The most annoying thing about using ChatGPT isn’t not knowing how to use it, but “can’t get in, can’t send, can’t load.” Below, I break common issues down by scenario and give a troubleshooting order you can verify right away, so you can avoid unnecessary detours.
Login failures and not receiving verification codes: check email first, then the browser
Q: What should I do if I can’t receive the verification code email when logging into ChatGPT? First check your spam folder and the Promotions/Subscriptions categories, and search your mailbox for “OpenAI.” After adding the sender domain to your allowlist, click Send again—this is usually more effective than refreshing repeatedly.
If you still don’t receive it, try a different browser or open ChatGPT in an incognito/private window and try again—most importantly, disable ad blockers and privacy/anti-tracking extensions first. Some network environments can trigger additional verification; switching to a more stable network before logging in often leads to a higher success rate.
Webpage errors and frequent disconnects: troubleshoot step by step from the status page to cache
Q: What should I do when ChatGPT shows “Something went wrong / Network error”? First check the official status page (status.openai.com) to see whether there’s an ongoing incident. If the service is unstable, continuing to operate will only make it easier to trigger retries and rate limiting.
Once you’ve confirmed it’s not a service outage, do the following in order: refresh the page → start a new chat → clear site cache/cookies → log out and log back in. ChatGPT is more likely to error out when the cache is abnormal or a session is too long; splitting long conversations into several shorter prompts can also reduce “Network error.”
