Google Merchant CenterAttributesAuto-fixable
Invalid age group value
age_group must be newborn, infant, toddler, kids or adult.
What is this issue?
age_group must be newborn, infant, toddler, kids or adult.
Affected field:
age_groupWhat it looks like in your file
| id | age_group | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | MUG-01 | Adults |
| 3 | TOTE-01 | children |
| id | age_group | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | MUG-01 | adult |
| 3 | TOTE-01 | kids |
This issue is fixed automatically. Upload your CSV to fix it now.
Fix nowWhy Google Merchant Center rejects this
Age group is required for apparel in many countries, and other values aren't accepted.
Valid values / expected format
- ✓newborn
- ✓infant
- ✓toddler
- ✓kids
- ✓adult
Fix in StriveFormats
This issue is auto-fixable. Upload your CSV and click Fix Issues to apply all safe corrections at once.
Auto-fixable: this issue is corrected automatically when you click Fix Issues.
Fix in Excel
- 1In Excel, click the column letter for the age_group column.
- 2Press Ctrl+H. Type the invalid value in 'Find what' and the correct value in 'Replace with', then click Replace All.
- 3The accepted values are: newborn, infant, toddler, kids.
- 4To prevent future errors, add a dropdown: select the column, go to Data > Data Validation, choose 'List', and enter the valid options separated by commas.
- 5Save as Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt).
Fix in Google Sheets
- 1In Google Sheets, select the age_group column.
- 2Press Ctrl+H, find the invalid value and replace it with the correct one, then click Replace All.
- 3Accepted values: newborn, infant, toddler, kids.
- 4To add a validation dropdown: select the column, go to Data > Data Validation, choose 'Dropdown (from a list)', and enter the valid options.
- 5Go to File > Download > Tab Separated Values (.tsv), then rename the file to end in .txt.
Prevent it next time
- ✓Copy-paste allowed values directly from the official template to avoid typos.
- ✓Use Excel Data Validation or Google Sheets Data Validation to restrict the column to a dropdown of allowed values.
- ✓Check the platform's official documentation for the current list of allowed values, as they can change.
How StriveFormats detects this
StriveFormats checks the age_group column against the exact list of accepted values for Google Merchant Center. The comparison is case-sensitive, so any difference in capitalization or spelling is flagged as an invalid value.
►Technical detail
Google Merchant Center's importer checks this field against a fixed list of accepted values. These are often short codes for internal settings; for example, "active" and "draft" set whether a product is visible. The match is exact and case-sensitive: an extra space, different capitalization, or a synonym (like "enabled" instead of "active") gets the value rejected. The allowed values can change between platform versions, so always check the latest template.