What does \"Sitemap could not be read\" mean?

"Sitemap could not be read" is a status in the Google Search Console Sitemaps report. It means Google tried to open the sitemap file you submitted and could not load or understand it. Typical causes are a wrong address, a blocked or password-protected file, a server error, or XML that is malformed.

Why it matters

While the sitemap cannot be read, it gives Google no list of pages to work from and Search Console shows no per-page data for it. Your pages can still be found through ordinary links, so this is a discovery problem rather than a penalty.

How to check

Copy the exact address shown in the Sitemaps report and open it in a private browser window. You should see XML, not a web page, an error or a login form.
Check the status code and any redirects from a terminal:

curl -I -L https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

The last response should be 200. A 404, 403, 500 or a long redirect chain explains the failure.

View the source of the file. It should begin with <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>, followed by one root element: urlset for a normal sitemap or sitemapindex for an index.
Look for anything before the XML declaration, such as a blank line, a byte order mark or a PHP warning message. Any of these can break parsing.
Look for raw ampersands inside addresses, which must be written as &, and for tags that are not closed.
Make sure robots.txt does not block the sitemap's own address, and that no firewall or bot-protection rule challenges Googlebot.
After fixing the cause, resubmit the same address in the Sitemaps report.

Common mistakes

Submitting an address that returns an HTML page, for example a "not found" page that still answers with status 200.
Submitting the wrong protocol or host, such as http when the site redirects to https, or the non-www address when the live site uses www.
Uploading a file that was saved in a text encoding other than UTF-8.
Compressing the file incorrectly, so the .gz file cannot be unpacked.
Leaving the sitemap behind a staging password or an allow list.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as "Couldn't fetch"?

They are close relatives. "Couldn't fetch" points at a failure to download the file, while "Sitemap could not be read" is a more general failure to load or parse it. The checks above cover both, and a dedicated guide covers the fetch case.

Does it stop my pages being indexed?

No. Google can still discover and index pages through links and other signals. You lose the sitemap's help with discovery and its reporting until the file is readable.

Should I wait or resubmit?

Fix the cause first, then resubmit. If the file loads correctly in a browser and the status does not change after a while, check your server logs for Googlebot requests to the sitemap address.

Curious how your own sitemap and robots.txt look from the outside? Try the free website sample.