Usage pitfalls

This page covers some known problems and situations which may cause difficulties for beginners.

False positives

The result of the automatic checking is not always 100% accurate.

In some rare cases, a link is displayed as broken, but the URL can be opened in the browser and is ok. We refer to this as “false positives”.

This may not affect you, but there are some known URLs which cannot be automatically checked correctly.

Additionally, it may occur for

  • URLs which require a login or are access restricted (e.g. by IP). For these, an error code 401 or 403 will usually be shown.
  • temporary errors, e.g. network problems, timeout when loading the URL or a 500 error (which indicates a problem on the site which is usually temporary).

Recommendation:

  • For temporary problems (e.g. timeout): check the URL in the browser. If the URL cannot be loaded in the browser as well, wait a few days or contact the administrator of the remote site. If the URL is generally ok, but “flaky” (the result may fluctuate), you may want to replace the link with something more reliable or exclude this URL (see next item).
  • if the URL can be loaded in the browser and is ok, press “Recheck URL”. recheck_url_action_image If the link is still reported as broken, exclude the link by clicking the “Exclude” button exclude_link_target_action_image and save.

Important

It is often possible to load pages in the browser and the error is not immediately visible. This is sometimes the case for “Page not found (404)” errors. If you look more closely, you may see a “Page not found” text or something similar on the page or in the title.

If you can verify the HTTP status code in the browser, this is a good indicator. Pages that load ok, should have the status code 200.

For example, you can use “Developer tools” in Chrome or Firefox and select the “Network” tab or install a browser extension for this.