Live data from other apps

Docs, Canvas and Forms can show values that live in a spreadsheet, and a spreadsheet tab can be filled from another app. All of it is a window onto a source, so when the window goes dark the cause is almost always on the source side: the sheet moved out of reach, the range holds nothing usable, or a refresh is being asked for faster than the server allows.

"This live block is not available" or "This data is not available"#

The block in a doc says This live block is not available; the card on a canvas says This data is not available. Both mean the same thing: the block could not read its spreadsheet right now.

• The sheet was deleted, or the tab or range it pointed at no longer exists. Edit the block and point it at a range that does.
• The person who embedded it lost access to the sheet. A block keeps working only while its source stays readable by whoever placed it, or by the document owner. Somebody with access can re-insert the block to repair it.
• A connection hiccup. Reload the page first; the block reconnects on its own after a dropped connection, but a hard reload settles the question in one step.

A connected tab will not refresh#

• Too many refreshes right now. Try again in a few minutes. means exactly that: refreshes on one spreadsheet are limited to short bursts, so wait a few minutes and press Refresh once.
• Could not refresh this tab. usually means the source is out of reach: the form, folder or album was deleted, or your access to it ended. Disconnect the tab if the source is gone for good; the data that is already there stays.
• Your own edits on the tab were replaced. That is refresh working as designed: a refresh replaces everything on the connected tab. Put formulas and notes on another tab and reference the connected one from there.

A chart shows "Pick a range with a numeric column to chart."#

Bar and line charts read the first column of the range as labels and the first column of numbers as values. A range with no column of numbers has nothing to draw. Widen the range so it includes one, or check that the numbers are numbers rather than text.

An embedded photo disappeared from a document#

A photo inserted from the Gallery tab of the image picker is a reference to the photo in the library, not a copy. If it was erased for good from the library, every document that embedded it loses it at the same moment, and that is the erase promise working rather than a bug. A photo that is merely in the Gallery trash keeps showing until somebody erases it.