If you’re trying to access a web page but get a 401 unauthorized error instead, you might want to know what’s causing this problem and how you can resolve it. For this reason, we recommend you read this article with which you will learn what is the 401 unauthorized error and how to solve it? – Fast and easy
What is the 401 unauthorized error?
The 401 unauthorized error or “Authorization Required” is an HTTP status code that refers to invalid credentials due to entering the wrong username and password. Also, it can point to a server error when the server receives a request without authentication.
What are the causes of the 401 unauthorized error?
Among the causes of the 401 unauthorized error are the attempt to access a website through a badly written URL, the use of invalid credentials during the login, failures in the domain names (DNS) or the presence of some plugin of security that causes conflict during login.
What is the 401 unauthorized error and how to fix it? – Fast and easy
The 401 unauthorized or “unauthorized” error can be fixed easily and quickly. In this sense, we advise you to follow the steps that we explain below.
Check the validity of the URL
You need to check if the URL you are entering is valid as the 401 unauthorized error can occur when you type a wrong or non-existent URL. Also, you may be trying to access an outdated link from your web browser.
For this reason, we advise you to use the search engine so that you can search and find the specific and correct URL address of the web page of your interest.
Update the web page
Sometimes refreshing the web page can be the easiest and most effective solution. If the 401 unauthorized error is issued when accessing the website, there may be an availability problem. Reason why, you should wait a few minutes and reload the page. You can also change your browser, so it is important to know which browser is best for you to use on your PC.
Clear cookies and web browser cache
Be sure to clear your web browser’s cookies and cache. This will prevent the cache from overlapping with the live version of the application or corrupt cookies causing an authentication error.
Check your credentials
There are websites that require a login where the username and password (credentials) are stored. If you enter one of these items incorrectly, the server will issue a 401 error due to invalid one or both of the data.
In this circumstance, we recommend that you look for the instructions provided by the website you visited in order to recover the username and/or password and log in. Disable security plugins and make sure to prevent websites from saving your user preferences.
If you are the owner of a WordPress website, it is possible that the cause of the 401 unauthorized error is the activity of security plugins. These elements can block the login when a cyber attack is interpreted. Therefore, the error is displayed to the client and their access to the website is prevented.
Create a temporary copy of the website
If you previously accessed the website without any problems but now you can’t, creating a temporary copy of the website may be a workable solution. Type in the search bar: cache:http://example.com/ where “example.com” is the URL of the web page you want to visit.
Google will show you at the top of the window the date on which the copy was stored, so you can access the previous version of the website without any problem.
Contact the webmaster
Sometimes, when the 401 error is not due to authentication failures or any of the other causes mentioned above, the best solution is to contact the webmaster via the address [email protected] website.com where “website” is the actual name of the website.