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Troubleshooting Guide: When Your Candu Content Isn't Showing

Troubleshooting Guide: When Your Candu Content Isn't Showing

Content not appearing? Here's a list of things to look for if your content is not appearing as expected.

Flora Sanders avatar
Written by Flora Sanders
Updated over 2 weeks ago

This guide covers the most common reasons why your content might not be displaying and provides practical solutions.

Quick Troubleshooting Checks

Before diving into technical debugging, try these quick checks:

  1. Hard Refresh - Use Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) to perform a hard refresh that bypasses the cache

  2. Check that content is published - Verify that your content shows "Published" (green) in the upper right corner of the Candu Editor

  3. Verify user segment targeting - Confirm that your user is in the target segment for the content with our segment user lookup.

Using the Candu Chrome Extension

The Candu browser extension is your first line of defense when troubleshooting:

  1. Navigate to the page where your content should appear

  2. Click the Candu extension icon in your browser toolbar

  3. Check the "Current page status" section to confirm:

    • "SDK installed" shows a green checkmark

    • "Is SDK up to date" shows a green checkmark

    • Current SDK version matches the Installed version

Taking a New Snapshot

If your content isn't showing up, it might be because your selector is no longer present on the page. The easiest way to check this is to update your snapshot:

  1. Pull open the placements tab in the editor

  2. Click to edit or add a new snapshot

  3. When prompted, take a new snapshot with Candu's Chrome Extension

  4. Return to the Candu dashboard

  5. Choose a new selector to place your content.

This is especially helpful when your page layout has changed since the original content was created.

First-Time Installation Issues

If content has successfully appeared at least once, skip ahead to post-installation publishing issues.

If this is your first time setting up Candu or adding content to a new site, you may encounter these issues:

  • CORS Errors: If you see CORS errors in the console, there are two potential causes:

    • Domain not whitelisted in Candu: Go to Settings in the Candu dashboard and add all domains where your content will be embedded. By default, Candu includes a wildcard, so unless modified, this is unlikely to be the culprit.

    • Your site is blocking Candu: Your site's security settings may be preventing Candu from loading - you'll need to work with your IT/development team to whitelist Candu domains in your security settings:

      1. https://api.candu.ai/

      2. https://cdn.candu.ai/

      3. https://media.candulabs.com/

        A screenshot of the dev tools error logs.

  • Installation for Wrong Workspace: Candu has a workspace model. Content won't appear if published from one workspace but installed for another

    • Check: Open the Chrome extension to see which workspace is installed. You'll want to ensure the the workspace ID in your installation code matches the workspace where content was created.

    • Solution: Update your installation code with the correct workspace ID or republish content to the correct workspace

  • Missing Script Installation: The Candu script may not be properly installed

    • Check: Open the Chrome extension to see if Candu has been installed successfully on the page where you want Candu content to appear.

    • Solution: Reinstall the script following the installation guide.

Post-Installation Publishing Issues

1. Segment Targeting Issues (Most Common)

  • Issue: You're not in the target segment for the content

  • Quick Check: Use the Segment User Lookup feature:

    1. Go to your Candu dashboard

    2. Navigate to the relevant Segment in the Segments list.

    3. Click into the "Segment User Lookup" tab

    4. Enter the user's email or ID

    5. View all segments the user belongs to

  • Debugging Segment Membership: For more detailed user information:

    1. Go to Analytics > Users

    2. Search for the specific user specific user

    3. View all traits and user information sent to Candu to understand whether they do or do not fall into the segment

  • Technical Check: Use the browser console to verify segment membership:

    // Get current user segmentsCandu.config.state.getState().placements

  • Solution: For testing purposes, you can open the console and override segment membership:

    Candu.init({ ...Candu.providerProps, options: { overrideSegmentMemberships: { "SEGMENT_ID": "MEMBERSHIP" } }})

2. Selector Not Visible on Page

  • Issue: The HTML element your content targets doesn't exist or isn't visible. This could be because the underlying page structure has changed or because the original selector was auto-generated (not stable).

  • Quick Solution: Retake the snapshot and use the element picker to select a more stable selector.

  • Technical Check: If you're comfortable with developer tools, you can verify if the selector exists on the page:

    1. Right-click on the page and select "Inspect"

    2. In the console tab, type: document.querySelector("div.my-selector")

    3. If it returns null, the element doesn't exist on the page

If there's no stable available selector, in some cases, you may need to ask your engineering team to add one. See our guide on managing Candu Divs.

3. URL Rules Preventing Display

  • Issue: Your content is configured to appear only on specific URLs, but the current URL doesn't match

  • Common Problem: URL patterns with dynamic user IDs or account IDs are particularly susceptible to mismatches

  • Quick Check: Confirm you're on a page that matches your URL rules exactly.

  • Solution:

    • Adjust URL rules in your Candu dashboard to match the current page

    • For dynamic URLs, use more flexible patterns that account for variables like workspace IDs, see our guide on Dynamic URLs

4. Content Was Never Published or Not Updated

  • Issue: Content created but never published won't appear for users. If you've edited the content but not published the update, your updates won't appear.

  • Check: In the Candu dashboard, look for the "Published" button in the upper right corner of the Candu editor.

  • Common Scenario: You may have updated existing content but not published the updates

  • Solution: Click the "Published" button in the upper right corner and select any unpublished user segments

5. Cache Issues

  • Issue: Cached versions of pages can prevent new content or content changes from appearing

  • Why This Happens: Candu serves content through a CDN to improve loading speeds.

  • Solution:

    • Try opening the page in an incognito window

    • Perform a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R or Cmd+Shift+R)

Checking the Console for Errors

If you're still having issues after trying the steps above, check for errors in the browser console:

  1. Right-click on the page and select "Inspect" or use keyboard shortcuts:

    • Chrome (Windows): Ctrl+Shift+J

    • Chrome (Mac): Cmd+Option+J

    • Firefox: Ctrl+Shift+K (Windows) or Cmd+Option+K (Mac)

  2. Navigate to the Console tab

  3. Look for any error messages, particularly those mentioning "Candu" or "CORS"

    1. If you see CORS errors, your domain may not be properly whitelisted in the Candu settings. See First Time Installation Issues.

Need More Help?

If you've gone through these steps and are still experiencing issues:

  1. Take screenshots of your console output

  2. Note any error messages

  3. Document the steps you've taken

  4. Contact Candu support at [email protected]

Our team is happy to help troubleshoot your specific implementation issues!

Related Articles
Candu Onboarding Guide
Launching Candu Content
Testing your Candu Content
Previewing & Embedding FAQs
The Candu Chrome Extension
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