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

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

Note: This troubleshooting guide is for those having 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?

Tip: Always try basic troubleshooting first! Clear your browser's cache and cookies, and do a test in an incognito or private browsing window. Make sure caching isn't getting in the way.

• 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 you can 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, this means the widget itself is not working or is not configured correctly. Check out Step Three: Do you have agents online? or Step Four: Are your settings configured correctly? 

If you do see the widget, this is great news! You've confirmed the widget itself works, so the problem is probably caused by interference or incorrect installation on your website. Check out 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 widget script has not been 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, make sure it has been added to the correct 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 are available to 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, make sure 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. 

Also, check that the Require sign-in option is not enabled in your Guide security settings (see the article: Restricting Help Center access to signed-in end-users). The Web Widget (Classic) only displays Help Center content that the user is allowed to see. When Require sign-in is enabled, the Web Widget (Classic) might not load for non-authenticated users. Read more in this article.

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

Complete

Check the browser console to see if there is an ERR_INSECURE_RESPONSE error being displayed. If you see the ERR_INSECURE_RESPONSE error, it is likely that you do not currently have an SSL setup. You will be able to 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.

Make sure 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. Learn more in this article: Restricting the Chat widget by country or domain.

reset progress

If the previous steps were not successful, contact Zendesk Customer Support for further assistance. Make sure 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.