Error Handling

Tablix doesn’t use a single global “something crashed” screen. Instead, each subsystem (saving, AI, Python, SQL, sharing) surfaces its own errors close to where they happen — as an inline status, a browser alert, or a chat message — so you know exactly what failed and can retry that specific thing.

This page is a technical reference for what each error means and why it happens. For step-by-step fixes, see Troubleshooting.

Saving & Sync Errors

Autosave runs in the background: 5 seconds after your first edit to a new file, then every 2 minutes while the file has unsaved changes. A small sync status is tracked as idle → syncing → saved / error.

Message	Cause
”Failed to save changes. Please check your permissions.”	Saving to a shared file failed on the server side
”You do not have permission to save changes to this file.”	You opened a shared link in Viewer mode and tried to edit — see Sharing & Collaboration
”Access Denied or File Not Found: You may not have permission to view this spreadsheet.”	The shared link’s token is invalid, expired, or the owner set the file back to Private
”You have reached the limit of 10 Google Drive files on the free plan…”	You’re on the Starter plan and tried to save an 11th file — see Payment & Billing
”Google Drive not connected. Please go to Integrations to connect.”	Your Drive session expired or was never connected

If saving fails because your Google session expired (an authentication error), reconnect Drive from Integrations and try saving again — your unsaved edits stay in the browser tab until you do.

AI Assistant Errors

Situation	What happens
Not logged in	”Please log in to use AI features.” — sign in with Google or Microsoft first
The AI service is temporarily overloaded (HTTP 429/503)	Tablix automatically retries up to 3 times, waiting 2s, then 4s, then 8s between attempts, before giving up
You click stop mid-request	The in-flight request (and any pending retry) is cancelled immediately
Generated code throws a runtime error	The error is shown in the chat/console with a “Fix with AI” button that resubmits the error for an automatic fix — see AI Assistant
Agent mode step fails	The agent automatically writes a fix on the next step using the previous error, rather than stopping — see Agent Mode
Agent mode doesn’t finish in 5 steps	”Agentic loop reached maximum steps limit.” — see Agent Mode

Python Errors

Tablix’s Python engine (Pyodide) loads from a CDN the first time you open the code editor, showing “Loading Python runtime…” then “Initializing Python…”. If this never finishes, it usually means your network is blocking that CDN request.

Message	Cause
”Python engine not ready”	You ran code before Pyodide finished loading — wait for initialization to complete
A Python traceback (e.g. `NameError`, `TypeError`, `AttributeError`)	An error in the code itself — shown in the console with the failing line underlined where possible
`AttributeError: Can only use .str accessor with string values!`	A column wasn’t converted to string before using text functions — cast it with `.astype(str)` first
Silent `NaN` results in a calculation	A numeric column still contains currency symbols, `%`, or commas — strip them with `pd.to_numeric(..., errors='coerce')` before doing math
`SyntaxError` from unexpected characters	Emoji or special unicode characters inside Python code/strings — remove them
”Failed to serialize cell updates” / “…structural updates” / “…sort_table payload” / “…apply_filter payload” / “…clear_filter payload”	The data passed to a bridge function (`update_cells`, `insert_col`/`insert_row`, `sort_table`, `apply_filter`, `clear_filter`) wasn’t in the expected shape

The AI is specifically instructed to clean numeric columns and cast text columns before operating on them, and to avoid emojis in generated code — so these particular errors are more common in hand-written Python than AI-generated Python. See Python for the full bridge API.

SQL Errors

Message	Cause
”SQL engine not ready”	You ran a query before the in-browser SQLite engine finished initializing
A SQLite error (e.g. “no such table”, “no such column”)	Your query referenced the wrong table name (must be `sheet`) or an unsanitized column name — see SQL

Chart Errors

Message	Cause
”Could not generate chart image. Please check if the chart has data.”	The chart’s selected range has no data to render
”Chart download failed: …”	The PNG export step failed — try again, or check the chart still has valid data

Other In-App Messages

Message	Cause
”'' not found.”	Find & Replace couldn’t find your search text
”Font '' is already in the list.”	You tried to add a custom font that’s already been added
”Failed to update sharing settings. Please try again.”	The sharing backend rejected the settings update — try again or contact support if it persists
”Error connecting to sharing service.”	A network issue while opening or saving Share settings

General Pattern

Across all of these, Tablix follows the same shape:

The failing action is isolated

A failed save, a failed chart render, or a failed AI call doesn’t take down the rest of the app — the grid, other sheets, and unrelated features keep working.

The message tells you what to do next

Messages point at a concrete next step: reconnect Drive, upgrade your plan, fix the code, or try again.

Retries happen automatically where it's safe to do so

AI calls retry on overload automatically; saves and chart renders do not auto-retry, so re-trigger them yourself if they fail.

For guided fixes to the most common issues, see Troubleshooting.

Overview

Core Features

Reference

Saving & Sync Errors

AI Assistant Errors

Python Errors

SQL Errors

Chart Errors

Other In-App Messages

General Pattern

​Saving & Sync Errors

​AI Assistant Errors

​Python Errors

​SQL Errors

​Chart Errors

​Other In-App Messages

​General Pattern

Saving & Sync Errors

AI Assistant Errors

Python Errors

SQL Errors

Chart Errors

Other In-App Messages

General Pattern