Google Search Console: "Sitemap could not be read" or invalid URLs in a sitemap.xml
Last reviewed 2026-09-19
A sitemap is an XML file with strict rules: absolute URLs, escaped ampersands, valid dates and at most 50,000 URLs (or 50 MB uncompressed) per file. One malformed entry or an unescaped & can make the whole file fail.
Messages you might see
- “Couldn't fetch / Sitemap could not be read”
- “Invalid URL / URL not allowed”
- “Sitemap has too many URLs (limit 50,000)”
Why it happens
- Relative URLs instead of full ones.
- An unescaped & in a URL, which breaks the XML.
- Dates or changefreq / priority values in the wrong format.
- Duplicate URLs, or a file over the size or URL limit.
Try this first (free, no tool needed)
- Open the sitemap URL in a browser: if the XML shows an error, the message names the line.
- Check that it is served with an XML content type and returns 200 (not a redirect or a login page).
- Confirm every URL starts with your full site address and uses the version (https, www or not) you actually use.
If that didn't work
These tools run in your browser. Your file is read and repaired on your own device and is never uploaded.
Broken XML Sitemap Repair
Removes invalid and duplicate URLs, makes relative URLs absolute, escapes ampersands, normalises lastmod dates, drops invalid changefreq and priority values, and splits large sitemaps into parts of at most 50,000 URLs. It repairs the file; it cannot make Google index the pages.
Open Broken XML Sitemap RepairCommon questions
Will fixing the sitemap get my pages indexed?
It removes a common reason a sitemap is rejected. Indexing itself is decided by Google and depends on the pages.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The tool runs as a program inside your own browser, so the file is read and repaired on your device and never sent to a server.