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Updated: January 28, 2021

[Finally!] Couldn't Fetch Sitemap error On Google Search Console Solved

Written by Purushottam Kiri

If you have been hit by the annoying Google search console bug where your sitemaps are not fetched, I finally found a solution that works 50% of the time.

[Update: This solution has been reported to not work for some users. If it does not work for you do comment below. If this did work for you or you found another solution, comment below and let others know! ]

This issue drove me nuts for almost 20 days now and I couldn't find a solution to the issue literally anywhere on the web.

The big surprise is that a large number of users are affected by this issue. Even though:

  1. You have a valid sitemap
  2. There are no errors on your chrome console
  3. Curl command gives status 200

Google just wouldn't fetch it. Nada.

Without keeping you waiting, here's the solution and I just stumbled upon it while trying to index our 8 new websites, so you can imagine the pressure our team was in for 20 days!

Here's How to Fix The Couldn't Fetch Google Search Console Error

  1. Login To Google Search Console
  2. Click on "Sitemaps" on the left panel/Menu
  3. On add a sitemap, enter URL of the sitemap you are trying to index
  4. Add a Forward slash "/" just after the last forward slash in the URL (See Screenshot)
  5. Click on Submit
  6. If you still get an error, repeat without the extra forward slash
Screenshot 1

This should do it. It worked on all of the 8 websites. Don't worry, even with the extra forward slash, Google search console will index the right URL!

Screenshot 2

Other Submitted Solutions That Worked

I had the website verified in console as http:// yet the live website had an https:// and this means the the sitemaps had https://.

I deleted the http:// property and added it again as https:// and the sitemaps issue was fixed. I was using Yoast to generate the sitemaps.

Caleb

Did it work for you? Let me know down in the comments!

Written by Purushottam Kiri

Computer Science graduate with a knack for data, rankings and content.

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182 comments on “[Finally!] Couldn't Fetch Sitemap error On Google Search Console Solved”

    1. Have you tried:
      1. Disabling all cache
      2. Regenerating sitemap
      3. Trying a different plugin to generate sitemap?

    2. Hi John, if you could share your sitemap url that you are trying to submit, I could take a look and see if there's anything wrong.

      Thanks!

    1. Hi, can you share your sitemap url that you are trying to submit? I could do a quick check to see if everything is okay.

  1. Have you tried:
    1. Disabling all cache
    2. Regenerating sitemap
    3. Trying a different plugin to generate sitemap?

    Can you share your sitemap url so I can verify that it is fetchable and valid?

    1. Sitemap looks good, Have you tried:
      1. Disabling all cache
      2. Regenerating sitemap
      3. Trying a different plugin to generate sitemap?

    1. Sitemap looks good, Have you tried:
      1. Disabling all cache
      2. Regenerating sitemap
      3. Trying a different plugin to generate sitemap?

    1. Sitemap looks good, Have you tried:
      1. Disabling all cache
      2. Regenerating sitemap
      3. Trying a different plugin to generate sitemap?

  2. Have you tried:
    1. Disabling all cache
    2. Regenerating sitemap
    3. Trying a different plugin to generate a sitemap? eg. Yoast, SEOPress, Rankmath?

    1. Did you try adding an extra "/" before your sitemap name? Also try adding individual sitemaps for posts, pages etc.

  3. This works for me. But I'm really curious why is this the case and how did you go about finding this solution.

    Thanks by the way,
    - Rey

    1. This bugged me for days, then I basically tried everything I could to fix this, and stumbled on this through trial and error

  4. Sadly it did not work for me, still couldn’t fetch my sitemap.
    I'll try a different plugin to generate sitemap, I am using yoast seo

  5. Although this solution didn't work for me here is what worked.

    I had the website verified in console as http:// yet the live website had an https:// and this means the the sitemaps had https://.

    I deleted the http:// property and added it again as https:// and the sitemaps issue was fixed. I was using Yoast to generate the sitemaps.

  6. Thank you very very very very much...
    In my case, there is one sitemap under sitemap_index that google can't fetch... I dont know why.
    So I resubmit that particular child-sitemap whit this trick, and its status become "success".

    Thanks again.

  7. Hi,

    My site map is submitted successfully but discovered URL shows zero now.

    There were 37 URL indexed when I received “could not fetch” error on my post, pages and categories sitemaps.

    Now, I dont see the post, categories and pages site maps that are submited inside main site map by yoast. Discovered URLs also turned to “0”

  8. Its 2021 and Covid lockdown made me learn about SEO.
    Your page has contributed to my learning, so I thank you brother 🙂

    1. Try these:
      1. Try regenerating sitemaps.xml using another plugin. Some Good Plugins: SEOPress, Yoast, All in One SEO, Rankmath
      2. Clear cache, if using cloudflare, enable development mode
      3. Disable all cache
      4. If problem still persists, contact your hosting provider as some providers block google bot, maybe whitelisting will help there.

    1. Haha, I was pretty close to pulling my hair out before I stumbled across this! It took me about 7-8 days of poking around to finally come up with this solution!
      Glad it helped!

  9. Yes, it really worked. It is silly but work 🙂 Thank you very much. But I want to take attention, only put the sitemap url after the main site address and put the extra slash next to the 'last' slash.

    I made some mistakes first, so I wanted to take attention 🙂

  10. I published my website over a month ago and it's still not indexed. I really hope that did that trick. After I added an extra slash, the status changed to "Success". But knowing googles algorithm, it still won't crawl my site right away.

  11. // didn't work for me either

    Also, I create the sitemap.xml using a couple of websites (all sitemaps created works for other websites).

    I had the issue only for sitemap.xml, not for all sitemaps

    1. These are somethings that might help:
      1. Submit sitemaps individually for categories
      2. Submit another sitemap for just posts, then pages then your custom post types and taxonomies, if any

      If nothing works, try using SEOPress free plugin, and submit individual sitemaps insead of your sitemap index.

    1. These are somethings that might help:
      1. Submit sitemaps individually for categories
      2. Submit another sitemap for just posts, then pages then your custom post types and taxonomies, if any

      Try Seopress free plugin, this is something we use on 90% of our websites. Might just help.

  12. This worked like a charm. My client's website uses Yoast Premium and when the xml sitemap is toggled off, Google Search Console could fetch. When it's toggled on, the sitemap disconnects. I added the extra / with the sitemap toggled on and it solved the issue. Now I'll have to wait and see if GSC can fetch or not in the next day or so. If anyone wants to know, please comment and I'll post what happened.

  13. WHEN I HAD ADD MY SITE IN GOOGLE SEACH CONSOLE MY PAGES ARE SHOWWING EXCLUDED BECAUSE OF ERROR IN ROBOT TXT.
    I HAD TRIED AL THE WAY TO SOLVE THIS ERROR(DIV.CODEMIRROR-GUTTER-WRAPPER)
    HOW CAN I FIX THIS....

    1. Have you tried submitting individual sitemaps, for eg. try submitting just the post sitemap. You can find the link in your main sitemap file. Generally speaking, if your pages are excluded, it can happen for a couple reasons: First, low quality content, second, you might have another plugin that adds "noindex" to your pages. Install SEOBlueprint chrome extension and check for it.

  14. Hey, it not working with me, also checked new Plugins for Sitemap facing the Same issue that Couldn't fetch.

    Page and Post Sitemap URL is fetching but Index sitemap URL facing issue

    1. These are somethings that might help:
      1. Submit sitemaps individually for categories
      2. Submit another sitemap for just posts, then pages then your custom post types and taxonomies, if any

  15. Hi,
    I submitted a sitemap but it shows an error
    Under Google Search Console, my https // site: google.com/ company /sitemap.xml could not bring up the error as 404.
    I try another way.
    https // site: google.com/ company /sitemap.xml
    https // site: google.com//company //sitemap.xml
    https // site: google.com/ company //sitemaps.xml
    https // site: google.com/ company /sitemaps.xml
    Please tell me what i will do.

    Thank you

  16. Thanku FOr Posting This Article It Worked Was So Frustrated Bcz It Wasn't Getting Fetch But Your Article Helped me.

  17. hey purushottam sir can you please help me in fetching my site map. I had tried almost every technique to fix my site map but no one works for me I don't know what to do.I also tried your solution but I think I am doing wrong.Need your help

  18. Hello,

    Since I changed from Yoast to AOISEO i have the issue with not fetching. I had tried the extra I as you mention and it does not work. I cleared my cache and also deactivated WP rocket after.... still did not work.... what i dont see is a way to regenerate a new sitemap in AOI since it says it is dynamic... it has all turned into a huge mess.... it was working fine in Yoast and now even when switching back is a mess

      1. It worked for me, thank you so much for the info! I submitted 3 individual URLs there for my sitemap. Could you tell me the process why this happened and how your trick worked? I'm curious to know the reason behind this.

        Thank You!

  19. Typical google software. I submitted a sitemap and it said it was too big. Split it in half and it says it can’t fetch it. Used the Open Sitemap and it loads. Used the double slash but it didn’t help. You would think that with all that complicated search software they could come up with meaningful error messages.

  20. The //sitemap.xml did not work for me, and it's been two months. My sitemap (generated by Squarespace) is valid in every testing tool I can find. This is killing my business! I see no way to get my website searchable. There are no answers...anywhere. And Google has no humans. https://www.herocards.us/sitemap.xml

  21. Ran into all the same problems. Switched plugins to use Yoast SEO. It will generate a sitemap page, but looking through the file manager, I'm not sure where it stores that XML file. Therefore if I can't find it, how is Google?
    I ended up loading the Yoast sitemap page. Saving that page as an XML file and then saving it to the base of my website files. Give it a little time, and have Google Search check again for that file. Magically it finds it this time.

  22. Wow thanks for the guide it worked for my post sitemap. Google couldn't fetch my post sitemap out of all sitemaps i submitted, but it show success after I tried adding it with extra forward slash

  23. Thank you - Using the double forward slash worked. Mind you, yesterday when I submitted my sitemap.xml, I got a "success" message. But when I checked today, I noticed it now said "couldn't fetch" - this was
    very surprising. In the past, it has sometimes taken me several attempts before achieving success.

    Good luck to everyone having problems - keep trying and especially make sure that if your site is "https", don't submit pages with "http" indicated by mistake. Google now considers http pages not secure so they may not index them.

  24. I am tried all the methods you mentioned here.

    But still I am getting Couldn't fetch error in GSC.

    15+ days passed when submit my site httpa://en.capcuttemplates.xyz sitemap in GSC.

    Sitemap link working correctly and I can access all the post there.

    But this error 😕 is not solving.

    Is this because my site is on blogger?

    Help me sir 🙏.

  25. I am tried all the methods you mentioned here.

    But still I am getting Couldn't fetch error in GSC.

    15+ days passed when submit my site https://en.capcuttemplates.xyz sitemap in GSC.

    Sitemap link working correctly and I can access all the post there.

    But this error 😕 is not solving.

    Is this because my site is on blogger?

    Help me sir 🙏.

  26. I have only one map that won't update from Couldn't Fetch. Not sure why when there is nothing different between that sitemap and all of my others.
    I tried this - though now Google automatically includes the domain instead of a full free-form text entry.
    Still says couldn't fetch

  27. OK, I've had this issue for months since changing my website to a new website on New Google Sites. I have tried all the solutions you have listed as being successful but they have not worked for me. I enter my url in sitemap on GSC and it comes up with either unknown or sometimes sitemap but always "couldn't fetch" . Sometimes it comes up with 2445 discovered pages last read 12 Aug 2022 (but this is referring to my previous website which does not exist now). Any advice how I can submit sitemap successfully? Thanks.

  28. i m facing issue in google search console there in in sitemaps here is showing submitted sitemaps Status is Couldn't Fetch can you help me to resolve this issue

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