You have left a Mastodon instance or deactivated your account, but you want your old posts to remain publicly accessible. A read-only mirror built from your Mastodon export archive lets you preserve every toot without needing a live account. This article explains how to generate the archive inside Mastodon and then publish it as a … Read more
You try to sign in to your Mastodon account using a WebAuthn security key, but the browser shows “Sign-in failed” with error code 401. This problem occurs when the WebAuthn credential stored on your key does not match the challenge or origin expected by the Mastodon server. In this article, you will learn why the … Read more
When you try to log in to your Mastodon account through a web browser, you may see the error message “Could Not Reach the Server.” This happens when the browser cannot establish a connection to the Mastodon instance’s server. The error can appear on any instance, whether you use mastodon.social, a small community server, or … Read more
When you submit a form in Mastodon, such as logging in, posting a status, or changing settings, you might see the error CSRF Token Mismatch. This error means the security token that verifies your browser session did not match what the server expected. The cause is usually a stale or missing session cookie, a browser … Read more
When you see Mastodon Error 422 with the message “Validation Failed,” the server has rejected your request because the data you sent does not meet its rules. This error often appears when posting, following accounts, or uploading media. The problem usually stems from malformed API requests, expired session tokens, or content that violates instance-specific limits. … Read more
When you post multiple toots in quick succession, Mastodon may respond with a “Rate limit exceeded” error and block your account from posting for several minutes. This happens because Mastodon instances enforce rate limits to prevent spam and reduce server load. The error typically appears as an HTTP 429 status code with a message like … Read more
When you try to follow, mention, or view the profile of a user on another Mastodon instance, you may see the error message “Could Not Fetch Remote Account.” This error usually means your home instance cannot complete the handshake with the remote server to download that user’s profile data. The cause is often a temporary … Read more
You tap Reply on a Mastodon post and see the error message “This post has been removed.” The post still appears in your timeline, but you cannot reply to it. This usually happens because the original post was deleted or its visibility changed after it was fetched by your instance. This article explains the exact … Read more
When you run a Mastodon instance, Sidekiq processes background tasks like delivering posts to remote servers, sending notifications, and updating timelines. A backlog occurs when the number of queued jobs exceeds Sidekiq’s ability to process them, causing delays in federation, missing notifications, and slow timeline updates. This article explains why the Sidekiq queue backlog happens … Read more
The Mastodon web client displays a red banner that reads “Streaming Connection Failed” when it cannot maintain a persistent connection to the server for real-time updates. This error prevents the timeline from refreshing automatically and stops new posts from appearing without a manual page reload. The failure typically occurs because the WebSocket connection between your … Read more