Known issues – add-ons for Google Docs

Below you can find a list of possible issues that can occur when working with Google Docs add-ons. They are caused by current technical limitations on Google end. We are looking for ways to go around them, though in some cases the only thing we can do is wait for bug fixes or new possibilities for third-party developers. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

If the problem you are having is not described here, please use the contact form at the bottom of the page to write to us or email straight to support@ablebits.com

Report a new issue

Installation issues

The add-on doesn't install at the first attempt

This is a known Google problem that affects all add-ons in Google Workspace Marketplace. You click Install, allow permissions, see the spinning arrows working, then they disappear but the page still says Install. There's no confirmation of the succesfull installation whatsoever.

Current solution: Since we can't control the problem, we have to ask you to try and install the add-on a few more times.

Before you do so, make sure to sign out and log back into only one Google account – it often helps.

Also, please try to install from both the Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons menu in your doc and from a Google Workspace Marketplace page in a new browser tab.

If the installation still doesn't go through, please report the problem to Google – this will help them in debugging. Just click the icon with a question mark at the upper-right corner of the installation page/window and select Send Feedback:
Send feedback in Google Workspace Marketplace.

Issue-prone add-ons: All Google Docs add-ons.

The only option in the add-on menu is Help

Sometimes when you're trying to run the add-on, the only option you can see in the drop-down menu is Help. This is usually caused by Google internal problems.

Current solution: Reload the file a few times and see if other options appear. If this doesn't help, email us to support@ablebits.com

Issue-prone add-ons: All Google Docs add-ons.

I removed the add-on but it's still in the list of my tools

The problem has appeared recently on the Google side and is most likely connected to migrating to Google Workspace Marketplace from Chrome Web Store.

Current solution: Go to Google Workspace Marketplace and install the tool from there.

Tip. No worries, Google Workspace doesn't have to be paid for.

After that, click the gear wheel icon at the upper-right corner of the page (next to your account picture) and pick Manage Apps:
Manage apps in Google Workspace Marketplace.

If the tool is in the list, click the icon with three dots on its image and choose Uninstall.

Then return to your spreadsheet and remove the add-on once again the standard way.
If this doesn't help, email us to support@ablebits.com

Issue-prone add-ons: All Google Docs add-ons.

Common issues related to data processing

The add-on doesn't work ("working" arrows are spinning all the time or there is no result)

This issue occurs if you are logged in under more than one Google account. It happens due to an issue with multiple Google accounts on Google side.

Possible solution: Sign out and log back in with an account under which you want to work with your document.

Issue-prone add-ons: All Google Docs add-ons.

Search & Navigate issues

Search & Navigate is very slow

It takes a long time to load information from the document into the add-on sidebar and to find that information in a document due to a known bug in Google Docs. Currently it slows down the add-ons that work with headings or display other document content in the sidebar.

Issue-prone add-ons: Search & Navigate

I can't remove a bookmark from an image or table

The add-on can't remove a bookmark that refers to an image or table because of a bug in Google Docs.

Possible solution: Try removing the bookmark manually.

Issue-prone add-ons: Search & Navigate

The add-on returns no results

When you work with large documents and if you have a very slow Internet connection, the add-on may hit Google's 360-second time limit for an operation. Our developers work hard to avoid such issues, please let us know if you encounter it with any Ablebits tools.

Issue-prone add-ons: Search & Navigate

Styles issues

Uppercase style is not applied correctly for headings with bookmarks

When you add a bookmark to the heading, we may lose it after applying a style that changes the text to uppercase. We keep your original case in order to save the bookmark you have.

Possible solution: Try typing text in upper case manually.

Issue-prone add-ons: Styles

Responses

When changing the case of a footnote to "Capitalize Each Word", it changes the font of the text from my default font (defaulted to Garamond for the entire document using the Normal Text text style.) to Arial. When I use capitalize each word in a normal paragraph, it works correctly and doesn't change the font.

Hello,

Thank you for reporting this issue to us.

Please note that our add-on is currently being verified by Google. It's a standard process that we have to undergo once in a while, after improvements and fixes. The issue you reported should be fixed in the new version. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do from our side to expedite the verification procedure. In the meantime, please change the font manually. As soon as Google verifies the app, we'll let you know.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that may be caused to you by this.

I have the problem of the no stopping spinning wheel, and I'm logged in just one account.

John T Cathey says:
February 13, 2023 at 6:09 am

Sentence case doesn't work anymore

Hello John,

Thank you for your comment.

Please apply lowercase before converting your text to Sentence case. You see, the tool was designed to ignore text in capitals to avoid corrupting any acronyms you may have. Though it does take one extra click to first turn text to lowercase, we believe it is easier than restoring words that were supposed to be in uppercase. We recommend you to look through the add-on help page for more details: https://www.ablebits.com/docs/google-sheets-replace-text/#change-case

In case you have a different problem, please email us at support@ablebits.com.

Now that you changed the HTML for the search results it is no longer possible for me to copy the search results as text. Please provide an export or copy to clipboard function.

If I modify a style after applying it to a number of paragraphs, either by using update to match selection or by using the edit style button, the formatting of the existing paragraphs with that style doesn't change to reflect the modifications. Instead, it appears you have to reapply the modified style to each paragraph.

Willian de Andrade Melo says:
November 29, 2022 at 1:25 am

When I change to Upper Case it reverts the entire block to Arial 10

Hello Willian,

Thank you for your comment.

For us to understand the problem better, could you please specify what Ablebits tool you use and email us (support@ablebits.com) a few screenshots showing your original data and the result you get after changing the case? We'll do our best to help you.

I have noticed a silly problem- sometimes, when I begin to type in a search term, everything is input backward. Example: I type normally, but the words are spelled backward for no apparent reason. It's not a big deal, but I thought I'd pass on my experience to the team. Thanks!

Oscar Nilestam says:
June 2, 2022 at 6:36 pm

Dear Google support

In Google Docs, the "Add-Ons" menu item isn't visible! I googled it and the only suggestion I found was to access my Google Workspace bla bla... I don't have a Google workspace connected to my email, all I wanna do is to enable the addon "Show" to visualise tabs, carriage returns, space characters etc, like that fat reverse P button in Microsoft Word.

Please help!

BR

Oscar Nilestam

On applying a new style to the document, all the numbered lists are losing the indentation. The indentation of the list is lost and the indentation of the different subitems are also lost. Everything starts from column 1.

The alphabetize feature isn't working, other features work fine but not this one, it shows that it's loading but nothing happens once it finishes loading

Hello Noelle,

Thank you for contacting us. Please note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. I kindly ask you to sign out and log back in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and try to reproduce the issue.

If the problem persists, please specify what add-on you use exactly and send us a short video illustrating the issue to support@ablebits.com. Thank you.

This makes my cursor disappear and it makes it hard to type for me.
This really doesn't make me impressed, if this issue gets fixed then i'll start using this ad-don again.

Hello Navid,

Thank you for your comment. Sorry to hear you've faced difficulties of this kind.

For us to be able to understand the problem better, please send us the following details to support@ablebits.com:
1 - Specify what Ablebits product you have used.
2 - Describe in detail what steps you follow before the issue occurs. Any screenshots would be of great help.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Christopher Christian-Hunter says:
January 28, 2022 at 7:20 pm

When you try to alphabetize a list of items it doesn't properly do it.

Hello Christopher,

Thank you for contacting us. Please note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. I kindly ask you to sign out and log back in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and try to reproduce the issue.

If it persists, please send us a screenshot of your data to support@ablebits.com. We will our best to help.

David Anderson says:
December 27, 2021 at 3:49 am

Not sorting Turkish language correctly per standard Turkish dictionary order.
In particular, "Ş" comes after "S". But I've been noticing other slight errors as well.

A few of my students encounter a blank white screen when they try to install Doc Tools in Google Docs. How so I resolve this please?

Hello Sharaine,

Thank you for contacting us. Please note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. I kindly ask you to sign out and log back in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and try to reproduce the issue.
If you still see a blank screen when you start the add-on, please specify what browser and its extensions you have. Try disabling the browser extensions and starting the add-on again.
In case it doesn't help, please send me your browser name and its version number to support@ablebits.com.

Rosielle Sasil says:
August 26, 2021 at 3:43 pm

The add-ons (Doc Tools) do not sort out the data in my table. It keeps on telling me that Doc Tools refused to connect.

Hello Rosielle,

Thank you for your comment. Please note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. Please sign out and log back in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and see if the issue persists.

If this doesn't help, then please send us a screenshots illustrating the problem to support@ablebits.com. We'll look into the issue and try to help you further.

Amanda Runyon says:
July 9, 2021 at 8:23 pm

keeps stating that drive.google.com refuses to connect. Please advise.

When I try to sort my table in Google Docs, I get the message "drive.google.com refused to connect."

if I have a sentence ALL IN CAPITAL CHARACTERS, the Capitalize Each Word option does not work. Probably because it is programmed to change just the first character of each word to uppercase.
This happens just with PHRASES LIKE THIS, if the phrase is all lowercase, it works fine.
Easy fix, please program the "Capitalize Each Word" to first turn the whole selection to lowercase, then run the rest of the code as it is.

Tara Walter says:
June 28, 2021 at 5:36 pm

With search and Navigate I keep getting a blank sidebar with an icon that looks kind of like it would be a broken link. I am using chrome Version 91.0.4472.114

Hello Tara,

Thank you for your message. Please note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. I kindly ask you to sign out and log back in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and try to reproduce the issue.

If you still see a blank screen when you start the add-on, could you please specify what browser extensions you have? Please try disabling the browser extensions and starting the add-on again. If the issue persists, please send us a screenshot of the blank sidebar to support@ablebits.com.

Erich Lieth says:
April 10, 2021 at 4:45 pm

Thank you for this nice add-on. I just installed it and sorted an entire table with a bunch of blank rows in it. After the sort all of the blank rows ended up at the beginning of the table. I don't think this is the conventional way to sort, but if you would like to keep this as the default, please make putting them at the end an option. That would save me from having to select the rows I want to sort, which could span over several pages. Thanks!

Hello Erich,

At the moment our add-on sorts rows the same as the standard tool in MS Word does. However, we'll continue to collect votes and comments on this idea to gauge interest and impact. If we implement it, I'll be sure to email you back with an update. Thank you for your understanding.

thanks, its the addon for google docs (search and navigate.
every time I go out of this page, when I go back in this goes blank and I need to reactivate the addon.
Thanks

Hello Joe,

Thank you for contacting us. Our team has already faced this issue with one of the latest Chrome updates and now we are investigating it thoroughly. So far, the easiest and quickest solution would be to move your browser window along the screen for a while, the icons get back then.

Please also note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. We kindly ask you to sign out and log in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on.

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to address them to support@ablebits.com. Thank you.

addon keeps not working, search box on the left disappears, I need to constantly restart it,
this has been going on for a few days already.
just letting you guys know,
thanks

I'm using an add-on called search and navigate and I was recently offline for a while when I used it and when I came back online, it can't work, it says, "drive.google.com refused to connect" do I have to uninstall the add-on and reinstall it or is this just a permanent bug?

Hello Joseph,

Please note that there is an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. Please try signing out and logging back in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and see if the issue persists.

If this doesn't help, then please email us at support@ablebits.com for further assistance.

Daniella Hellgren says:
November 20, 2020 at 6:54 am

The installation doesn't start when I use my second account. I really need do use Doc Tools on both accounts

Hello Daniella,

Thank you for contacting us. Please make sure to sign out and log back in to only one Google account – it should help because there's an issue regarding multiple accounts in Google Docs. Also, please try to install from the Add-ons > Get add-ons menu in your spreadsheet as well from a separate Marketplace page: https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/doc_tools/871708524981

If the installation still doesn't go through, I kindly ask you to report the problem to Google – that would help them in debugging. Just click the icon with a question mark at the upper-right corner and select Send Feedback. Thank you for understanding.

Hi, when I add an add-on, it says hit start in the addons bar but the button is not there on any of my addons. it only says help not start and help.

Hi Ray,

Thank you for your comment. Please see the issue described above and try out the solution suggested.

If it is not your case, then please specify what Ablebits add-on you have installed and email us a screenshot of the Add-ons menu with the options you see there. We'll help you further.

I selected some list elements, clicked Sort List alphabetically and got this error after it tried running for a few seconds:

TypeError: Cannot find function getText in object UnsupportedElement.

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for reporting the issue.

Please note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. We kindly ask you to sign out and log back in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and try to reproduce the issue.

If this doesn't help, please send us the screenshot of the records you're trying to sort - before and after the sorting to support@ablebits.com

Also, please specify whether you run the sorting tool via the drop-down Google Docs menu (Add-ons > Doc Tools > Sort the selection ascending/descending) or by clicking the corresponding icon on the Doc Tools sidebar. We will do our best to help.

I love the add-on and appreciate you making it. A couple things: if text is already in ALL CAPS, choosing the "capitalize each word" option does not work. A workaround is to "toggle case," making it all lower case, and THEN choosing "capitalize each word." Something I have not been able to find a workaround for, however, is if there is only one letter, "capitalize each word" will not capitalize it. I get a list of people in all caps in this format: PERSON, TEST A, where "A" is the middle initial. When I do the above process, I get it to "Person, Test a" instead of the expected "Person, Test A." I wasn't sure if you might be able to fix that behavior. As a side, note, the built in tool in MS Word handles single characters as a new word. Thanks again for making the tool!

Hi, Using styles, when I apply styles it collapses bullet lists, so

* this
- Second thing
- Third thing
* That
- Forth Thing

Becomes

* this
- Second thing
- Third thing
* That
- Forth Thing

I am having a problem with my bookmarks in a google doc disappearing. I had most of them disappear, except for maybe 3, which I renamed. I did not change all the names of the bookmarks, the three remaining do appear to be ones I changed. All the rest are gone!

I do see them in the revision history.

Have you seen your extension cause this? I was linking internally to bookmarks because I thought in the past (before using your extension), they were more stable than linking to headings. But now this.

Also, I did have the issue of mixed google accounts making it not work, (spinning wheel, not populating). Perhaps that was related. I did find the particular revision that the mass exodus of bookmarks occurred but I don't if I have time to run this down and send them to you for investigation.

So unless you guys know of this problem, I may have to go to LibreOffice to finish this project, it will have LOTS of bookmarks, and I can't risk losing them again. Unless you know of the cause, whether it is your extension or Google, I might have to bail. This has to get finished quickly.

Thanks

Hello Dyrell,

Thank you for reporting this problem to us.

We've never received any complaints regarding our tool deleting bookmarks. However, Google Docs constantly updates and it's difficult for us to tell right away what may cause the issue.
If it's not a problem for you, we'd appreciate if you could share both revisions: the one with all bookmarks prior to their disappearing and the one right after - with us (support@4-bits.com).
Our developer will investigate the issue.

Thank you.

I am trying to re-sort my table, but it's not working. When I click on sort ascending, I don't get the option box to pick the column(s) to sort on. It only came up the very first time I sorted.

Hello Kim,
Thank you for contacting us.

Please note that there is currently an issue on the side of Google that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. We kindly ask you to sign out and log in only under the account you used to grant permissions to the add-on and try to reproduce the issue.

If this doesn't help, please press F12 on your keyboard (Cmd+alt+J or Cmd+opt+J if you have a Mac), go to the Console tab, copy the last 15-20 lines and send them to support@ablebits.com. We'll do our best to help you.

Styles add-on won't put the table in alphabetical order. It allows me to click on the ascending order, then the screen pops up to start it, but then nothing happens.

It will sort, kind of. But it won't allow alphabetical sorting for a column. The choice is not clickable.

Hello Jane,

Our Styles add-on doesn't sort user data. If I understand you correctly, you're speaking of Doc Tools.

There's currently an issue on the Google side that occurs when you are logged in under more than one account. Please sign out and log back in only under the account you use to work with the add-on, and try again.

If this doesn't help, please email us to support@ablebits.com with the screenshot of the disabled option.
Also, when the issue occurs, please press F12 on your keyboard (Cmd+alt+J or Cmd+opt+J if you have a Mac), go to the Console tab, copy the last 15-20 lines and send them to us.

All this info will help us pin down the cause of the problem.
Thank you.

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If you have any questions or issues with this add-in, please feel free to post your concerns in the comments area. As soon as we answer, a notification message will be sent to your e-mail. If you do not want to share your thoughts in public, please contact us at support@ablebits.com.