diff --git a/src/utils.cpp b/src/utils.cpp
index e68900d7e5..cb209fcc30 100644
--- a/src/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/utils.cpp
@@ -777,7 +777,7 @@ std::vector<std::string> utils::gridid_parse(const char *file, int line, const s
   auto words = Tokenizer(name, ":").as_vector();
   if (words.size() != 3) {
     if (error)
-      error->all(FLERR, "Grid ID {} does not contain two ':' characters", name);
+      error->all(file, line, "Grid ID {} must be 3 strings separated by 2 ':'characters", name);
     else
       return {"", "", ""};
   }
diff --git a/unittest/utils/test_utils.cpp b/unittest/utils/test_utils.cpp
index 74b1ac3de1..eb5dd7e3ca 100644
--- a/unittest/utils/test_utils.cpp
+++ b/unittest/utils/test_utils.cpp
@@ -798,14 +798,14 @@ TEST(Utils, gridid_parse)
     ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq(""));
 
     words = utils::gridid_parse(FLERR, "c_1:full:", nullptr);
-    ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq("c_1"));
-    ASSERT_THAT(words[1], StrEq("full"));
+    ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq(""));
+    ASSERT_THAT(words[1], StrEq(""));
     ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq(""));
 
     words = utils::gridid_parse(FLERR, ":full:density", nullptr);
     ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq(""));
-    ASSERT_THAT(words[1], StrEq("full"));
-    ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq("density"));
+    ASSERT_THAT(words[1], StrEq(""));
+    ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq(""));
 
     words = utils::gridid_parse(FLERR, "c_1:full", nullptr);
     ASSERT_THAT(words[0], StrEq(""));