Google Merchant Center Feed Processing Errors: How to Find and Fix Them

Feed processing errors in Google Merchant Center fall into two buckets: errors that affect individual items and errors that affect the feed file itself. Both show up in the Diagnostics section, but in different tabs, and they need different fixes. This guide covers the 5 errors that show up most often in merchant audits, plus the fix workflow that actually gets them to clear.

The 5 Most Common Feed Processing Errors

1. Invalid GTIN

Google validates every GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) it receives against a checksum algorithm. If the value fails, the item gets flagged. This is one of the most common feed errors because it has several different root causes that look the same in the Diagnostics panel.

The three most frequent causes:

• Internal SKU submitted as GTIN. Your product database may store a GTIN column that was populated with internal part numbers. These fail the checksum every time.
• Spaces or dashes in the GTIN string. GTINs must be submitted as plain digit strings. "978-0-306-40615-7" fails; "9780306406157" passes.
• Product genuinely has no GTIN. If you manufacture a product yourself or sell handmade goods, there may be no GTIN. In that case, submit identifier_exists: false (or FALSE in a spreadsheet feed) instead of leaving the field empty or inventing a number.

2. Missing Required Attribute

Google requires a specific set of attributes for every product: id, title, description, link, image_link, price, availability, and condition (for used or refurbished items). If any of these are absent, the item does not process. The error message names the specific missing attribute, which makes this easier to fix than it sounds.

The most common version of this error is a missing or empty condition attribute on products that are not clearly new. If you sell only new products, submitting condition: new universally in Feed Rules is a legitimate fix.

3. Invalid Price Format

Google expects prices in a specific format: the numeric value followed by the ISO 4217 currency code, with a space between them. For example: 29.99 USD or 14.95 EUR. Common formatting problems that trigger this error:

• Currency symbol in the value ($29.99 instead of 29.99 USD)
• Comma as decimal separator (29,99 EUR instead of 29.99 EUR)
• Price submitted as 0 or negative (Google rejects zero-price items)
• Currency code missing entirely (29.99 with no currency)

4. Image URL Crawl Error

Google's image crawler visits the URL you submit in image_link. If the crawler gets a 4xx or 5xx response, a redirect chain longer than 3 hops, a robots.txt block, or a response time over 10 seconds, it logs an image crawl error. This error is slower to clear than most others because the image crawler runs on its own schedule, not on demand when you resubmit a feed.

Common causes:

• Image hosted on a CDN with geo-blocking that blocks Google's crawl IPs
• Image URL contains session tokens or authentication parameters
• Redirect from HTTP to HTTPS adding a hop that pushes over the limit
• Image file genuinely deleted or moved without updating the feed

5. Unrecognized Value in Enum Field

Several attributes accept only a fixed list of values. availability must be one of: in stock, out of stock, preorder, or backorder. condition must be new, refurbished, or used. gender must be male, female, or unisex. If your feed exports a value like "available", "Available", "In Stock", or "YES", Google rejects it.

This often happens when a new e-commerce platform export was mapped without checking Google's exact accepted values. The fix is usually a Feed Rule that maps your platform's value to Google's required value, which you can do without touching your source data.

Where to Find Processing Errors in Diagnostics

Google Merchant Center has two separate tabs for feed errors, and most merchants only check one of them. Both are under Products > Diagnostics.

Item issues tab

This tab shows errors that affect individual products. Each row represents one type of error (for example "Invalid GTIN") and shows a count of affected items. Click the count to see a sample of affected products. Click Download affected products to get the full CSV with item IDs, so you can match them back to your source data.

Item issues have three severity levels: errors (product disapproved and not serving), warnings (product serving but at reduced quality), and notifications (informational, no direct impact on serving). Fix errors first. Warnings matter for Shopping ad quality scores.

Feed issues tab

This tab shows structural problems with the feed file itself: parse failures, fetch errors, missing required columns in the feed header, or encoding problems. Feed issues are less common than item issues but more urgent, because a single feed-level error can take down all the products in that feed rather than just a subset.

If you see a feed fetch error (Google could not retrieve the file), check the feed URL directly in a browser, verify the file is accessible without authentication, and confirm the URL has not changed since you registered it in Merchant Center.

The Fix Workflow: From Diagnosis to Clean Diagnostics

How Long Do Feed Errors Take to Clear?

If errors persist beyond these windows after you have confirmed the fix is live, open a support ticket in Merchant Center with the affected item IDs and describe the fix you applied. Google support can manually trigger a re-review in some cases.

Feed Processing Errors vs. Account Suspension

Feed processing errors are different from a Merchant Center account suspension. Errors affect individual products or feeds and leave the rest of the account functioning. A suspension disables the entire account, blocks all product serving, and requires a reinstatement request.

That said, persistent high-volume feed errors can indirectly contribute to a suspension if Google interprets them as a signal of systematic policy non-compliance (for example, consistently submitting prices that do not match landing page prices). Clearing feed errors is part of keeping an account in good standing, not just a Shopping quality issue.