes: the URL returns a 404 (page not found), the URL redirects through a chain of 3xx redirects before reaching the final destination, the page requires authentication, or the server returns a 5xx error.
Redirect chains are a common source of this error in migrated stores. If you have moved from one platform to another and set up 301 redirects, but those redirects point to intermediate URLs that then redirect again, Googlebot may give up after a certain number of hops. Aim for direct URLs with no redirect chains in your feed. If a redirect is necessary, use a single 301 direct to the final URL.
Geographic restrictions cause the same problem as with images: if your store blocks or redirects visitors from certain countries and Googlebot is crawling from a US IP, your landing pages may appear inaccessible. Test by pasting the product URL into a browser using a VPN set to a US location.
How to fix: Test every affected landing page URL directly (incognito, US VPN if you have geo restrictions). Fix 404s by updating the URL in your feed to the correct live product URL. Fix redirect chains by using the final destination URL directly in your feed. For 5xx errors, fix the underlying server issue and re-submit.
[invalid_upc] Errors: GTIN Format Validation
Google validates GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers, which include UPC, EAN, and ISBN formats) against a checksum algorithm. A GTIN that looks correct but fails the checksum will produce an [invalid_upc] error. This happens most often when GTINs are entered manually with a typo, or when a supplier provides an incorrect GTIN.
EAN-13 and UPC-12 codes both use a check digit as the last digit. You can verify any GTIN using a free online GTIN validator. If the check digit does not match the algorithm's expected value, the GTIN is invalid.
If you genuinely do not have a valid GTIN for a product (for example, custom-made or handmade items), set the identifier_exists attribute to false in your feed. This tells Google not to expect a GTIN for that product. Do not set a placeholder or fabricated GTIN, as this will cause the error and may trigger broader feed quality issues.
How to fix: Validate affected GTINs using a GTIN checker. For incorrect GTINs, obtain the correct value from the manufacturer or GS1 database. For products without GTINs, set identifier_exists to false. Re-upload the feed.
[policy_violation] Errors: Promotional Text in Titles
The [policy_violation] error on the title attribute means your product title contains text that Google classifies as promotional rather than descriptive. Common violations: "FREE SHIPPING" in the title, "BEST PRICE GUARANTEED", "ON SALE", "LIMITED TIME OFFER", percentage discounts, and superlatives like "BEST" or "CHEAPEST" without qualification.
Google's title policy is clear: titles must describe the product, not advertise it. The title field is used to match your product to search queries. Promotional text in the title does not help with matching and violates Shopping policies.
This error also appears when titles use ALL CAPS extensively. Google allows capitalisation of proper nouns and abbreviations (brand names, model numbers) but not entire titles in uppercase.
How to fix: Review affected titles and rewrite them as product descriptions: brand, product type, key specification, variant. For example: "Nike Air Max 270 Men Running Shoe Black Size 10" not "NIKE BEST RUNNING SHOE FREE SHIPPING!!". Update your feed template if promotional text is being injected automatically from a CMS field. Re-upload and request re-review.
Feed Rules Tool: Fix Recurring Errors Without Editing the Primary Feed
If you have systematic errors that come from your source data (for example, your e-commerce platform always outputs prices with a dollar sign prefix), the Feed Rules tool in Merchant Center lets you transform attribute values before Google processes them, without changing your primary feed file.
Go to Products → Feeds → [your feed] → Feed rules. You can set rules like "strip the leading $ from the price field" or "replace all instances of 'In Stock' with 'in_stock' in the availability field". Feed rules run every time your feed is processed, so fixing the rule once fixes the error across all current and future products.
Feed rules are the right solution for: currency formatting errors, availability string mapping, title truncation, and category mapping corrections. They are not a substitute for fixing fundamental data quality issues in your source system, but they are a faster path to a clean feed when your platform cannot easily be reconfigured.
Supplemental Feeds: Override Specific Attributes Without Touching the Primary Feed
A supplemental feed lets you override specific attributes for specific products without editing your primary feed file. This is useful when a subset of your products has errors that cannot be fixed in the primary feed (for example, your platform does not allow you to set identifier_exists for products without GTINs, or you need to override titles for a specific product range).
To set up a supplemental feed: go to Products → Feeds → Add supplemental feed. Create a feed file (Google Sheet, CSV, or XML) containing only the id column plus the attributes you want to override. When Google processes your feeds, the supplemental feed values take precedence over the primary feed values for matching product IDs.
A common use case: you have 200 products without valid GTINs that are producing [invalid_upc] errors. Create a supplemental feed with two columns: id and identifier_exists. Set identifier_exists to false for all 200 IDs. Upload it as a supplemental feed. The errors resolve without any changes to your primary feed file.
After Fixing: Re-Processing and Review Timelines
After correcting errors in your feed, you have two options to trigger re-processing. The first is to wait for your scheduled fetch (if your feed is set to auto-fetch, Merchant Center will pick up the changes on your next scheduled crawl). The second is to manually trigger a fetch by going to Products → Feeds → [your feed] → Fetch now.
After the feed is re-processed, data quality errors typically clear within 24 to 48 hours. Policy-related errors may require a manual re-review request. Click "Request review" on affected products in the Products tab after the feed has been re-processed.
If errors persist after re-processing and you believe your feed data is correct, check the feed processing log for any transformation errors introduced by Feed Rules, and verify that the attribute format matches Google's specification exactly, including whitespace and encoding. UTF-8 encoding with no BOM is the required format for XML and CSV feeds.