# Google Search Console cannot fetch robots.txt or sitemap **URL:** \ **Category:** Hosting Support\ **Created:** [November 8, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.infinityfree.com/t/google-search-console-cannot-fetch-robots-txt-or-sitemap/121845 "2026-11-08T03:59:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ElyartFacilities](https://forum.infinityfree.com/letter_avatar/elyartfacilities/32/6_22734026db12803ebb3e059622ac3534.png) [@ElyartFacilities](https://forum.infinityfree.com/u/ElyartFacilities)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.infinityfree.com/t/google-search-console-cannot-fetch-robots-txt-or-sitemap/121845/1 "2026-11-08T03:59:41Z")
### Website URL [https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/](https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/) ### Error Message Hello, my website is [https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/](https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/) Google Search Console ownership verification succeeded using the HTML verification file. However, the live URL test for [https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/web.php](https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/web.php) reports: “robots.txt could not be fetched.” The sitemap also shows “Couldn’t fetch.” Both URLs open in my browser: [https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/robots.txt](https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/robots.txt) [https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/sitemap.php](https://elyartfacilities.free.nf/sitemap.php) The domain was just created. Could this be a DNS propagation issue, or is something preventing Google’s inspection tool from accessing the site? Please advise how to diagnose it. Thank you. ### Other Information The domain is new. The website, robots.txt and sitemap.php open in my browser, but Google Search Console cannot fetch them. Ownership verification using an HTML file succeeded. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://infinityfree-forum-uploads.s3.dualstack.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/original/3X/b/0/b024fd3fa88bae093c9576e55c2c94e33f890206.svg) [@system](https://forum.infinityfree.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.infinityfree.com/t/google-search-console-cannot-fetch-robots-txt-or-sitemap/121845/2 "2026-11-08T03:59:42Z")
Welcome to the InfinityFree community forum! Good to have you here. - Most people answering here are volunteers. They’re often the fastest source of help. Admin (the only staff member) checks in about once a day for issues on our end. - Volunteers can’t see your account or website. Share what you actually see, like error messages and what happens when you try something. That’s more useful than your theory of what’s wrong. - AI tools often get InfinityFree wrong. If a volunteer’s advice differs from what an AI told you, please try the volunteer’s suggestion first. - Solving an issue is a joint effort. Try the suggestions you get and report back what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Lemni](https://forum.infinityfree.com/user_avatar/forum.infinityfree.com/lemni/32/68303_2.png) [@Lemni](https://forum.infinityfree.com/u/Lemni)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://forum.infinityfree.com/t/google-search-console-cannot-fetch-robots-txt-or-sitemap/121845/3 "2026-11-08T04:00:36Z")
_Beep boop, I’m a bot! I dug through the forum to get you started. I sometimes get things wrong though, so do with this what you will until a human has a look._ It isn’t DNS propagation. The site resolves and opens in your browser, so DNS is working. Free hosting puts a browser check on every URL, including `robots.txt` and sitemap files. A tool that can’t run JavaScript and keep cookies gets a short HTML page instead of the file. The article on this security system lists Search Console’s live test as one of the tools that gets blocked. It also says the Google crawler itself is exempt: > [@Browser Security System - Features and Limitations](https://forum.infinityfree.com/t/ensuring-only-web-browsers-can-access-your-website/49353): > > InfinityFree uses a security system on all free hosting accounts to ensure your website is accessed by real web browsers, not bots or automated scripts. While this protects your site from malicious traffic, it can affect certain types of access. How the security system works The system checks that visitors can execute JavaScript and accept cookies: features that all modern web browsers support. This verification happens automatically and most website visitors will never notice it. You may occa… A staff answer in an earlier topic said the same about Search Console’s validation tools. They may not be on the exception list, so they can get blocked even though the real crawler isn’t. In that case the site was already indexed, and staff said the message could be ignored: > [@Google Search Console Cannot Fetch Sitemap (Works in Browser)](https://forum.infinityfree.com/t/google-search-console-cannot-fetch-sitemap-works-in-browser/117683): > > Hi everyone, I’m hosting my site on InfinityFree. Domain: [https://mahesa.my.id](https://mahesa.my.id) Account: if0\_41170632 I’m having a problem with Google Search Console. It says: “Couldn’t fetch sitemap” / “Sitemap could not be read” But when I open the sitemap in my browser, it works fine: [https://mahesa.my.id/sitemap.xml](https://mahesa.my.id/sitemap.xml) SSL is active (Let’s Encrypt) and robots.txt is set correctly with the sitemap URL inside it. The XML structure is valid and everything looks normal on my side. I’m wondering if maybe G… So I think your “robots.txt could not be fetched” result is most likely the same thing. I can’t confirm it from here, though. To tell the two apart, search `site:elyartfacilities.free.nf` on Google once the site has had a few days to be crawled. If your pages show up, the crawler is getting through. If they still don’t show up after a while, post that here. ---
**Author:** ![dan3008](https://forum.infinityfree.com/user_avatar/forum.infinityfree.com/dan3008/32/68577_2.png) [@dan3008](https://forum.infinityfree.com/u/dan3008)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://forum.infinityfree.com/t/google-search-console-cannot-fetch-robots-txt-or-sitemap/121845/4 "2026-11-08T18:25:34Z")
The crawlers used by the search console are blocked by the security system