When you try to follow a user on a different Mastodon instance, the search box might return a red error message stating “Failed to resolve handle.” This occurs because your instance cannot locate the remote user’s account through the ActivityPub protocol. The handle format, such as @user@example.social, requires your instance to perform a WebFinger lookup … Read more
When you try to open a Mastodon instance in a browser and see a Cloudflare-branded 502 Bad Gateway error, the web server cannot complete your request. This error means Cloudflare, the reverse proxy in front of the Mastodon server, received an invalid response from the origin server. The issue is almost always on the server … Read more
After updating the Mastodon app on your phone or desktop, you may see a red banner that reads “Sync Failed” at the top of your home timeline. This error means the app cannot refresh your feed, fetch new notifications, or post toots. The root cause is usually an expired authentication token or a corrupted local … Read more
You are trying to access Mastodon and see the message “Service Temporarily Unavailable.” This error means the Mastodon server you are connecting to cannot process your request right now. The cause is usually server overload from too many users, scheduled maintenance, or a temporary network problem. This article explains how to verify whether the issue … Read more
You enter your Mastodon username and password, then type the six-digit code from your authenticator app. Instead of entering your home timeline, the login page reloads and asks for the two-factor code again. This cycle, known as the two-factor login loop, can lock you out of your account for hours or days. The problem usually … Read more
You filled out the registration form on a Mastodon instance, but your account status shows ‘Pending approval’ and it has not changed for days. This usually happens on instances that require manual moderator approval for new accounts. If the instance has few moderators or a large backlog, your request can stall indefinitely. This article explains … Read more
When you try to submit a form in Mastodon such as posting a status, changing account settings, or logging in, you may see a CSRF Token Mismatch error. This error means the security token that verifies your request is missing or does not match what the server expects. The cause is often a stale browser … Read more
When you self-host a Mastodon instance, the service depends on a PostgreSQL database to store posts, accounts, and timeline data. A “Database Connection Timeout” error means your Mastodon web or streaming processes cannot reach the database within the configured time limit. This typically occurs due to resource exhaustion, misconfigured connection pools, or network latency between … Read more
When you browse the Mastodon federated timeline, custom emoji from other instances often appear as broken image placeholders or plain text like :blobcat:. This happens because Mastodon does not automatically fetch emoji files from remote servers. The error message “Custom Emoji Failed to Load” indicates that your local instance cannot retrieve or display the emoji … Read more
When you upload a new profile picture on Mastodon, the server must resize and optimize the image before it becomes visible to others. The “Avatar image failed to process” error means this server-side operation could not complete. This failure usually happens because the image file violates one of Mastodon’s strict technical requirements. This article explains … Read more