A cell that fails says so in the cell, as text beginning with #ERR and then the reason:
#ERR No "zone" in agecalculator. Try: timezone, field
They are text rather than real spreadsheet errors because Excel cannot render a custom message on
an error value — a failure would be a bare #VALUE! with nothing to read. Text shows the same
sentence on both platforms. The trade-off is that IFERROR() does not catch them; test for the
#ERR prefix instead.
What each message means
| Cell reads | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
#ERR Connect first: Extensions ▸ VerveSheets | No credential stored. | Connect — see authentication. Excel words it #ERR Not connected — connect in the VerveSheets pane. |
#ERR Unauthorized | The stored credential is no longer accepted. | It was rotated or revoked. Reconnect. |
#ERR <source> needs <input> | A required input is missing, or points at a blank cell. | Fill the cell, or drop the row from the range. |
#ERR No "<name>" in <source>. Try: … | An option name the source does not have. | The message lists the valid ones. |
#ERR Use "name", value pairs — "x" has no name | An unpaired value. | Options come in pairs. A trailing name with no value is read as omitted, not as a mistake. |
#ERR No field "<path>" | The path is not in the response, on a range fill. | Paths are case-sensitive. Omit "field" to spill everything and read the real path. |
#ERR No data point "<path>" | The same thing on a single-cell formula in Excel. | In Sheets that one case is a real error instead — see below. |
#ERR Replace <city> with a cell or value | A preview template was copied before its placeholder was filled in. | Substitute a cell or a real value. |
#PREMIUM(<field>) | The field exists; your plan does not include it. | See plans. |
#PREMIUM(<option>) | An option was dropped by the plan gate. | The answer would be to a different question than the one asked — so nothing is returned. |
#ERR Too many requests | The account's rate limit, or its credits, ran out. | See rate limits. |
Two of these are worth understanding rather than just looking up.
A missing path is an error, not a blank
A missing path could have been an empty cell. It is not, deliberately: a blank after a paid lookup is indistinguishable from a source that genuinely returned nothing, and on a filled column that is a whole column of silence with the credits already spent.
It is also the one failure that is not #ERR text everywhere. A single-cell formula in Google
Sheets raises it as a real spreadsheet error, No data point "tempc"., readable on hover — so
that case, and only that case, is caught by IFERROR() and missed by a #ERR prefix test.
Excel returns #ERR No data point "tempc", and a range fill on either platform writes
#ERR No field "tempc".
If you are not sure of a path, drop the "field" pair. The call spills the entire response as
two columns, and the left column is the exact set of paths "field" accepts.
#PREMIUM is not a failure of the call
#PREMIUM(riskScore) means the lookup succeeded and the source has that field — your plan does
not include it. It appears in two shapes:
- A locked field. You asked for something your plan withholds.
- A dropped option. You passed an option your plan does not include, so the call ran without it. That would be an answer to a different question, so the cell reports it rather than showing a value that quietly is not the one you asked for.
Both resolve on the plans page. Neither is retryable.
Failures that are not the cell's fault
A cell too small for its value is truncated and marked … [truncated] rather than dropped — the
limit is about 50,000 characters in Sheets and 32,767 in Excel. The lookup succeeded and the
credit was spent; only the display was clipped.
A whole column of the same #ERR usually means one thing, not many: a wrong source id, a
disconnected credential, or an exhausted balance. Fix it once and refill.
What is worth retrying
- Worth refilling: anything that reads like a temporary failure, and a rate-limit message once you have paused. Recalculate the cell, or refill the selection.
- Never worth refilling: a missing input, a wrong option name, a missing data point, or
#PREMIUM(…). The next attempt is identical, and each one spends a credit.
Next
Formulas covers the argument grammar these messages are complaining about, and all sources lists each source's real inputs and paths. Ceilings and pacing are in rate limits.
If a failure here is not the one you expected, the FAQ covers the common surprises.