# BugBase web not accepting Q2 sample metadata file

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/bugbase-web-not-accepting-q2-sample-metadata-file/22844
**Category:** Other Bioinformatics Tools
**Tags:** bugbase
**Created:** [April 21, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/bugbase-web-not-accepting-q2-sample-metadata-file/22844 "2022-04-21T20:49:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Simey](https://forum.qiime2.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Simey](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/Simey)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/bugbase-web-not-accepting-q2-sample-metadata-file/22844/1 "2022-04-21T20:49:42Z")

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I have been unable to get the web BugBase to accept my metadata file. It will accept my OTU biome file if I choose to upload that by itself; It returns lots of charts etc.. I have simplified my metadata file to just two columns and I keep getting the same error " **Map column must be set**".  
The first few rows of my simplified metadata file:

#SampleID Location  
1H6 Hand  
8H6 Hand  
9H6 Hand  
12H6 Hand  
23H6 Hand

Anyone know what that error message means? Or why BugBase is rejecting this metadata format?

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### Author: ![Mehrbod\_Estaki](https://forum.qiime2.org/user_avatar/forum.qiime2.org/mehrbod_estaki/32/4001_2.png) [@Mehrbod\_Estaki](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/Mehrbod_Estaki)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2022, 6:01am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/bugbase-web-not-accepting-q2-sample-metadata-file/22844/2 "2022-04-22T06:01:17Z")

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Hi @Simey,  
It's hard to trouble shoot this without actually having the data but a couple of things worth trying out that come to my mind:

- Does your mapping file end with `.tsv` or `.txt`? If I recall correctly BugBase only accepted the `.txt` format for some reason.
- Are you filling the Column Header field on the web tool? In your case you would write `Location`
- Does this work on the non-web version or do you get the same error?

If these don't get us anywhere feel free to DM me your mapping file and OTU table and I can try troubleshooting a bit further.