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Hi guys, I have another open ticket that disappointingly stopped receiving replies two weeks ago, after I provided the requested login details. I resolved that one myself.
I have a new but related issue, though. I discovered my sitemap has not been fetched by Google since 11 August. I’ve been through all the troubleshooting steps you provided and many others, but still, after submitting my sitemap, clearing caches, etc, Google Search Console tells me the sitemaps cannot be fetched. The sitemaps test OK, so no idea why they cannot be read by Google. I have a large site with lots of traffic, and this has never happened before, that I’m aware of, and I check GSC regularly.
I left details in my previous ticket, but nobody replied. I found other open tickets with similar issues. Perhaps someone could let me know what the next steps are or if someone is indeed still looking into this, as that would be helpful.
Regards
Mike
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Hello,
We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap not being fetched by Google. It can be frustrating when these issues arise, especially after you’ve already gone through troubleshooting steps.
Since you’ve mentioned that your sitemap tests okay, here are a few additional steps you can take to troubleshoot the "Couldn’t fetch" error in Google Search Console:
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Rename the Sitemap File: Sometimes, changing the name of the sitemap file can help. In Google Search Console, go to Indexing → Sitemaps, and try submitting a new sitemap URL like
https://yourdomain.com/?sitemap=1.
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Flush the Cache: Ensure that your sitemap is not being cached. You can do this by navigating to Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings, increasing the value of Links Per Sitemap by one, and then saving your settings. After that, go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes to apply the current settings.
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Check Sitemap Location: Ensure that your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation. The URL should look like this:
https://yourdomainname.com/sitemap_index.xml. -
Add the Correct Version of Your Sitemap to Google Search Console: Make sure you are using the correct URL variation of your site (http vs https, www vs non-www) when submitting your sitemap.
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Wait for Google to Fetch: If everything seems correct but the error persists, it might just be a matter of waiting for Google to fetch your sitemap again. Sometimes, it can take time for Google to process changes.
If you’ve tried all these steps and are still experiencing issues, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so we can assist you further. A human agent from our support team will take over and provide more personalized assistance.
Thank you for your patience, and we hope to resolve this issue for you soon!
Sources:
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank MathHello,
We completely understand your frustration and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused.
We checked your sitemap again, but were not able to find any issues there:
In this case, you can monitor the “Last read/crawl date” column in the sitemap index, as it will update the date when Google crawls your sitemap.
If the issue persists, please click on the sitemap on your Google Search Console and share a screenshot of the issue using a tool like https://imgur.com/upload so that we can investigate the issue further for you.
Let us know how it goes. We are here to help you.
Thank you.
Hello,
Yes, you may need to remove the ?sitemap=1 version, and submit your main sitemap index /sitemap_index.xml.
The remove button is by clicking the three-dotted button
Looking forward to helping you.
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