What the error means
You submitted a sitemap URL and Search Console reports that it could not read it. Opening the same URL in your browser works.
Why Google rejects it
Three causes account for nearly all of it. The submitted path no longer matches what the store serves, so the request 404s. The sitemap is an index whose child sitemaps fail even though the index itself is fine. Or bot protection answers the crawler differently than it answers you — you are a warm browser session, the crawler is a cold request from an unknown network.
How to fix it
- Submit the exact path the store serves at the root, and submit it without a trailing variant. Guessing a path that used to work is the most common version of this.
- If the file is an index, open a child sitemap directly. An index that lists dead children reports as unfetchable.
- Check the response to an outside request, not to your browser. A 403 to a crawler and a 200 to you look the same from your desk.
- Give it time after fixing. The report keeps the old status until the next fetch, so a fixed sitemap still reads as failing for a while.
Shipwork fetches your sitemap from outside your network, follows the first child when it is an index, samples the URLs inside, and reports exactly what came back. Free, no account, no signup — paste your store address.
Check my storeGo deeper: Sitemap fetch errors, fixed
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