Tl;Dr: I'm looking for a canonical for
troubleshooting problems that might be caused by end-user computers
that occurs when using web applications.
This is a follow-up of 2023 stand about "troubleshooting" and "triggered" after reading https://superuser.com/q/1766806/152004 and https://superuser.com/q/1766843/152004.
I'm looking for a canonical question about issues related to using web applications when it's not clear is the issue is caused by elements that can be handled by the end-user (with or without help of a tech savvy helper or admin) or not.
If such canonical doesn't exist, I would like to be pointed to good examples of SU questions about common situations when using webapps that have required troubleshooting:
- There isn't an obvious error message
- There is an error message but it's unclear i.e. "Something went wrong, try again later".
- The web app user interface is not responding as expected.
- There are missing webapp user interface elements
- Customer support / help center pointed the user to an online community like Stack Overflow (SO) but the question was closed / rejected as off-topic. In the case of SO questions about using webapps are commonly closed as "Not about programming or software development".
- Someone pointed the user / migrated a question to Web Applications but the questions was closed as off-topic because it's a troubleshooting like question.
The good examples might be good because
- They help to clarify the scope and workings of Super User related to these problems, i.e. the question might be closed as off-topic but includes at least one comment clearly explaining the close reason for that specific case or it the question closing was discussed in Meta Super User, no matter of the end result.
- They works as an examples of the "homework" that the OP should do before asking the question or to make the question a good fit for Super User, i.e. shows the questions made by the people that helped the OP to provide enough details.
- The answers includes troubleshooting guidance.
NOTE: While I'm open to any good example suggestion, the exceptions about the good examples that I'm looking at this time are
- cases of not being able to reach a website because there is already How do I diagnose not being able to reach a specific website as an end user?
- cases heavily depending on disciplinary knowledge (i.e. Artificial Intelligence, Finance, Graphic Design, Software Engineering) when OP is not a subject domain expert of the corresponding discipline.
Already scanned community-wiki and can't find one about this.
Where to start with "webapp troubleshooting"
For people that don't have idea about where to start with troubleshooting "a problem with a webapp", I think that the following are the typical recommendations:
- Verify that operative system is updated. Depends on the operative system.
- Verify that the network connection is working correctly. Depends on the network connection used. Might require help from the local/wide network administrator and/or ISP.
- Verify that there isn't any operative system utility software interfering. Depends on the utilities installed.
- Verify that the web browser is updated. Depends on web browser used.
- Try again using the web browser mode that starts with a clean browser history and all the user added elements disabled. Depends on user situation and the web browser user, i.e., for Chrome users the typical recommendation is to use Incognito mode in order to not have to loose the cookies and other browser history elements on an early stage.
Here are some questions that I found about someway related to "webapp troubleshooting":
- Having trouble rendering videos online from 2015
- The question doesn't include enough details. Have comments that were not addressed by the OP (no edits made to the question, no replies from the OP)
- The question has only one answer with score = 0. It just includes a long quote taken from an article of the Google Chrome Help Center : Fix videos & games that won't play.
- Unable to log into Gmail - 'next' button does not work from 2017
- Viewed 22k times. The OP tried different browsers, including TOR browser. Looks that problem is relate to the hosts file.
- Web video does not play in any browser on Windows 10 system wide from 2018.
- Self answered question.
- Facebook and Instagram images are broken in some browsers from 2018
- Has an accepted answer that offered suggestions of things to check. The OP added a comment saying what finally was the fix that worked.
Related
More questions about troubleshooting problems when using a webapp
Some are be too specific, but might help to verify that all the bases were covered
- Google Drive won't let me download my files from 2014
- Identifying culprit for Firefox malfunction from 2021
Other recent questions that might benefit from the canonical
- Why is there Textual Blur on Wikipedia When I Browse it?
- https://superuser.com/q/1766949/152004 (closed as not about computers problems within SU scope IMHO due to the lack of details)
- Chrome right click option "search google for xxx" become mobile style, how to fix it? (>77k views in 9 days)
- Downloaded file's names are not updating after download
- Twitter keeps locking my accounts
- Chromium can't open google meet. It says my browser is uncompatible
Some Related Tags
- web, website, webpage, web-application
- browser, google-chrome, firefox, microsoft-edge, safari, chromium, brave, vivaldi, opera
- browsing, private-browsing, tabbed-browsing, safe-browsing,browser-tabs, browser-addons
- cookies, history, browser-cache
- developer-tools, firefox-developer-tools,
- gmail, webmail, yahoo-mail, hotmail
- google-calendar, google-docs, google-spreadsheets, google-keep, google-meet, office365, outlook-web-access
- facebook, vimeo, twitter, youtube,
- google-drive
- bigbucket.org, github
- wayback-machine
Tags related to blocking ads / "popups" like the one suggesting to use Google Chrome to Safari or Edge users.
Ref. Stop Gmail pop-up ad "Google recommends using Chrome" (from Dec, 2022), Is it possible to tell google to stop nagging me about chrome? (from 2017),
- adblock 203 questions
- ublock 38 questions, no tag wiki
- ublock-origin 48 questions, no tag wiki
Questions with the above tags might be related to
- advertisements 113 questions
- blocking 455 questions