Rate limits and error messages
Why you are sometimes asked to wait, and the shape every error shares.
Limits on the credential doors
Signing in, changing a password and creating an account have a per-minute limit. On hitting it, the answer tells you how long to wait.
The limit is counted per route, so failed sign-in attempts do not block refreshing a session.
The reason is not only security: verifying a password is deliberately computationally expensive, and without a limit that expense becomes a weakness.
Every error has one shape
Errors always carry a code and a message; validation errors also carry the list of offending fields.
Every response carries a request identifier. If you report a problem to us, that identifier is the fastest route to its trace.
What the red bar at the top means
If the server is unreachable or returns an internal error, a bar appears across the page and clears itself on the first successful request.
Errors that belong to one request only — a permission refusal, say — never raise the bar and are reported in place.
Read this next
- When something does not workThe red bar at the topIt means the problem is the server, not something you did.
- Account & plansSigning in and devicesA browser session, tokens for apps, and how to cut off a device you lost.
- When something does not work"Not found" or "not allowed"Two different messages with two completely different meanings.
Still stuck?
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