Error messages and what they mean

Search this page for the exact words you see: press Cmd+F (Mac) or Ctrl+F (Windows) and type a few distinctive words from the message. Every heading quotes the message exactly as ShortStack, your browser, Google or Meta shows it, including any typos.

Embedding and publishing

"m.cmpgn.page refused to connect." / "This site can't be reached"

What it means: the page showing your embedded campaign isn't on the campaign's connected site, so the campaign won't load there. You may see lndg.page, shortstack.page or your own domain in place of m.cmpgn.page. A common case is a staging site or a second domain that was never added.

How to fix it:

• Add the page's domain to the connected site for that publication. One connected site can cover both your staging and live domains, so you don't need a second embed.
• Use only one set of ShortStack embed code on the page. Two copies of the code on one page can cause this error.
• If it loads for you but not for colleagues or a client, their company firewall is probably blocking it. Ask them to try on a phone using mobile data, then send their IT team Whitelisting ShortStack's domains.

Full steps are in Troubleshooting embed issues.

"m.cmpgn.page's server IP address could not be found."

What it means: the browser couldn't look up ShortStack's campaign domain. It's almost always the viewer's network, such as an office firewall. It can also happen briefly during an outage at our hosting provider.

How to fix it:

• Open the page on a phone using mobile data, not office Wi-Fi. If it loads there, ask your IT team to allow ShortStack's domains (Whitelisting ShortStack's domains).
• If it fails on every network and browser, wait a few minutes and refresh, then contact support if it continues.

"embed code is pending"

What it means: while you publish an inline embed, ShortStack doesn't yet see the global embed script on your website.

How to fix it:

• Install the global embed code on your site (How to install our global embed code (2.0)), then go back to the publish step.
• Check the Publications Manager. Your campaign may already be published even while the message shows. A firewall or a browser extension on your side can block the check.

"Publishing timed out -- please close this dialog and try again. If this problem continues, please contact support."

What it means: the publish request didn't finish in time. Both cases on record were a temporary problem on ShortStack's side, not a campaign setting.

How to fix it:

• Close the dialog and publish again.
• If it times out again, contact support with the campaign link. Don't keep changing your campaign to work around it.

"Campaign not found"

What it means: the campaign isn't published at that address. It shows on every ShortStack campaign that has been unpublished. A new campaign can also show it briefly while support reviews it (see "flagged for a brief review").

How to fix it:

• If you unpublished the campaign by mistake, publish it again.
• If the campaign has ended and you don't want visitors to see this message, see Visitors see "Campaign not found" for your options.

A 404 page when someone opens a share link

What it means: share links point to the page address saved in the publication's settings. If that address is wrong or the page has moved, people who open a shared link get a 404.

How to fix it:

1. Open the Publications Manager in the Campaign Builder.
2. Open the publication's settings (gear icon).
3. Change the address to the page where the campaign actually lives, and save.

Voting

"An error occurred with your vote. Please refresh the page and try again." (widgets.entry.voting_error)

What it means: the vote was rejected. The voter sees the message (this is the default wording; it can be changed on the widget's Text tab, and older campaigns may show "Please try again."), and the browser console shows {"errors":{"base":"widgets.entry.voting_error"}}. It can be caused by the widget's visibility dates, a vote outside the voting schedule, voting disabled on the widget, a failed reCAPTCHA check, or a voting limit that's been used up.

How to fix it:

• Check the widget visibility dates on every Entry Display Widget that should accept votes, and on any container around it.
• Check the voting schedule on the widget's Voting tab, and that voting is turned on for the widget.
• If the campaign uses reCAPTCHA, check that the key works (How to create Google reCAPTCHA keys).
• Check the voting restrictions. A voter who has used up their limit can't vote again until the restriction period has passed.
• Publish changes, then test again.

See Troubleshooting voting for more causes.

"We could not verify that you are human. Please refresh the page and try again."

What it means: the vote was blocked because the voter looked like a bot, for example when the Google reCAPTCHA check on the Entry Display Widget fails.

How to fix it:

• Ask the voter to refresh the page and vote again.
• If many real voters see it, check that the campaign's reCAPTCHA keys work (How to create Google reCAPTCHA keys).

"You already voted!"

What it means: the voter has reached the limit set in the Entry Display Widget's voting restrictions. This is the default message. You can change its wording in the restriction settings, so your campaign may show different text.

How to fix it:

• If voters share a household, an office or a device, the Anonymous Fingerprint restriction can treat them as one voter. Switch to a different restriction type, or tell voters to use a different network or browser.
• If a voter is still blocked after the restriction period has passed, ask them to clear their browser cache and cookies for the past 24 hours and try again.
• To check what was recorded, click the vote total at the top left of the entry's details in the Entries Manager.

See Troubleshooting voting and the voting restrictions in Entry Display Widget.

Google reCAPTCHA

"ERROR for site owner: Invalid domain for site key"

What it means: Google rejected your reCAPTCHA key because the campaign's domain isn't on the key's domain list. It can block voting, email verification codes and form entries.

How to fix it:

1. Open your key in Google's reCAPTCHA admin console.
2. Add the domain the campaign is served from. For an embed, that's usually ShortStack's domain (cmpgn.page, lndg.page or shortstack.page), not only your own website.
3. Enter domains only, such as shortstack.page, with no page paths.

Also check you didn't paste the same value into both the Site Key and Secret Key fields. Full steps are in How to create Google reCAPTCHA keys.

Forms and entries

A 404 page after clicking Enter

What it means: the form submitted, but the after-submit redirect sends people to a page that doesn't exist.

How to fix it:

1. Open the Form Container settings and select the After submit tab.
2. Change the after-submission action to Use Action Widgets, then save.
3. In the Action Widget that runs after submission, remove the old actions and add a Campaign → Redirect action with the correct address.
4. Publish changes and test.

Support recommends Action Widgets for anything that happens after submission (Action Widget).

"An error occurred while importing entries. Please try again later"

What it means: the List Importer couldn't process your CSV file.

How to fix it:

• Put each value in its own column and save the file as .csv.
• Try the import again.
• If it still fails, send the file to support.

Importing always creates a new list. It doesn't update an existing one, so reconnect any widget, such as a leaderboard, to the new list.

"Too many requests"

What it means: the campaign's Rate limiting setting caps how many entries it accepts from one IP address per minute, to stop bots flooding the form. People on the same network, such as an office, a school or an event's Wi-Fi, share an IP address, so a busy moment can hit the cap.

How to fix it:

• Ask entrants to wait a minute and try again.
• If many people will enter from one place at once, raise the limit under Rate limiting in Campaign settings. A higher limit lets more bot entries through, so raise it only as far as you need.

Account and plan

"Your plan does not include the use of this widget."

What it means: the campaign contains a widget your plan doesn't include. The message shows inside that widget in the Campaign Builder. The usual one is the Entry Search Widget, which is a Max plan feature and comes with some voting templates.

How to fix it:

• Select the widget that shows the message and delete it. The message disappears and the rest of the campaign is unaffected.
• To keep the widget, upgrade your plan.

"Your session has expired -- please log in again"

What it means: ShortStack signed you out in the middle of a task, such as uploading or choosing an image. This usually happens when two people use the same login at the same time.

How to fix it:

• Don't share one login. Give each person their own seat (ShortStack for Teams).
• Log out, log back in, and try again.
• If it keeps happening and nobody else uses your login, contact support. It has also been caused by a bug that we fixed.

"Unknown Error"

What it means: the Campaign Builder hit an error it couldn't name. When many of these appear together, ShortStack is usually having a temporary slowdown.

How to fix it: wait a few minutes and refresh. If it continues, contact support.

"flagged for a brief review"

What it means: ShortStack holds emails that contain links, and campaigns that look suspicious, for a quick check by our support team before they go out. During normal business hours, support usually verifies them within minutes; on weekends, within 24 hours. Until the review is finished, a campaign's published address can show "campaign not found".

How to fix it: wait for support to finish the review. If it's taking longer than that, contact support.

See New accounts and protecting deliverability.

Emails

"DMARC policy found with p=quarantine."

What it means: the Email Builder found that your From Address's domain has a strict DMARC policy. Emails sent from it through ShortStack are likely to land in spam, or be rejected by the recipient's mail server.

How to fix it:

• Ask whoever manages your domain to change its DMARC policy to p=none, or
• Send from one of ShortStack's default From Addresses.

See Troubleshooting emails.

"Your account must be manually reviewed before including links in your emails"

What it means: to keep spam and fraud off ShortStack, emails with links from a new account are held until support reviews the account. During normal business hours, support usually reviews them within minutes; on weekends, within 24 hours.

How to fix it: wait for the review, or contact support. Once support has approved your account, your emails with links send without the review.

See New accounts and protecting deliverability.

Social imports

"You've reach the maximum number of feeds."

What it means: you already have as many Instagram hashtag feeds as your plan allows. Free and Launch allow 1, Build 2, Scale 3 and Max unlimited. Ending a feed doesn't free the slot.

How to fix it:

1. Delete the feed you no longer need in the Hashtag Feeds Manager. Deleting a feed keeps its entries and list.
2. Log out of ShortStack and back in, then create the new feed.

Or upgrade your plan to run more feeds at once.

"{permission}" is required in order to give this app access to the permissions you selected.

What it means: this message comes from Meta. Your Facebook account doesn't have access to the ad account behind the promoted post or ad you're importing from.

How to fix it: ask an admin of the Business Manager that owns the ad account to give you View performance access to it, then connect again. See Get access to promoted (ad) posts for the steps.

FAQs

What if my error message isn't on this page?

Contact support@shortstack.com and paste the exact wording, or attach a screenshot. Include the link to your campaign in the Campaign Builder and, if the error happens on a live page, a screenshot of your browser's console log (how to open it).

The fix didn't work. What should I send support?

The exact error text, what you clicked just before it appeared, the browser you're using, and the Campaign Builder link. If the error appears only for some people, say whether they're on an office or company network, because a firewall is a common cause.

Related resources

• Troubleshooting embed issues
• How to access your browser's console log
• Troubleshooting issues with feeds and Facebook/Instagram importer tools