For Sheets Genie to work properly and get data for you, please follow the steps for getting started with Sheets Genie.
If you’re still experiencing issues after following those steps, here are some things to consider for troubleshooting.
I know it’s frustrating when things don’t work. Hopefully the information on this page will help, and I will continue improving it and updating it as I learn more about why some people have issues with Sheets Genie (while others don’t).
Start with a clean Chrome profile dedicated to only one Google account
The single biggest piece of advice I can give you to get Sheets Genie to start working for you, especially for troubleshooting purposes, is to set up a clean Chrome profile in your Chrome browser (must be Chrome!) that is dedicated to only one Google account…
With that dedicated Google account being an account that is authorized to used Sheets Genie.
This will naturally solve so many potential problems for you, including:
- Confusion / errors when you have signed into multiple Google accounts from the same browser profile (too many potential errors here to list, so just know that a clean, dedicated Chrome profile solves them)
- Confusion trying to use Sheets Genie with an unauthorized account
- Confusion sharing edit access to a Sheets Genie spreadsheet with a different Google account (can lead to issues, see further below in Troubleshooting)
- Errors from conflicting extensions at work (I keep a minimal extension setup for Sheets Genie on a dedicated Chrome profile that contains just the Sheets Genie extension and the WebScraper.io Chrome extension. That’s it.)
A clean Chrome profile does NOT mean a new Google workspace or gmail account
You do NOT have to create a new Google workspace account or a new gmail account to have a clean Chrome profile.
You can use the same old gmail account or workspace account you’ve had for years, even if you don’t consider it “clean” due getting a lot of junk mail on it, or being signed up to a lot of different accounts with it, or whatever else.
A clean Chrome profile is a different concept which has nothing to do with how “fresh” or “unused” your gmail account is. It basically means:
- You are using an instance of a Chrome browser with barely any extensions installed
- You are not signing in and out of different gmail / Google workspace accounts on this browser instance (only the same gmail / workspace account)
- This is basically it (below I walk you through how to set up a clean Chrome profile)
How to set up a clean Chrome profile for an authorized Sheets Genie account and keep it clean
This requires:
- You know the Google account email address you provided for Sheets Genie
- You add a new Chrome Profile to your browser
- You only ever use your authorized Sheets Genie Google account with this Chrome profile
- You install a minimal amount of extensions on this Chrome dedicated Chrome profile
Set up a clean, dedicated Chrome profile for Sheets Genie: step by step video
Highly recommended that you watch this video and do this to solve and avoid so many potential issues with Sheets Genie:
Have you shared your Sheets Genie spreadsheet with any other Google account with edit access to the sheet?
- This can lead to issues
- Highly recommended that you limit edit access to a Sheets Genie spreadsheet to one and only one Google account (that account being your authorized Sheets Genie Google account)
- This is true even if (perhaps especially if) you have multiple authorized Sheets Genie Google accounts
A browser tab opens but no data appears to be received
- Are you using Chrome for your browser?
- Do you have the latest Sheets Genie Chrome extension installed?
- Is the Sheets Genie Chrome extension not only installed, but activated? (Pin it to be sure. If you’re like me, sometimes you keep extensions installed but deactivate them at times when not in use. So check this as well.)
- Does the “start” field of the task that you ran have any data / instructions in it?
- Are you running a task that actually has proper data / instructions set up? (Maybe you ran the wrong task / task row by accident, or maybe the task hasn’t been properly set up with the necessary data / instructions)
- An example of how you might run the “wrong” task accidentally by following the “Getting Started” video:
- The “Getting Started” video demonstrates how to run a task from an Examples & Capabilities Project Template
- It instructs you how to run Task L to get data, so you do that…
- But you actually made a copy of a different Sheets Genie Project Template that doesn’t have a Task L to run (so no instructions are transmitted)
- The fix for running the “wrong” task:
- Check your Control Center sheet
- Verify that the task row has data / instructions in it
- Double check that you are running that actual task and not a different task by accident
Browser
- Using a Chrome browser (must be Chrome, not Brave or any other browser, even if it’s a chromium browser)
- Chrome browser is up to date
Chrome extension
- Sheets Genie Chrome extension installed
- Using the latest version of the Sheets Genie extension
Spreadsheet template
- Using a Sheets Genie template spreadsheet (which has the necessary Sheets Genie apps script library attached to it)
- Using the most recent, up to date Sheets Genie template spreadsheet (which contains the most recents Sheets Genie code)
- The Apps Script attached to the Sheets Genie spreadsheet template has not been modified or altered in any way
- Popups are enabled on Google Sheets (popups blocker has been disabled on Google Sheets)
- Your /dev deployment url has been set up properly in column Z of your Control Center Sheet
Sheets Genie account
- You have a Sheets Genie account (you are an authorized user)
- Using Sheets Genie with your authorized email account (it only works on email addresses you are authorized to use)
Issues loading extension in developer mode
Some people currently have issues loading the Sheets Genie Chrome extension in developer mode. I don’t know why that is.
My apologies that I am not more helpful on this matter.