Why Does a Cell Show "Shovels: fetching…" or an Error?

A cell shows “Shovels: fetching…” until the add-on fetches its result after an edit in the Sheet. It stays on “fetching…” when the Sheet has no key, the key was refused or is out of credits, or the result needs more than one fetch. Choose Extensions → Shovels → Fetch waiting formulas to try again, and read the message it shows.

Why “Fetching…” Stays

A Shovels formula doesn’t call the API itself. It marks its cell as waiting. After an edit in the Sheet, the edit trigger of the user who set the key fetches every waiting cell.

Cause	What you see	Fix
The Sheet has no API key	Menu items say “Shovels: set the API key for this Sheet first with Set API key in the Shovels menu under Extensions.”	Set the API key
The key was refused	”Shovels: the API key was refused. Set it again with Set API key in the Shovels menu under Extensions.”	Copy the key again from your account and set it
The key is out of credits	”Shovels: the API key is out of credits for this month.”	Wait for your credits to reset, or upgrade your plan
The API rate limit	”Shovels: hit the API rate limit. Wait a minute, then choose Extensions → Shovels → Fetch waiting formulas.”	Wait a minute, then choose Fetch waiting formulas
A large result	”… 2 need more time and continue on the next edit or Fetch waiting formulas.”	Choose Fetch waiting formulas again

After a refused key, no credits left, the rate limit, or a server error, edits leave the cell alone for 10 minutes. Fetch waiting formulas tries again at once.

Messages in a Cell

Errors show as #ERROR! in the cell. Point at the cell to read the message.

Permit formulas

Message	Cause and fix
No permits match.	No permit matches the arguments. Widen the dates or the location
Showing 2500 of 8410 permits. Narrow the dates or raise max_rows.	More permits match than `max_rows`. Raise `max_rows` or narrow the dates
Showing 2500 permits; stopped before the end of this contractor’s 8410. Narrow the dates or raise max_rows.	The contractor has more permits than `max_rows`
Shovels: say where: an address, a ZIP code, a state code or a geo_id.	The first argument of `SHOVELS_PERMITS_BY_GEO` is empty
Shovels: dates must look like 2026-08-24; got “2024”.	A date in another format, or a date typed without quotation marks. See Dates
Shovels: the end date is before the start date.	`to` is earlier than `from`
Shovels: max_rows must be a whole number of 1 or more; got “0”.	Fix the fifth argument
Shovels: give each argument one cell or value, not a range.	An argument is a range such as `A1:A5`. Point at one cell
Shovels: an argument is too long to send to the API.	Shorten the argument
Shovels: 0123456789 is a contractor id. Use SHOVELS_PERMITS_BY_CONTRACTOR.	`SHOVELS_PERMITS_BY_GEO` got a contractor ID
Shovels: “Harris, TX” is not a contractor id. Use the shovels_id column of SHOVELS_CONTRACTOR, or SHOVELS_CONTRACTOR_ID.	`SHOVELS_PERMITS_BY_CONTRACTOR` needs a 10-character contractor ID
Shovels: this formula reads more permits than one run can fetch and the Sheet can keep between runs. Narrow it with a later from date or a lower max_rows.	The result is too large. Use a later `from` date or a lower `max_rows`

Location formulas

Message	Cause and fix
Shovels: type an address.	`SHOVELS_ADDRESS` got an empty cell
Shovels: “Main St, Austin, TX” is not a street address. Start it with the house number, such as “3500 Gaston Ave, Dallas, TX”.	Add the house number. A city name alone also returns this error. See By City or Jurisdiction
Shovels: no address matches “1 Nowhere Rd”.	The address search found nothing. Check the spelling and add the city and state
Shovels: name a county, e.g. “Harris, TX”.	`SHOVELS_COUNTY` got an empty cell
Shovels: no county named Harris in CA.	No county has that name in that state
Shovels: several counties match. Add the state: Washington County, AL; Washington County, AR; …	Add the state code, such as `"Washington, AR"`

Contractor formulas

Message	Cause and fix
Shovels: give a two-letter state code, such as “CA”.	The state argument is missing or not a 2-letter code
Shovels: type a contractor name of at least 3 characters.	Use a longer name
Shovels: no contractor named ”…” in CA.	No similar name in that state. Try another spelling. See When a Name Returns No Match
Shovels: no contractor named exactly ”…” in CA; the closest is … (ID).	Only similar names exist. Check the closest contractor, or use its ID

SHOVELS_CONTRACTOR shows its result in the match column instead of an error. See Match Values.

Messages from the API or Google Sheets

Message	Cause and fix
”Shovels:” followed by the API’s own message, or “Shovels: the API answered 422.”	The API refused the request for a reason the add-on doesn’t check first. Read the message and adjust the arguments
#REF! Array result was not expanded because it would overwrite data in A5.	Google Sheets shows this when a result would overlap other cells. Clear the cells below the formula or move it

Messages in Dialogs

Message	Cause and fix
Shovels refused this API key, so it was not saved. Copy the key again from app.shovels.ai.	Set API key… got a key the API refuses
An API error message, followed by “The key was not saved.”	The add-on couldn’t check the key, for example because of a server error. Try again
Google’s error, followed by “The key was not saved. To free a trigger, choose Remove API key in a Sheet that needs no new results.”	You have keys in 20 Sheets. See The 20-Sheet Limit
Fetched 3 formula results.	Fetch waiting formulas or Refresh all formulas finished
… 1 failed and still wait.	A fetch failed with an error that can pass. The message names the error

Still Stuck?

Email support@shovels.ai with the formula, the message, and what you expected.

​Why “Fetching…” Stays

​Messages in a Cell

​Permit formulas

​Location formulas

​Contractor formulas

​Messages from the API or Google Sheets

​Messages in Dialogs

​Still Stuck?

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