How to troubleshoot issues when only offline messages are received with the Chat widget

This article gives you the necessary steps to troubleshoot and resolve issues when your Zendesk Chat account isn't receiving live chats.

This article helps answer the following issue statements:

• I only receive offline messages and no live chat messages are received.
• The widget is not online even though I am logged in to my chat dashboard.
• My customers don't see the live chat option, only an option to send a message.

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

Step One: General availability
Determine if there are agents online

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Live chat is offered to visitors when at least one agent is online. For more information about setting your availability for Chat, see the article: Configuring your chat availability settings.

Step Two: Department settings
Determine if you set the right department and staff 

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Consider the steps below to understand if the department is staffed correctly.

• Check if the department has agents online.
• Confirm that there are assigned agents to the created department. 
• If you use the API to set departments on your website, confirm the script, and make sure the right department is selected. 

For more information, see the articles listed below.

• How do I set or change the department of a chat?
• Recipe: Route a chat to a department based on the URL of the website
• Automatically route chats to departments

Step Three: Connectivity issues
Review your Chat connection settings

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Check if your dashboard is connected to the internet. Chat offers you a connection monitor to help you resolve issues related to connectivity issues. For more information on how to troubleshoot your connectivity, see the article: Troubleshooting your Chat connection.

Step Four: Security Settings
Configure your widget security settings 

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Investigate if the right configuration is set up in your security setting for the Chat widget. Go to Settings > Widget > Widget security and check Blocked countries and Allowed domains. For more information about the widget's security setting, see the article: Restricting the Chat widget by country or domain.

Step Five: Contact Zendesk Customer Support
Include your answers to the following questions

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If you are still experiencing issues after completing the steps in this guide, we would be happy to help! Contact Zendesk Customer Support and include your answers to the questions below: 

• When did this issue first occur? And how many times did the issue happen?
• Are all of the agents on the same network (WI-FI) or the same IP addresses?
• Do you use API to set a department for your website?
• What is your website URL where the widget is embedded?
• Can you send a screenshot of your Chat connection settings, Chat Dashboard diagnostics, and support details immediately after the issue occurred? 

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