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If Gemini shows “Something went wrong” with a number in brackets, Google, as far as we could find, does not explain the number. What exists is a set of community threads with thousands of votes, and the patterns in them are more useful than the generic “clear your cache” advice: code 9 shows up when people had added Google Docs or Drive links or attached notebooks, and code 13 shows up mostly with image uploads and image generation. Nothing was confirmed by Google, and only a few workarounds were reported as working by the people who tried them. This guide sorts what four threads say so you can start with the cheapest checks.

Key takeaways

1. Google does not appear to document what the numbers mean. The threads suggest patterns, not definitions.
2. Code 9: several people had just added a Docs, Sheets or Drive link, or attached a NotebookLM notebook to a Gem. Removing the link or editing and resending was reported to help by a few users.
3. Code 13: most reports are about image upload or generation, sometimes while text still works. No user-confirmed fix in the thread we read.
4. Volunteer replies include confident explanations of backend causes that have no Google source. Treat them as guesses.

Last reviewed 26 September 2026. We read four threads in the Gemini Apps Community in a browser on that date. The threads date from November 2025 to March 2026, so Gemini may have changed since. We did not reproduce any error or test any workaround. Google’s threads note that community content may not be verified or up to date.

What do the four threads say?

Together the four threads carry 3,273 “I have the same question” votes as displayed on 26 September 2026. All four were locked, meaning replies were disabled. The vote counts show how many people hit the problem, but not how many were fixed.

Code 9: the pattern with links and attachments

The largest code 9 thread (Keeps saying “something went wrong (9)”) began with a person who had sent two prompts that each included a Google Docs link. The next messages, on any topic, would not send. Other posters described the same after sharing Docs or Drive links, or when using Pro features, and one said image generation still worked in other chats while text did not. That is a pattern, not proof of the cause.

The workarounds people reported, with the caveat that each rests on one or a few users:

• Edit your last message and resend. One user said they went back to their last response, clicked edit, added a period to the end of a sentence and resubmitted, and it worked. That reply was marked as a recommended answer, and 26 people marked it helpful.
• Remove Docs, Sheets or Drive links from the prompt and resend without the attachment. A volunteer credited this to another user.
• Ask Gemini to “re-research” the topic instead of resuming. One user said this got their chat working.
• Turn off the Google Workspace extension in Settings, then try again. Suggested by a volunteer.
• Switch from Deep Research to Guided Learning and send a few test replies. One user with an AI Pro plan said this worked for them.
• Wait. One paying user said the thread simply started working again, and did not know why.

Two cautions. First, a volunteer also suggested deleting your Gemini activity from your Google account. That is not reversible, and one thread reply shows it as a last step, so we would not start there. Second, volunteer replies in this thread describe the cause in confident terms such as a corrupted session or a broken backend handshake. We found no Google source for those explanations, so we treat them as guesses. The Google-side statement in the thread, relayed by a volunteer in November 2025 that the issue had been fixed and was rolling out, did not stop users reporting the error in the following weeks.

Code 13: mostly images

The (13) thread (something went wrong (13)) began with a person who uploaded a photo and asked Gemini to analyse it. A volunteer suggested testing in an incognito window, clearing the cache and cookies, checking the image format and size, and turning off a VPN. A later user said they had tried all of that plus another browser and a restart, that image generation failed for over 16 hours while text still worked, and asked whether Google had overloaded its capacity. The volunteer’s reply was to report it. We saw no confirmed fix.

A publisher guide we read (fdaytalk, retrieved 2026-09-26) says error 13 is an account-level problem where Gemini fails to process text input while voice still works. It lists nine fixes and cites no Google documentation, and it does not describe testing. That description does not match the image-related pattern in the thread. We cannot tell which is right, so we would not rely on either as a definition.

Code 5, and a note on models

The (5) thread (I get the message: Something went wrong (5)) was opened by a Pro user who saw the error on every device and browser they tried after clearing the cache, signing out and switching browsers. A volunteer said the error can have many causes such as network restrictions or server errors and asked them to report it. Later users disagreed about which model was affected, one saying Pro failed while Flash worked and another saying the opposite, with Pro and Canvas working. Because the reports conflict, we do not draw a rule from them.

Codes 9 and 13 together, with Gems and notebooks

The fourth thread (Error “something went wrong 9/13”) is specific. A person attached notebooks to a Gem and got both codes, while the Gem worked for someone it had been shared with. Volunteers suggested removing and re-attaching the notebooks, checking Drive permissions, using incognito, and toggling the Google Workspace extension. Later users, in February and March 2026, said the notebooks disappeared from the Gem or that a working connection stopped, and did not report a fix. If you use NotebookLM with Gems, our NotebookLM study guide covers the tool itself.

What to check, in order

This order is ours, from cost and how well each idea is supported. It is not tested.

1. Find out where it fails. Try a new chat, another model, and another device or browser. The threads show it can be limited to one chat, one model or one feature.
2. Ask what you added just before it started. If it was a Docs, Sheets or Drive link, a file or a notebook, remove it and resend, or edit your last message and resubmit.
3. If it is only image upload or generation, try again later or with a different image. The thread shows people waiting for many hours with no fix, so report it instead of repeating the same steps.
4. Report it in the app. Volunteers describe the web path as the settings cog, then Settings and help, then Send feedback, and the mobile path as your profile picture, then Feedback. They ask for a screenshot with personal details removed, and say work and school accounts cannot attach files.

What we could not verify

• We did not reproduce any of the errors or test any workaround.
• We could not find a Google page that explains the codes, in the searches we ran. We may have missed one.
• The threads are from November 2025 to March 2026. Gemini may behave differently now.
• Volunteers are not Google staff, and some replies state causes with no source.
• Four threads are a sample of what came up in search, not all reports.

If Gemini’s voice mode is the problem instead, see our Gemini Live troubleshooting analysis. For choosing between assistants, see our comparison of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.

How we researched this

On 26 September 2026 we searched for the error text and codes. The results were a mix of Google community threads and publisher fix lists. We opened four Gemini Apps Community threads in a browser and recorded each one’s date, code, the situation described, the vote count, and whether anyone reported a fix. We also read one publisher’s guide to compare its claim with the threads. Where we describe a cause, it comes from a poster or volunteer, and where we give our own reasoning, we say so. If the threads or Google’s behaviour change, this article should be revised.

Frequently asked questions

Seeing a Gemini error instead? See Is ChatGPT or Codex down: what OpenAI’s status page shows.