Sitemap could not be read

I am facing issues submitting sitemap to google search console...

when I submitted the sitemap to GSC it shows "Sitemap could not be read" in new GSC. I have updated the xmlsitemap.xml file many times and resubmitted it but still, I'm getting the same error.

Can you please help me to solve this problem?

 

A sitemap is a very simple file that seldom has issues provided it is built correctly. Since we have no way of examining the patient (your sitemap) there is no way we can diagnose the problem.

Find what the structure of the sitemap is supposed to look like (Google et alia have several very good tutorials on building sitemaps) then compare yours to the required structure. Whatever the problem is will be VERY easy to find since sitemaps are so simple.

Here is a very simple example of a correct sitemap.

<urlset>
   <url>
     <loc>
       https://example.com/example/Anything/Anything.htm
     </loc>
     <lastmod>2021-01-02</lastmod>
   </url>
   <url>
     <loc>
       https://example.com/example/Something/Something.htm
     </loc>
     <lastmod>2021-01-03</lastmod>
   </url>
   <url>
     <loc>
       https://example.com/example/Nothing/Nothing.htm
     </loc>
     <lastmod>2021-01-09</lastmod>
   </url>
</urlset>

Code (markup):

 

1. I generate mine online at https://www.web-site-map.com/xml_sitemap.php and have never had any troubles.

 

The Bing Webmaster Tools is reading the sitemap correctly but there is problem in Google Search Console.

 

If you do not help us, we cannot help you.

I am mmerlinn da wizard, but I do not have enough magic to diagnose patients when I cannot see the patient.

Edit: I cannot open the link you PMed to me. Cut and paste your sitemap into "code" brackets so everyone can see it. There is NO reason to hide it in a PM since ALL that it should contain is links that you WANT Google to index and you WANT the world to see.

 

here it is - removed***

and sitemap generated using this tool - https://www.web-site-map.com/xml_sitemap.php
removed***

Both submitted to GSC but its showing error - "Sitemap could not be read" for both of these sitemaps.

When I 'Test Live URL' in GSC for sitemap it shows this in the display page -

Crawl
Time
Jan 24, 2021, 7:32:15 PM
Crawled as
Googlebot smartphone
Crawl allowed?
Yes
Page fetch
Successful
Indexing allowed?
Yes

 

As stated before, I cannot open your links. Open them in a text editor, then cut and paste the sitemap between "code" tags so we can look at it.

 

Here it is -
removed***

 

The only thing that I see that MIGHT be the problem is your first line, but I cannot tell for sure.

The first line MUST be at the beginning of the site map. If you have a BLANK line before it, Google WILL throw an error. Make sure there is NO blank line at the top, paste it back to your site map and see if that solves the problem. How do I know? I chased that exact problem for months before I read the fine print in the specs which says there CANNOT be ANY blank lines at the top of the site map.

Try that and see if that solves your problem.

 

There is no blank link... See in code above the number 1 in beginning has this code - <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
The line starts where it says number 1 and not above it. I also checked in the sitemap and there is no blank line.

 

OK. The only other potential I see is blank line before your closing "URLSET" tag. No clue if that could be a problem or not. Remove it and try that. If that does not fix it, I have no idea where to go from there.

 

Below is the code for sitemap gemerated using this tool - https://www.web-site-map.com/xml_sitemap.php and it has not blank lines but still getting same error as "Sitemap could not be read" this this sitemap also in GSC

removed***

 

I cannot see anything wrong at all. My only advice is to remove EVERYTHING except the <URLSET> and </URLSET> and see what happens. If that works, then line by line add the rest back until it breaks. If that does not work, it has to be a blank line at the top, maybe invisible characters that you cannot see.

No matter what, if you find the problem, be sure to come back and post the solution. It might save someone down the road lots of headaches.

I will keep thinking about this and see if I can figure something out. Maybe try a different computer and see if I can get a direct look at your sitemap.

 

Tried to remove everything except <URLSET> and </URLSET> and still getting same problem. Maybe this could be temporary GSC error?

 

Hello, at times you need to send it several times, it could be normal

 

Could it be some stupid cache issue? Try renaming it to sitemap.xml and then resubmitting it as a new sitemap.

 

Well, I guess that is that. I was going to try looking at the raw sitemap, but the links are gone. Good luck.

 

Is this issue fixed or not? If not then share the sitemap file link as a text or replace the "." with "dots" otherwise it will be removed again by the moderators.