FAQ - Current Issues

  1. DISPLAY: Site pages do not display properly in older browsers, including Internet Explorer 6.
  2. DISPLAY: There are display problems with imported icons with non-ASCII comments.
  3. DISPLAY: I can not use the icon resizing tool when uploading an oversized image from URL
  4. DISPLAY: Pages on the site aren't updating properly.
  5. DISPLAY: My HTML is not working properly.
  6. DISPLAY: I'm getting unwanted comment notifications in my inbox.
  7. DISPLAY: I composed an entry in Word and used the RTE to post it.
  8. DISPLAY: My icons aren't showing up after I purchased paid time.
  9. DISPLAY: Icon keywords are not acting correctly.
  10. GENERAL: How do I clear my browser's cache or cookies?
  11. GENERAL: How do I run a traceroute?
  12. STYLES: The style I copied from another site has errors on Dreamwidth.
  13. STYLES: My Reading page is displaying incorrectly: stretched, distorted, or just generally 'broken'.
  14. IMPORTER: Tags that were deleted on the import source site are imported to Dreamwidth.
  15. IMPORTER: Embedded media on my imported entry isn't working.
  16. IMPORTER: My import isn't working.
  17. CROSSPOSTER: My entries crossposted with a more-secure security setting.
  18. CROSSPOSTER: I am getting an incorrect password message trying to crosspost to another site.
  19. CROSSPOSTER: I am getting an incorrect password message trying to crosspost to another account on Dreamwidth.
  20. CROSSPOSTER: I am having trouble crossposting to JournalFen.
  21. OTHER: What is the difference between a Dreamhack and a Dreamwidth Account?

» DISPLAY: Site pages do not display properly in older browsers, including Internet Explorer 6.

Issue
Internet Explorer 6 is not supported by Dreamwidth because it is incompatible with the standards of other, newer browsers. We also do not support older versions of other browsers, such as Firefox 2.0.

Workaround
If you can, you should upgrade to the newest version of your browser, or use another browser. If that's not an option for you, there are a few workarounds you can use to make Dreamwidth work better with IE6 and other older browsers.

  • The Lynx site skin is a simple skin without extra formatting. The Update Journal page as well as pages like the support area should work well in IE 6 when using this scheme. If you would like to see how a specific page looks in this style, add ?usescheme=lynx to the end of the page URL (or &usescheme=lynx if there's already another argument). If you'd like to switch to this site skin permanently, you can do that via the Display tab in your Manage settings area.
  • If you are also having problems viewing the styled comment pages on journals, you can view the page in light mode by clicking 'view in light style' in the navigation bar or by adding ?format=light to the end of the page URL.
  • You can also access Dreamwidth through the mobile interface. This interface is designed to work with phones and other such devices, but it will also work in regular browsers.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» DISPLAY: There are display problems with imported icons with non-ASCII comments.

Issue
If you import icons with non-ASCII/UTF-8 characters in comments, those characters will not display correctly. You may end up with a bunch of gibberish words and characters that don't make any sense. For example, é may display as "é".

Workaround
To fix this, correct the comments on the Manage Icons page.
  • Go to the Manage Icons page.
  • Edit the comments that didn't import correctly.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit save.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» DISPLAY: I can not use the icon resizing tool when uploading an oversized image from URL

Issue
When uploading an oversized image via URL to use as an icon, the icon resizing tool does not activate. Instead, an error is thrown.

Workaround
Save the image to your computer, and then use the "Upload from File" option on the Manage Icons page.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» DISPLAY: Pages on the site aren't updating properly.

Issue
Pages on the site are displaying strangely, aren't showing the current information or are throwing odd errors.

Workaround
If you're consistently seeing old or outdated version of pages on the site, you may need to clear your browser's cache.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» DISPLAY: My HTML is not working properly.

Issue
Some HTML tags you enter don't have any effect at the moment. This is a particular problem if you use HTML to change the appearance of your profile, but some people are having problems with comments and entries too.

Information
Dreamwidth has CSS files which set the basic appearance of the site. These files are overriding some of the HTML you enter. We're working on a fix for this. For now, you may be able to change the appearance of entries and comments using CSS in your tags. Unfortunately this won't work for profiles. Try to design your profile without needing tables if possible.

Last Activity: October 18th, 2009 (zarhooie)

» DISPLAY: I'm getting unwanted comment notifications in my inbox.

Issue
If you have chosen to receive email notifications of comments you receive, you will get a copies of the comments in your Inbox as well.

Information
Getting copies of emails in your inbox is necessary because of the way the notification system works. We're working on improvements to the inbox, such as better filtering, or sending comment notifications to a different folder. You can mass delete notifications of comments by filtering the inbox to Entries and comments. Use the checkbox in the title bar to select all for deletion.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» DISPLAY: I composed an entry in Word and used the RTE to post it.

Issue
Entries that were written in Microsoft Word and then pasted directly into the Rich Text Editor display incorrectly.

Workaround
The Rich Text Editor can be temperamental, and pasting an entry directly from Word can cause problems. If you would like to write your posts in Word, do not paste directly into the Rich Text Editor. Instead, paste the entry into the HTML editor, then switch to the Rich Text Editor to finish formatting your post. You can switch between the two editors by clicking on the tabs above the box that holds the body of your entry on the Post Entry and Edit Entry pages.

Last Activity: October 18th, 2009 (zarhooie)

» DISPLAY: My icons aren't showing up after I purchased paid time.

Issue
When a user's paid status changes, sometimes the number of icons they are able to access does not. For example, if a free user upgrades to a paid account, sometimes they will only be able to access 15 icons instead of the full 100. This only happens in rare circumstances.

Workaround
There is a workaround you can try. Just go to your Edit Icons page and let it load completely. This should reactivate all of your icons. You don't need to make any changes to your icons for this to work.

If this does not work, please contact Support for further assistance.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» DISPLAY: Icon keywords are not acting correctly.

Issue
It is not possible to rename more than one icon at a time. Attempting to do this can cause other previously-renamed icons to revert to pic#xxx keywords. Icons with pic#xxx keywords will not show up when used in a comment.

Information
There are open bugs to fix these issues, and a developer has been assigned. Due to the age and complexity of the icon system, there is not an estimated time for resolution.

Last Activity: October 3rd, 2013 (misskat)

» GENERAL: How do I clear my browser's cache or cookies?

A wide variety of browser display issues can be resolved by clearing your browser's cache. The cache is where your browser stores some information about a website. Occasionally, the stored information is incorrect or out of date. Clearing the cache [WikiHow] will make your browser retrieve fresh information, thus resolving some problems.

Cookies are used by websites for many purposes, including allowing you to stay logged into a website. Clearing your cookies [WikiHow] will wipe your login history from your browser, and allow websites to set fresh cookies. If you clear all your cookies, you will lose all the information that has been stored for Dreamwidth and other sites. To prevent this, many browsers allow you to selectively delete cookies from a specific website rather than clear all cookies.

Last Activity: January 22nd, 2013 (misskat)

» GENERAL: How do I run a traceroute?

Sometimes Dreamwidth loads slowly due to a delay on the network somewhere. This can be diagnosed by running a traceroute.

This page on WikiHow explains how to run a traceroute on the three most common operating systems (Windows, Mac OS, and Linux).

If Support asks you to run a traceroute, you can usually omit the first few "hops" to protect your location.

Last Activity: April 5th, 2013 (misskat)

» STYLES: The style I copied from another site has errors on Dreamwidth.

Issue
If you imported your journal style from a site based on the LiveJournal code, you probably copied the style code into a custom layout layer on Dreamwidth. Some people find that the style doesn't appear the way it did on the other site, or doesn't work at all.

Solution
We have rewritten the code that layout layers use to display the basic parts of your journal. We've kept the old version of this code, the "core layer", around so that you can keep using old styles if you want to. To do this, go to Your Styles and create a style with your custom layout layer. Set the "Core version" option to 1, save changes, and select your new style for use.

You may still have problems with not being able to see the names of who posted entries on your reading page. This is because we've changed the name of that page to "read", while most LiveJournal based sites call it a "friends page". This post has instructions for editing your custom layers to fix this.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» STYLES: My Reading page is displaying incorrectly: stretched, distorted, or just generally 'broken'.

Issue
Your Reading page has suddenly started displaying incorrectly. Maybe it's suddenly stretched past the edge of the browser window, meaning that you have to scroll sideways to see the whole thing. Or, maybe the boxes that entries appear in are stacked differently, distorted, or displaying in the wrong order.

Cause
This happens when someone on your reading list posts an entry with wide content, or with incorrect or broken HTML that can affect how the page is shown. Scrolling usually means that someone has posted wide images, HTML tables, or text that isn't wrapping properly. Distorted or broken page elements usually means that someone has posted an entry with incorrect HTML. The most common cause of problems is mismatched <div> tags: either a missing </div> or an extra one.

For too-wide entries, you can sometimes tell which entry is the problem by scrolling all the way to the right side of the page, and seeing which entries extend that far (and which ones might not be wrapping properly). For incorrect HTML, you can sometimes tell which entry is the problem by looking for the part of the page where the broken or distorted entries begin.

You can also log out and look at the page. If it's still broken when you log out, the problem is with a public entry on your reading page. If it's not still broken when you log out, the problem is with a locked entry.

Finally, you can "step through" your reading page entry by entry, by changing the URL to skip one entry at a time. To skip one entry, add ?skip=1 to the end of your reading page URL, like this: https://username.dreamwidth.org/read?skip=1 — keep increasing the number until the problem goes away. Once your reading page is displaying properly again, you'll know the problem is with the entry immediately before it started displaying properly again — the one that was just "pushed off" the page.

Workaround
The best thing to do, if you can determine the problem entry, is to tell the person who posted the entry about the problem. Sometimes they don't know about it, because different browsers and different styles can react differently to wide content or incorrect HTML. They can then change the HTML in their entry, or use a cut to keep the content of their entry the way it is, without having it break other peoples' reading pages.

If you don't want to contact them about the problem, you can temporarily unsubscribe from that journal, which will remove the problem entry from your reading page. You can also create a reading filter that doesn't include the journal, and read that instead.

If your friends regularly post large images without a cut, you can enable image placeholders for your reading page, which will hide all images in entries until you click through to display them.

If all else fails, just wait. As more posts appear on your reading page, the post with the error will eventually drop off the front page of your reading page and your reading page will display properly again.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» IMPORTER: Tags that were deleted on the import source site are imported to Dreamwidth.

Issue
If you delete tags on a journal on another service and then import from that journal to Dreamwidth, deleted tags may be imported.

Background
This is typically caused by the tags being deleted from the manage tags page but still persisting on some individual entries.

Workaround
You can manually delete the unwanted tags on Dreamwidth after importing.
  • Go to the Manage Tags page.
  • Select the tag or tags you wish to remove.
  • Use the 'Remove selected tag(s)' button to delete.


This should delete the tags from all the individual entries as well as the official tags list.

Alternatively, you may use a client that supports tag management.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» IMPORTER: Embedded media on my imported entry isn't working.

Issue
Embedded media, such as YouTube videos, aren't working correctly on imported entries.

Solution
The importer will strip out the code used to embed YouTube videos. At the moment, the only way to get the videos back in your entry is to re-embed them by finding the video on YouTube, copying the embed code and pasting it into the entry.

Last Activity: October 18th, 2009 (zarhooie)

» IMPORTER: My import isn't working.

Issue

Your import job failed. When this happens, you will receive a message in your Inbox, which might provide clues.

Solutions

There are several common reasons why the importer might fail:


  • The external site (such as LiveJournal) is currently experiencing problems. Check to see if the external site appears to be accessible; try waiting awhile to see if the import works again later.

  • Your password is incorrect. If your password is incorrect, the password verification step will fail and the importer won't try anything else. You should try importing again, and make sure your browser doesn't auto-fill your password.

  • The encoding is wrong. You might have old entries which were written on LiveJournal prior to a change in encoding. The failure message in your Inbox should have a link to the appropriate place on LiveJournal to update the encoding before you try to import again.



If none of these seem to match your error message, open a Support request.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)

» CROSSPOSTER: My entries crossposted with a more-secure security setting.

Issue
Some of my entries crossposted with a more secure security setting than what I set them with on Dreamwidth.

Solution
Entry security is confusing when you edit entries. There are two reasons your entry may have crossposted with a more-secure security setting. First, if the site you crosspost to has a higher default security than Dreamwidth, the crossposter will respect this. However, editing the entry on Dreamwidth causes the crossposted entry to be edited as well, but changes its security to be the same as on Dreamwith. This could make crossposted Access Only or filtered entries on other sites public or unfiltered. To prevent this, please make sure you've double checked your security settings upon editing.

The second cause of this is when you crosspost an entry that is filtered to a custom access group on Dreamwidth and there is no corresponding custom access group on the remote site. In order to prevent unauthorized viewing of the entry by the wrong group, these entries will crosspost as private and only you will be able to view them on the remote site.

Last Activity: December 29th, 2011 (chemicallace)

» CROSSPOSTER: I am getting an incorrect password message trying to crosspost to another site.

Issue
My entry is not crossposting due to an incorrect password.

Solution
Some browsers automatically fill in a password that you've used before. Your browser might be filling in your Dreamwidth password for your account on another site. This makes your crosspost fail and you'll get an incorrect password message. Make sure you type the password in yourself when you crosspost entries. If you prefer, you can save your password on the Other Sites section of the Account Settings page.

Last Activity: July 26th, 2020 (karzilla)

» CROSSPOSTER: I am getting an incorrect password message trying to crosspost to another account on Dreamwidth.

Issue
My entry is not crossposting due to an incorrect password.

Solution
Due to recent password API changes, when crossposting to another account that is also on Dreamwidth, you must provide an API key instead of your password.

To generate an API key for the journal you want to crosspost to, when logged in as that account, visit the Advanced Setup Options link on the Mobile tab of the Account Settings page (or navigate directly to https://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/emailpost) and click the button that says "Generate new API key".

Copy the value of that API key and save it as the crossposting password for that account on the journal you want to crosspost from. (See also: How can I cross-post entries?)

Last Activity: July 26th, 2020 (karzilla)

» CROSSPOSTER: I am having trouble crossposting to JournalFen.

Issue
I receive an error when trying to crosspost to JournalFen about "Error connecting to service".

Solution
Dreamwidth can't crosspost to JournalFen, because they're running a much older version of the base LiveJournal code. Until and unless they update the protocol our crossposter uses, you won't be able to crosspost to JournalFen. In the meantime, you can copy and paste your entries using their update form.

Last Activity: March 8th, 2013 (denise)

» OTHER: What is the difference between a Dreamhack and a Dreamwidth Account?

A Dreamhack is a hosted development environment provided by Dreamwidth to developers free of charge. While a Dreamhack account looks like Dreamwidth, acts like Dreamwidth, and is provided by Dreamwidth, it is not actually Dreamwidth.

A Dreamhack is meant to simulate the production environment so that a developer can write, develop and test new code without needing to fully install their own version of the Dreamwidth code on their home computer or network.

Dreamhack usernames start with the prefix dh_ . Therefore, these usernames will not work on the production site, Dreamwidth.org.

For more information on Dreamhacks, please visit the website at http://hack.dreamwidth.net/

A Dreamwidth account is a standard user account on the Dreamwidth production site. You can read more about that here.

Last Activity: August 31st, 2015 (kaberett)



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