Incorrect value [identifier_exists]

What Google requires

A declaration consistent with the identifiers you supply

identifier_exists accepts yes or no, nothing else. Set to no, it declares the product has no GTIN, no MPN, and no brand-and-MPN pair, which is only true of things like handmade goods, custom products and some own-brand lines. Supplying the attribute is optional; being consistent with it is not. A row that says no while carrying a GTIN, or a brand and MPN, contradicts itself.

What happens if you do not

Disapproval for the contradiction, not the identifiers

The product is refused even though every identifier on the row is individually correct, which makes this rejection unusually confusing to debug. The common source is an e-commerce plugin that writes identifier_exists: no as its default for every product, including the branded ones. A value like maybe or unknown, seen in hand-built feeds, fails on its own before consistency is even considered.

How to fix it by hand

Remove the blanket default

• Find where the value is set, almost always a plugin setting or feed template applying one default to everything, and stop it writing no for products that have identifiers.
• Keep no only for products that truly have no GTIN, no MPN and no brand-and-MPN pair.
• For everything else, either omit the attribute entirely or set yes and supply the identifiers.

Which of our checks apply

3 checks apply, read from the scanner's registry

The scan checks the declaration against the identifiers actually present on each row, which is exactly the cross-check Merchant Center performs.

• identifier_exists_contradictionblocks
• identifier_exists_valueblocks
• gtin_absent_fallbackat risk

The quicker way

Let the scan find them

One scan shows every row where the declaration and the data disagree, before Google finds the contradiction. The scan to identify errors is free and shows every finding before you pay anything. You only pay for the fix.

Scan your feed