Fix problems when adding a website

Resolve address, homepage, credential, redirect, and enrichment failures.

Last checked 21 August 2026

Start with what you can observe:

  • If the Add website dialog stays open with an error, the website was not created. Correct it and try again.
  • If the dialog closes and a website card exists, creation succeeded. Do not add it again. A later card error concerns homepage details such as the screenshot, icon, or landing address.

Follow the sections below in order. Start with self-service checks, involve the website administrator or your IT team when the live site or network needs changing, then contact Help & Support if TechDash still cannot add or prepare the website.

1. Correct an address error yourself

The form displays https:// separately. Enter a hostname or a hostname with a path, for example:

  • example.com
  • www.example.com
  • example.com/blog

Pasting https://example.com is also safe because TechDash removes the scheme. Follow the exact inline message:

  • Enter a website. Enter a hostname.
  • Website can’t contain spaces. Remove spaces from the hostname and path.
  • Use a website address, not another kind of URL. Do not enter mailto:, ftp:, or another non-website scheme.
  • Don’t put a username in the address. Use Advanced Settings for HTTP Basic Authentication. Remove credentials from the address, then expand Advanced Settings.
  • Enter a valid hostname, like example.com. Check the spelling and enter a complete hostname.
  • Enter a registrable website, like example.co.uk. Enter the full website, not only a public suffix such as co.uk.
  • That website is already being watched. Open the existing website and add the required path under Monitored Pages.

TechDash stores an HTTPS origin even if you pasted an HTTP address.

2. Test homepage access yourself

If the website card exists but reports a homepage load failure:

  1. Open the exact HTTPS address in a normal browser on the same computer.
  2. Record the final hostname and any HTTP error, challenge, or sign-in page.
  3. If it uses HTTP Basic Authentication, open the card's context menu, select Edit Website, expand Advanced Settings, enter Username and Password, then select Save changes.
  4. If the site treats TechDash as a bot, use Edit Website to try the Chrome user agent.
  5. After access works, request Refresh Screenshot or Refresh Icon only for the failed asset.

The password requires a username, and the username cannot contain a colon. A normal HTML sign-in form is not HTTP Basic Authentication. TechDash cannot complete a website login form, SSO flow, passkey prompt, or CAPTCHA.

3. Check redirects and queues

During setup, a first monitored-page redirect is adopted only when it stays on the same registrable domain. Homepage collection is separate and can update the website to the valid hostname where the browser lands.

If the destination hostname already exists in TechDash, the new duplicate is removed and a warning appears. Use the existing website. If a card changes to an unintended hostname, select Edit Website, enter the intended address, and select Save changes.

Page crawls take priority over assets. Open Queue Status, allow a page backlog to clear, and confirm the license is usable and the computer is online. Scheduled asset work skips paused websites.

4. Ask the website administrator or IT team

Escalate when your browser test shows that the live site or network requires a change. Ask the website administrator or IT team to:

  • Correct an unexpected or invalid redirect.
  • Make the HTTPS homepage return usable content instead of an HTTP status of 400 or higher.
  • Allow the selected user agent through a WAF, bot rule, VPN, proxy, firewall, or organization-only network.
  • Provide HTTP Basic Authentication credentials if appropriate.
  • Remove or provide an alternative to a mandatory interactive login or CAPTCHA.

Send them the exact entered HTTPS address, final redirected address, time and time zone of the attempt, HTTP status or visible error, selected user agent, and whether the same computer and network can open the page normally. Never send a password in an ordinary support message.

5. Contact TechDash Help & Support

If the address and access work but TechDash still fails, select Help & Support. Include:

  • The exact address entered in Add website
  • The complete inline error or website-card error, copied exactly
  • Whether the dialog stayed open or a website card was created
  • The final address shown by a normal browser
  • The attempt date, time, and time zone
  • TechDash version and operating system
  • Selected user agent and whether HTTP Basic Authentication is configured, without the password
  • Relevant screenshots of the error and Queue Status
  • Whether the site works in a normal browser on the same computer and network
  • Any recent redirect, firewall, WAF, proxy, VPN, DNS, certificate, or hosting change

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