If you are using the AdWords editor and see ‘invalid string errors’ and there are a few other similar errors, there seem to be three reasons this happens.

1. The editor files have become corrupt. Uninstall and reinstall to fix the problem. I’ve seen this happen 3 times in the past week. I’m not sure if it’s related to a windows security update or something else. However, it seems more prevalent than normal programs becoming corrupt.

2. An upper level password has changed. If you nestle MCCs, it’s possible to lock yourself out of an account. There are two ways to handle this. The first is to use the new passwords when trying to download accounts. You will have to ‘get latest version’ again, so your current changes will be lost. However, the issue here lies that you might have accounts listed in your available accounts that you can’t get to. There isn’t a way to clear this list, so if you want a clean interface, uninstall and reinstall.

3. There was a TOS update on the account which hasn’t been accepted. You cannot accept a TOS update via the editor. You’ll  have to log into the account directly and accept the TOS. The advantage here is that once you accept the TOS, you can post your changes without downloading the account again - so no lost work.

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