Cannot access main Church website...?

For at least a couple of weeks now, I have been unable to access the main Church website. I can get to the homepage just fine and most of the menu links load just fine but nothing beyond that seems to work. I get "Error 400" when navigating within the website and I get an "Error 431" when trying to link-in from Google or another external site. I've tried doing a hard refresh to no avail. I've been able to find workarounds using other sites, hard copies of manuals, etc. but it is starting to become disconcerting.

I've noticed many others mentioning similar issues on Reddit and other social media sites. There is even a post on this board about it but there doesn't seem to be any solutions within the thread.

Is this a common issue? Have there been any solutions?

Thanks!

I'd think we'd see far more complaints if it was wide spread. You may have a computer or browser infected with something, you have a filter turned on that isn't liking church content for some reason, or perhaps your DNS isn't up to par. Most people just use the DNS their ISP assigns them, but some find better luck with a well-respected public DNS.

I'm having the same problem. I have checked for viruses and have none. It is very frustrating.

I also have the same problem I can't even look at the scriptures or the conferences or most content on the website. For example, here are some pages I cannot open:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... e?lang=spa
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... l?lang=spa
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... 6?lang=eng

It just behaves like it is loading and then there it just leaves it as a white page. I'm using Chrome browser in a windows laptop.

I am having the same problem for the last 3 days when you try to click on anything from gospel library it shows the initial menu page but if you try to click on an actual chapter from the Book of Mormon or a specific conference talk, the page is blank. I am on an macbook pro using Safari.

I'm having the same problem on a Macbook Pro using Firefox. Cannot access the scriptures and many other random pages on the Church website. Sometimes, I can navigate through a few pages, but I can't get to the final page. I tried "leaving feedback", but when I click "submit" nothing happens!

I am having a similar problem but only with Chrome. Safari and Edge seem to work (albeit slower than normal). If I go into incognito mode and try, however, it works so there must be some conflict with one of the extensions. I'll try and figure it out and post a followup (the idea of trying incognito mode just popped into my head while typing this).

Crawby wrote:If I go into incognito mode and try, however, it works so there must be some conflict with one of the extensions.

It might be an extension, or it might be cache/cookie problem. There's been times when the church changes the webpage and I have to go in and delete all cookies associated with churchofjesuschrist.org to get things to work again.

Had the same problem. Tried the incognito which was the clue. I had to delete the application storage for chrome and not just the cookies using the Chrome Developer tools. Very annoying as it happened across all my devices and computers.

For a few days, I’ve been unable to load the website on my MacBook. Sometimes, some pages would work or would begin to partially load, but clicking on links of completely downloaded pages that led to an inability to load anything but also not timing out. I was able to load a page from The Book of Mormon and listen to the audio while reading, but as soon as I logged into my account, my former problems returned. I then logged out in case there was something wrong with my account. The result is that the Scriptures and Book of Mormon page show only an empty frame in the center and sidebar, but the page has supposedly loaded (is not endlessly trying to load). At least that's an improvement on the total inability to load anything, even if there's nothing to read or listen to on the page.

As for suggestions that the Mac may be infected, I’ll state that I had a message appear on my iPhone and iPad for all of my languages, claiming that I wasn't connected to the Internet, even though everything else worked on those devices with regard to the Internet. I quit and reloaded the apps, but it still didn't work throughout two days of trying various approaches. I finally had to delete the apps on both devices and spend two days downloading the tens of gigabytes of audio data. That seems to have worked, but it was quite time intensive. Now, though, I'm back to being unload the website on my Mac, while the rest of the Internet works fine.

I'm not sure why this tech.churchofjesuschrist.org section of the website works when anything beyond the root directory without the tech subdomain fails to work.

I've had problems with the pages in the past few days. Clearing all data related to the church websites fixed that.

Similar issues, Chromium on Arch Linux, started more than a month ago. Incognito/deleting all cookies worked, whereas before I was getting slow/no loads for a while. Also have been having trouble with Gospel Library download/display on my tablet, which I suspect is related.

In response to "I'd think we'd see far more complaints if it was wide spread." - here's yet another report. I don't even know where to go to find help, and I've been trying to figure out what was wrong for well over a month! I've suspected the church was under a DOS attack and just not posting about it, and my searches were tuned to that - perhaps it was a self-DOS by an update of some sort? Regardless, a rule of thumb is that every complaint represents a thousand people who've not complained. Given the difficulty of finding a place to even report this (I could search the site for... oh, no I can't, I can't access it!), that ratio could be much higher.

michael.clark wrote:Similar issues, Chromium on Arch Linux, started more than a month ago. Incognito/deleting all cookies worked, whereas before I was getting slow/no loads for a while. ...

Please clarify for me: I'm confused as to whether deleting cookies worked and all problems are gone vs. deleting cookies helped temporarily but the problems are back.

Fwiw: I'm using Firefox ESR on Devuan Linux Ascii and do not recall any serious problems (except for changes to the authentication page) the past month or two. One suggestion would be to make a second Linux user account and try browsing with that account to isolate whether cookies are likely involved. Another would be to install an additional browser or two for experimentation/troubleshooting. I tried Palemoon and was ready to switch from Firefox to Palemoon, but then I found some of the Church's video pages don't work--presumably due to Palemoon's stricter JavaScript interpreter.

rmrichesjr wrote: Please clarify for me: I'm confused as to whether deleting cookies worked and all problems are gone vs. deleting cookies helped temporarily but the problems are back.

Clearing cookies often times helps; however we don't know how often the church updates pages. Maybe you clear your cache one day, then they update the site and you go back the next day and it's broken again.

I know this is almost a couple months old, but we've had related issues like this, off and on again, for a few months now. What happens most often for me is that there are certain elements missing from the webpage.

I'm just wondering if anyone might know if the website programmers or the other IT people understand these issues are happening, I guess because of website updates, and if they are trying to do things to account for leftover cookies from past versions of website pages. When there's an update, it should be possible for the website / webpage to delete the old cookies, if it is programmed correctly.

Have the same problem.
I am using Linux Mint. It takes about 2 minutes to load a page.

Here is my traceroute:

traceroute to churchofjesuschrist.org (216.49.176.43), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
----
3 agg63.macdny0902h.northeast.rr.com (24.58.232.253) 22.408 ms 22.433 ms 22.420 ms
4 agg54.rochnyei02r.northeast.rr.com (24.58.52.6) 12.125 ms 19.823 ms 19.750 ms
5 be28.rochnyei01r.northeast.rr.com (24.58.32.74) 20.641 ms 20.636 ms 20.623 ms
6 bu-ether15.chcgildt87w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.72) 33.176 ms bu-ether13.tustca4200w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.2) 29.216 ms bu-ether15.chcgildt87w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.72) 29.123 ms
7 bu-ether11.chctilwc00w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.21) 29.548 ms 27.365 ms 31.920 ms
8 ae-13.edge2.Chicago10.Level3.net (4.68.37.137) 39.094 ms 39.066 ms 39.156 ms
9 ae-6-3.bar1.SaltLakeCity1.Level3.net (4.69.220.109) 78.579 ms 77.201 ms 77.231 ms
10 CORPORATION.bar1.SaltLakeCity1.Level3.net (4.35.168.14) 110.796 ms 106.129 ms 111.318 ms
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 churchofjesuschrist.org (216.49.176.43) 79.828 ms 79.209 ms 78.335 ms

Looks like it's getting stuck in SLC somewhere.
Did this traceroute for the past couple weeks, with the same problem at the same place

If you would like to do the same, in Windows, pull up 'cmd' prompt (program) and type 'tracert churchofjesuschrist.org' then enter

barefut wrote:Have the same problem.
I am using Linux Mint. It takes about 2 minutes to load a page.

Here is my traceroute:

traceroute to churchofjesuschrist.org (216.49.176.43), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
...
16 churchofjesuschrist.org (216.49.176.43) 79.828 ms 79.209 ms 78.335 ms

Looks like it's getting stuck in SLC somewhere.
Did this traceroute for the past couple weeks, with the same problem at the same place

If you would like to do the same, in Windows, pull up 'cmd' prompt (program) and type 'tracert churchofjesuschrist.org' then enter

Another Linux user? Cool! What browser are you using? Did you already try clearing the browser cache and deleting cookies? Perchance have you tried setting the user agent string to impersonate a more popular commercial OS?

For comparison, Church website pages load fairly well for me with Firefox 78.4.0esr. My ISP is Ziply Fiber, formerly known as Frontier, formerly served by Verizon. I had to add '-T' to the traceroute command from my Devuan Ascii machine, and that gets me this:

traceroute to churchofjesuschrist.org (216.49.176.43), 30 hops max, 44 byte packets
[hops 1 and 2 are my two NAT routers (so I can have an untrusted LAN for my work Windows laptop)]
3 * * *
... [hops 3-21 are all '* * *']
21 * * *
22 directory-api.churchofjesuschrist.org (216.49.176.43) 55.054 ms 57.446 ms 57.786 ms

IIUC, IP address 216.49.176.43 is the gateway from the outside world into the Church's network, which would seem to mean that if you get there your packets are getting through.

barefut wrote:Have the same problem.
I am using Linux Mint. It takes about 2 minutes to load a page.

...

Two more long-shot ideas:

1) Do you have any delays doing DNS lookups? With the enormous number of side URLs some sites load, even a minor DNS delay could cause a full page load to take a huge amount of time.

2) If you were to create a new user account and make a fresh browser profile for that user, that could rule out browser, cache, and cookie issues.

3) If you're using a proxy (squid3 or similar), could that be part of the problem? If your test user were to configure the browser to by pass the proxy, that could help rule out the proxy.

(Okay, I can't count very well.

rmrichesjr wrote:If you were to create a new user account and make a fresh browser profile for that user, that could rule out browser, cache, and cookie issues.

If your browser has something like incognito mode, I'd give that a try.

russellhltn wrote:If your browser has something like incognito mode, I'd give that a try.

The advantage of a new (test) user account is it also eliminates anything else (like userChrome.js and about:config settings, for example) which incognito mode might not side-step. With the OS in question being Linux, the overhead/effort to create a new user account is less than a minute, and only a few seconds to delete all traces of the account.

I just came to report the same problem. Happens across multiple devices in multiple locations.

First, I figured out it has something to do with query parameters in the URL.

URLs that load well:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng

URLs that don't load:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?l
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?fbclid=xxxxxxxx
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng&f=

But using alternate browsers and incognito mode works so it's likely a local storage or cookie issue.

I have had a 2-minute delay with both firefox and chrome for quite some time when accessing the scriptures.

I specifically cleared the cookies and data for lds.org and churchofjesuschrist.org on both browsers and I get an instant response now.

I also cannot access the church website. General Conference talks, come follow me, YW/YW resources, scriptures, articles and main page items won't load. It's been happening for months, but I just hoped it would eventually resolve.

award22 wrote:I also cannot access the church website. General Conference talks, come follow me, YW/YW resources, scriptures, articles and main page items won't load. It's been happening for months, but I just hoped it would eventually resolve.

Have you tried clearing your browser's cache and deleting relevant cookies? Also, have you tried a different browser or a different user profile?

Been happening to me off an on for years really - incog windows work great -

https://7labs.io/tips-tricks/clear-site ... cache.html

Clearing the cache and cookies for anything related to the church site seems to be helping a ton! Give it a try.

Same thing happened to my wife's laptop. Worked in Safari, but not Chrome. Most churchofjesuschrist.org websites came up all white -- no content (including the scriptures).
Chrome in Incognito Mode worked.
Based on one of these sites, I tried something, and it worked:
Open Chrome Preferences.
In the "Privacy and Security" category, choose "Cookies and other site data".
This gave the option of "See all cookies and site data"
In the search window, I typed "church", and all of the hits were from churchofjesuschrist.org.
I deleted all of them (there were about 10).

Then, I went to the failing website, and hit "refresh" -- it works great now!
FYI, I'm using a Mac computer; I don't know how this would look on a PC or other computer, but thought I'd share what worked for me.

I’m able to access the site, but when I click on “leaders & clerk resources” nothing happens. Any idea?

I have not been able to schedule a temple appointment. I can't put a name on the prayer roll. I haven't been able to for months. This is the message I am getting.
Thanks Jessica

Page Not Found
We're sorry, but the page you're looking for was not found. Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. Click here for churchofjesuschrist.org.




Other resources in requested language

Temples | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
List of Temples | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

What URL are you trying to go to?

When I go to the main Church website, end up here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng

From there, if I go to Serve -> Temples, I end up here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/temples?lang=eng

From there, if I click on Appointments, I end up here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/tem ... t?lang=eng

For about a month I cannot access Church website links from Instagram on my iPhone. So I tried Google search, but pages would not load.
Thanks for figuring out the problem as many more are finding this reporting tech page.

sherrylynnhall wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 7:02 pm For about a month I cannot access Church website links from Instagram on my iPhone. So I tried Google search, but pages would not load.
Thanks for figuring out the problem as many more are finding this reporting tech page.

Have you tried working with your ward clerk? You may also have a Technology Specialist called in your ward who can help out. Although quite often issues reside on the Church-side of things, sometimes it is something specific to the member. In those cases, working with somebody local, can often help identify and resolve the underlying issue.

sherrylynnhall wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 7:02 pm For about a month I cannot access Church website links from Instagram on my iPhone. So I tried Google search, but pages would not load.

There are a couple of possible issues. Church pages suffer from "cookie buildup" that causes all kinds of problems. You may need to clear the church cookies out of whatever browser Instagram is using.

The other issue is if your membership records are not in any ward, there will be a number of pages you can no longer access. In that situation, you'll need to contact your ward clerk to make sure your records are in the ward.

russellhltn wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 11:44 am There are a couple of possible issues. Church pages suffer from "cookie buildup" that causes all kinds of problems.

In other words, the Church website has some bugs that need to be fixed. Is anyone aware of an open bug for this?

ambldsorg wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 2:49 pm Is anyone aware of an open bug for this?

For quite some time.

russellhltn wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 2:53 pm For quite some time.

Well, I've been aware of the problem for a long time too, but I've never opened an actual official IT support ticket for it. So what I was asking was more about is there an actual open ticket for it that anyone has filed and can share information about? Is it being worked on?

ambldsorg wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 2:56 pm Well, I've been aware of the problem for a long time too, but I've never opened an actual official IT support ticket for it. So what I was asking was more about is there an actual open ticket for it that anyone has filed and can share information about? Is it being worked on?

I don't have any details on that. I believe the developers who visit us are aware of it, but I think the issue is the decision makers have higher priority tasks that need to be worked on. I also suspect this is a infrastructure issue, so it would require a high-level fix.

ambldsorg wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 2:56 pmWell, I've been aware of the problem for a long time too, but I've never opened an actual official IT support ticket for it. So what I was asking was more about is there an actual open ticket for it that anyone has filed and can share information about? Is it being worked on?

I'm a big fan of encouraging everyone affected by any issue, to always submit their own Feedback ticket. It's difficult to analyze from the outside, but I expect that it's reasonable to hope that when an issue has an avalanche of user feedback, it might get bumped up in priority. But if an issue only has one or two Feedback submissions, it might be easier to keep it at the bottom of whatever lists they have.

Although Church development priorities aren't driven by member feedback, there's nothing bad about adding another voice to the fray. We may never know if it makes a difference, but I do enjoy the placebo effect

BrianEdwards wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 3:16 pm I'm a big fan of encouraging everyone affected by any issue, to always submit their own Feedback ticket. It's difficult to analyze from the outside, but I expect that it's reasonable to hope that when an issue has an avalanche of user feedback, it might get bumped up in priority. But if an issue only has one or two Feedback submissions, it might be easier to keep it at the bottom of whatever lists they have.

Although Church development priorities aren't driven by member feedback, there's nothing bad about adding another voice to the fray. We may never know if it makes a difference, but I do enjoy the placebo effect

I've given up (for the most part) bothering to submit feedback about problems on the church websites. Considering that the response to almost any problem you submit is a canned response to clear your cookies, it seems like they're well aware of the problem and it's not going to get fixed soon. When there is a problem, you have to get beyond the first-level support people who think clearing your cookies is the answer to every problem (and they tell you to do that even if your problem submission says you've already cleared your cookies). Depending on the problem, there are times I'll put in more effort to convincing support that there's a problem, but I find it's generally too much effort to bother submitting problems. I appreciate there are people there trying to help resolve problems, and I suspect they may be volunteers who are trying to do their best. but I wish the church would take a different approach. What they're doing now doesn't work well.