Bug? Sometimes When Moving Books off an Author’s Page, Their Front Page Gets a “Page Unavailable” Error Message

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Sometimes the Page Unavailable page is more a server unavailable. Try refreshing the page after a minute or two.

I get this on several types of pages. Sometimes it is when I do a search on my shelves even.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I can get to her combine page via one of her books and her librarian edits page via the Similar Names page accessed from her combine page.

Not sure what you're needing to do.

[Arenda]

Corinne wrote: "sometimes I can find a work around"

Changing "show" to "list" in the author page URL will get you to the list of books by that author.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Arenda wrote: "Corinne wrote: "sometimes I can find a work around"

Changing "show" to "list" in the author page URL will get you to the list of books by that author."

Excellent!

[Tami]

Editing a book under the author profile after you get the unavailable message sometimes works to make the profile accessible again. I don't know why it works, maybe clears up cache or something. I'd say that works for me 85% of the time. Even something small like setting a book's language does the trick. This won't work when there's nothing to edit of course. Marking a book invalid also works. If there's an invalid book under the profile [this is a common edit these days since there's a bunch or bad books/notebooks around.]

If it's an unclaimed page editing the page's bio details also works. Though this one is harder to make a valid edit for. I don't use this method unless I'm actually filling out the profile with valid information. I don't want you to think I'm encouraging unnecessary edits. But if you were planning on filling out the bio anyway maybe save it for the error or for last.

[Tami]

Liz Newman's page is back online. I edited one of her books :)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

There is no Page Unavailable for the author you link.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Yes, there was earlier. I didn't see Tami's post before I posted (even though there are several minutes difference!).

[Tami]

Sorry Corinne :( I misunderstood. I shouldn't have edited it :/

This workaround really works most of the time as you can see. Moving a book wouldn't work because the edit isn't listed under the librarian log for the unavailable author. Moving a book from the unavailable profile to another profile doesn't work to make the profile available again. The profiles usually become available again on their own in 24-48 hours but I have had some take longer than that [very rare] but they all became available on their own in the end. This workaround (magic!) just makes it happen instantly somehow.

One thing that triggers unavailable error that I found (other than just moving books) is combining a book that still appears in the profile front of another author (as a ghost book. That means the book is not in the profile but still appears on profile front.) If you clear up/update the profile before combining you avoid this bug. Sometimes the profile fronts update instantly (I haven't found a correlation as to why it happens) so you don't have to do this. I don't care to update fronts most of the times since they will on their own after a while. An edit on a book will most of the times update a profile front automatically. (I'd say 90% of the time) This includes combining. I hope this makes sense.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Corinne wrote: "staff said: Sometimes, website takes 48 hours or more to update the information. I was able to access the one space and two space profile without problem.

It wasn't about "updating" the page, it w..."

Yeah, often staff doesn't understand the report. And not just this one.

[Tami]

Corinne wrote: "No apologies necessary! You offered everything I needed. You acknowledged it happens and you gave me some great "tools" to see why it happens and how to try and fix. I appreciate you taking the time!"

Thanks Corinne! I'd say this happens to me a lot. I'm not sure about others. That's how I discovered those workarounds. I couldn't find anything in the group when searching. Hopefully this helps others.

Corinne wrote: "staff said: Sometimes, website takes 48 hours or more to update the information. I was able to access the one space and two space profile without problem.

It wasn't about "updating" the page, it w..."

If you need an example to send them. I just remembered this is a profile I worked on yesterday. It still shows page unavailable error:

Author https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
List of books https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...

Since this author seems fairly unknown I'll just let it become available on its own. I don't think anyone is in a hurry to visit the profile. Though after that reply it's discouraging to try to contact them again about this glitch :( yep, sometimes staff doesn't understand a report and that's frustrating.

[Tami]

I'm glad the example was helpful and they finally believe there's an issue. You're right, that workaround doesn't work for profiles that are claimed as librarians cannot edit those. Editing a book is the safest bet and there's usually some information missing, like language, page number, publisher, cover, combining, etc. I would not encourage unnecessary edits like the one by staff (adding an extra space and removing it right after. No shade though!) I feel like this can make the log messy. Also I would fear someone might think I was vandalizing and get flagged. If I was editing the profile page bio, the smallest edit you can make that requires not much research is setting a genre (if it isn't there already). Looking up a twitter handle, bio, date of birth, etc could take more research or not be available so the genre is helpful in this case. Not sure if leaving a librarian note on the profile would also make the profile available again as I haven't tried that. The workaround is basically making a valid edit on the profile bio/details or books under the profile to unfreeze it/make it available again.

[L J]

Would changing something in book description work?
If so there are usually minor changes that could be made. If there's nothing to correct just adding a space at the end of a paragraph wouldn't show.

[Arenda]

Tami wrote: "If it's an unclaimed page editing the page's bio details also works."

I don't think you even need to make an edit.
I had an author page that was "page unavailable" after moving a book.
Opening the edit page and saving without making a chance, made the author page accessible again.

[Tami]

L J wrote: "Would changing something in book description work?
If so there are usually minor changes that could be made. If there's nothing to correct just adding a space at the end of a paragraph wouldn't show."

Any edit will work, but when you change the description it will appear in the log.

[Tami]

Corinne wrote: "A bit off topic but because adding a social media site was mentioned, I thought I'd link this comment from the former moderator.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"

Thanks for sharing Corinne!

[Tami]

Arenda wrote: "I don't think you even need to make an edit.
I had an author page that was "page unavailable" after moving a boo..."

I did try that before but it didn't work. I'm surprised it works now. I tried the same thing on book page and it didn't work either. This was about a year ago. Thanks for sharing, this is definitely easier.

[Arenda]

I'm not sure it will always work, but it is easier to try it first.

[L J]

Tami wrote: "L J wrote: "Would changing something in book description work?
If so there are usually minor changes that could be made. If there's nothing to correct just adding a space at the end of a paragraph ..."

I wasn't meaning it wouldn't appear in the log. I meant minor changes to description are not noticed when looking at description and some, like adding (or removing) space at end of last sentence of paragraph, are not visible when looking at description.