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What does the error message mean in my AdStage for Google Sheets add-on formula?
What does the error message mean in my AdStage for Google Sheets add-on formula?
Troubleshooting for the AdStage for Google Sheets add-on
Margo Cleveland avatar
Written by Margo Cleveland
Updated over a week ago

Below are a few common errors you may encounter when using the AdStage for Google Sheets add-on.

***NEW: Try a Flowchart version of the support article below - Begin Here! ***

Troubleshooting the add-on:

Not seeing "Launch Sidebar" or "Refresh" in the add-on menu? 

Make sure the app has been added to the spreadsheet. Here's how:

  1. Click 'Add-ons' in the top menu.

  2. Click 'Manage add-ons'.

  3. Hover over the AdStage app and click the three dots.

  4. Check 'Use in this document'.

  5. You'll need to do this for all new sheets.

Deciphering Error Messages in your Formulas:

#error {:message “Access not granted or expired"}

  1. Click on Add-ons -> AdStage -> Refresh. It may prompt you to accept permissions after refresh.

  2. If that doesn't do the trick, check to see if you are the owner of the sheet. The owner of the sheet needs to access and log into the add-on. If the owner of the sheet doesn't have an AdStage account, consider helping them login to the add-on with your credentials. Alternatively, you can duplicate the sheet, which switches ownership to yourself, then your formulas should pull through.

#ref {:message "Array result was not expanded because it would overwrite data in A3"}

  1. Check the cells where the formula would expand, are there formulas/numbers/letters in the way? The formula won't be able to build out if the cells required are already occupied. The error message will let you know where one of the occupied cells is. In the above example, A3 had a digit in it. 

Internal error executing the custom function.

  1.  A custom function call must return within 30 seconds. If it does not, the cell will display an error: Internal error executing the custom function. This is a limitation on Google's end. Read more here. To fix the issue, lower your limit or use a smaller date range.

Request failed for https://platform.adstage.io/api/organizations/31061/build_report returned code 500. [...]

  1. Refresh the formula. 500 errors sometimes go away on refresh.

  2. The request is too large. Try adjusting the parameters to make the call return less data. A few ideas:

  •  Lower the limit parameter. After a limit of 1000 you are more likely to hit 500 errors.  {"limit", 100}. 

  • Use targets to only include data from certain ad accounts instead of all ad accounts connected to your AdStage account. {"targets", "/network/facebook/account/29234932,/network/linkedin/account/597452157"}. More on targets here.

#name {:message "Unknown function: accounts/campaigns/ad groups/ads/keywords"}

Make sure the AdStage app has been added to the worksheet.

  1. Click 'Add-ons' in the top menu.

  2. Click 'Manage add-ons'.

  3. Hover over the AdStage app and click the three dots.

  4. Check 'Use in this document'.

  5. You'll need to do this for all new sheets.

#error Formula parse error.

  1. This means the add-on or Google Sheets doesn't like something in the formatting of your sheet. 

  2. Make sure your parenthesis and brackets are closed. The last character in your formula should be )

  3. Confirm when referencing cells you aren't putting the cell numbers in quotes. Correct: {"targets", A3} Incorrect: {"targets", "A3"}

  4. Confirm when using numbers in your formula you aren't putting the numbers in quotes. Correct: {"limit", 100} Incorrect: {"limit", "100"}

  5. Does your country use decimal comma instead of decimal point? Your Google Sheet settings may be set to a different standard such as European Standard which treats commas as decimal points. Either update your settings or switch all commas to semicolons in your formula. Looks like this: =campaigns(“last week”; {“budget”; “spend”}) Countries that regularly use decimal comma are Europe (besides the UK), Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, many countries in Africa.

  6. Is your formula showing up without Google Sheets' formula color coordination? If your formula is only showing up in a black font color, your formatting may be off. Make sure if you copied and pasted your formula from another tool (like Slack), that you retype the quotation marks fresh. Example:

Tried all the solutions above and still having problems? "Make a Copy" of your entire Google sheet

Sometimes your google permissions can change unknowingly. It could affect the AdStage add-on and keep your sheet from updating upon a refresh. To reset and reestablish permissions, easily "Make a Copy" of your google sheet and refresh your browser. All of the tabs, formulas, and references will be ported over to the new copy.


How to identify a permissions problem:

A - Custom formula(s) names are not recognized (client-side error, meaning google sheets permission changed, etc)

B - Customer formula(s) are recognized but results in an unknown error (server-side app-engine error, due to change of Gmail account session expiration or permission change)

Follow the steps below:

1. Open Google Sheet

2. File

3. Make a copy

Need more help? Reach out to us at support@adstage.io. 

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