Troubleshooting guide: Why is the widget not showing on my website?

Tip: Clear your browser's cache and cookies, and test in an incognito or private browsing window. Make sure caching isn't getting in the way.

If you notice that the Web Widget (Classic) no longer appears on your website, multiple potential causes exist. This troubleshooting guide will help you isolate and fix this issue or have the right information to contact our support team to help you further.

Note: This troubleshooting guide is for those experiencing widget issues on their own website. If your widget is missing from your Help Center, see this article instead: Why isn't my Web Widget (Classic) appearing in the Help Center?

• Step One
• Step Two
• Step Three
• Step Four
• Step Five
• Step Six

Step One: Is the widget itself working?
Test the widget in isolation to narrow down what is wrong

Complete

To do this, use https://jsfiddle.net/. Copy your widget script into the HTML box and press Run. You should see your widget pop up in the bottom right-hand side box.

If you do not see your widget pop up, the widget itself is not working or configured correctly. See Step Three: Do you have agents online? Or Step Four: Are your settings configured correctly? 

If you do see the widget, and confirmed the widget itself works, the problem is probably caused by interference or incorrect installation on your website. See Step Two: Is the widget installed correctly on your website? And Step Six: Can you see any interference or errors?

Step Two: Is the widget installed correctly?
Verify that the widget script is present in your website's code

Complete

Common issues with the widget script include the following:

• The widget script has yet to be added to the website or has been removed.
• The wrong widget script has been added to the website.
• The correct widget script has been added to the website, but it is added to the wrong part of the code.

Follow this article to locate and verify the code on your website: How can I find the widget code on my website?

If the script is not present or is incorrect, you've found your problem. If your widget script is present and correct, ensure it has been added to the right part of the code. Consult these articles for more information on how and where the script should be installed:

• Adding the Web Widget (Classic) to your website or Help Center
• Adding the Chat widget to your website

Step Three: Do you have agents online?
Verify that at least one agent is online and available to take chats

Complete

If you do not have a contact form or offline form enabled, the widget will not show up if no agents are online. As a first step, verify these settings and check to see if any of your agents can receive chats.

For more information, see this article: Setting your chat availability.

Step Four: Are your settings configured correctly?
Check that the necessary channels are enabled

Complete

If you use the Web Widget (Classic), make sure channels are turned on by going to Admin Center > Channels > Classic > Web Widget and toggling on the channels you want to be active. As mentioned above, if only the Chat channel is active, the widget will not appear when all agents are offline.

If you use the Chat widget, ensure the offline form is enabled by going to the Chat Dashboard and navigating to Settings > Widget > Forms tab. If the offline form is disabled, the widget will disappear when all agents are offline. 

Step Five: Are certain people being blocked?
Check for user bans and user access restrictions

Complete

Start by checking that you or a visitor that reported the issue has not been banned in the Chat interface and there are no country or domain restrictions in place for your Chat instance. If the visitor's IP address is banned, the live chat option is suppressed for that user and will not appear on the page. 

Check that the Require sign-in option is not enabled in your Guide security settings. For more information, see the article: Restricting Help Center access to signed-in end-users. The Web Widget (Classic) only displays Help Center content that the user can see. When Require sign-in is enabled, the Web Widget (Classic) might not load for non-authenticated users. For more information, see the article: Adding the Web Widget to your website or Help Center.

Step Six: Check for interference and errors
Make sure no errors are interfering with the widget

Complete

Open the browser console, this can differ depending on your preferred browser. There you can see logs of information like, network requests, CSS, security errors and more. In the browser console, check to see if there is an ERR_INSECURE_RESPONSE error displayed.  If you see the ERR_INSECURE_RESPONSE error, likely, you do not currently have an SSL setup. You can tell if you have SSL in place if you see HTTPS at the beginning of your URL. If you do not see this, you can enable a Zendesk Provisioned SSL following the steps outlined in the article provided.

Make sure your firewall is configured to allow the web widget to appear.

Confirm your own website is an allowed domain. Within the Chat Dashboard, add your website URL to the Allowed domains under Settings > Web Widget (Classic) > Widget Security. For more information, see the article: Restricting the Chat widget by country or domain.

reset progress

If the previous steps were unsuccessful, contact Zendesk Customer Support for further assistance. Ensure to include detailed information on the scope of the issue (when it began, who is affected), the URL of the website the widget is missing from, and a summary of any troubleshooting you've done so far.