Fixing “Missing required attribute” in a Google Shopping feed

What Google is actually complaining about

Every item needs this baseline, or it won't serve at all:

Then the conditional ones that catch people out: apparel needs age_group, gender, color and size. Variants need item_group_id. Anything without a barcode needs identifier_exists = no together with brand and mpn.

How to fix it

1. Scan for empty cells per column rather than eyeballing rows — a 4,000-row feed hides blanks well.
2. Fill required gaps from your catalogue export; don't paste placeholder text, which trips policy checks instead.
3. Add the apparel quartet to every clothing item, including accessories.
4. Set identifier_exists = no anywhere you legitimately have no GTIN, rather than leaving the field blank.
5. Check your column headers match Google's spec exactly — image link and Image_Link are not image_link, and a mistyped header reads as the whole column being missing.

A wrong header is the sneakiest version of this error: the data is right there, but every row reports the attribute as missing.

What a correct row looks like

id,title,description,link,image_link,availability,price,brand,condition,identifier_exists,mpn
SKU-4472,Hand-thrown Stoneware Mug 350ml,Wheel-thrown stoneware mug with a matte glaze.,https://example.com/p/4472,https://cdn.example.com/img/4472.jpg,in_stock,24.00 USD,Fieldstone,new,no,FS-MUG-01

How long until the disapproval clears

Merchant Center re-crawls a scheduled feed on its normal cadence, so a fix can sit invisible for up to 24 hours. To force it: Products → Feeds → your feed → Fetch now, then re-check Diagnostics the following day. Items usually flip back to Active within one or two crawls once the attribute validates.

Other common disapproval causes