If Claude won’t open, shows 500/503, can’t send messages, or keeps spinning, in most cases it’s not that “you did something wrong,” but a combination of network conditions, browser cache, or server-side congestion on Claude’s end. The following Claude troubleshooting checklist is organized from “fast first, slow later”: first identify whether the issue is on your side or Claude’s side, then work through the items one by one—usually it will be back to normal within a few minutes.
Start with three quick checks: Is it a Claude outage or a local issue?
When troubleshooting Claude errors, first try a different network once: switch from Wi‑Fi to 4G/5G, or vice versa, to rule out line instability and DNS issues. Next, open Claude in an incognito/private window to avoid interference from extensions, scripts, or old cache. Finally, check whether “all conversations fail”—if even a new conversation errors out, prioritize investigating it as a service-side issue.
Claude shows 500/503 or Overloaded: Treat it as service congestion first
Messages like 500/503, Overloaded, or Something went wrong are commonly caused by short-term congestion on Claude or upstream instability. The first troubleshooting strategy is “wait + reduce load.” Wait 1–3 minutes and try again, and avoid repeatedly clicking, which can trigger stricter protection. Splitting an extra-long input into two parts and reducing large simultaneous uploads/pastes can also significantly lower the chance of Claude returning 503.
Message send fails, keeps spinning, or the page is blank: Clearing cache and blockers is most critical
If Claude opens but messages won’t send, the troubleshooting recommendation is to clear site data first: clear only Claude-related cache and cookies, then log in again. Disable ad blockers, script managers, and privacy-enhancement extensions and retry—many “send failed” issues are actually requests being blocked by extensions. If it still doesn’t work, switch browser engines or update your browser version; older versions may be incompatible with Claude’s front-end resource loading.
Login restricted or repeated verification: Check environment consistency and account status
If you see repeated verification, get logged out immediately after logging in, or receive an access restricted message, keep your environment as consistent as possible during troubleshooting: don’t switch nodes frequently, and don’t log in at high frequency on multiple devices at the same time. If a corporate/campus network uses a proxy or security gateway, it may rewrite requests and cause verification to fail—switching to a cleaner network often works immediately. If you suspect your account has been risk-controlled, stop repeated attempts and try logging in again after a while to avoid triggering a longer restriction window.
If you need to contact support: Preparing all info at once saves time
If none of the above troubleshooting steps work, prepare three pieces of information before submitting feedback: the exact error text/screenshot, the time it occurred, and a description of your browser and network environment (incognito or not, extensions or not, whether you switched networks). If the page shows a Request ID or similar number, include that as well—it makes diagnosis much faster. When describing the issue, clearly state “which Claude page you were on and which button you clicked before it happened”; that’s easier to handle quickly than just saying “it doesn’t work.”
