A few things you could try if you experience some problems...
Short URL of this page: http://generaltroubleshoot.iwebfaq.org
WARNINGS:
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-We deny any responsibility if something gets messed up following the steps described on this page
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-MAKE A BACKUP before trying any of the steps described on this page
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-A few general tips
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-iWeb doesn’t open when I’m not connected to the internet
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-iWeb opens but isn’t working at all. It won’t let me do anything. Everything is greyed out. What can I do?
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-iWeb is not showing my website
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-I can’t name a page the way I want to, it reverts to the previous name
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-iWeb “doesn’t” or “doesn’t let me” save changes I made: "You do not have permission to save to this file."
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-I can’t publish
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-The changes I made don’t display on the web when published
- Internet Explorer compatibility
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-Photo pages trouble
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-When I enter my url I don’t get redirected to the page I want it to redirect to
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-The navigation menu does not display when I publish (folder)
- Keychain problems with .Mac/iDisk (example: computer is not memorizing the password)
A few general tips
Be sure to have the latest version of iWeb updating your software with Software Updater in the menu bar click on the Apple logo and choose “Software Update...”
1. Quit iWeb
2. Delete the following file:
User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iweb.plist
3. Relaunch iWeb
If that doesn’t work... Retry it but instead of relaunching iWeb in 3. restart the computer and relaunch iWeb
Try repairing disk permissions:
1. Go to Applications/Utilities
2. Open Disk Utility
3. Click Macintosh HD
4. Click on Verify Disk Permissions
5. Click Repair Disk Permissions.
iWeb doesn’t open when I’m not connected to the internet
If you have Airport (wireless) turned on your computer but you’re not connected to the internet (there is no wireless network to select) try to turn Airport off on your computer and open iWeb with Airport turned off.
Go to iWeb preferences and uncheck the Auto Update box. If you have this feature turned on, iWeb tries to connect to the internet to check for updates when you launch it. If it can't check for updates, it refuses to launch.
(Suggested by Roddy, thank you!)
1. Quit iWeb
2. Delete the following file:
User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iweb.plist
3. Relaunch iWeb
If that doesn’t work... Retry it but instead of relaunching iWeb in 3. restart the computer and relaunch iWeb
If all that didn’t help, have a look at the second suggestion by OT on this post
iWeb opens but isn’t working at all. It won’t let me do anything. Everything is greyed out. What can I do?
- First (Suggested by Roddy, thank you!)
Try to download a new domain.sites or domain.sites2 file, unzip it and double click the resulting file to open iWeb. If iWeb doesn’t open hit ctrl+click the file and choose Open with => iWeb.
- Click here if you have iWeb ’06 to download a domain.sites file
- Click here if you have iWeb ’08 to download a domain.sites2 file
If that doesn’t work...
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Go to iPhoto, select some photos, go to Share and "Send to iWeb" (try both Blog and Photopages)
Many people report that going through this procedure 3-4 times awakens their iWeb...
If that doesn’t work...
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Try to follow the “A few general tips” at the top of this page.
If that doesn’t work...
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Reinstall iWeb
iWeb is not showing my website
First you have to find the Domain.sites2 file where iWeb stores its files. To find that file go to
User/Library/Application Support/iWeb/Domain.sites2
If you can’t find it here search for it with spotlight. Note that the extension .sites (iWeb 1.0) or .sites2 (iWeb 2.0) may be hidden, also search for Domain only. To see if a Domain file is iWeb ’06 or iWeb ’08 select the file press Command(Apple)+i under "Name & Extension" you will find that it is .sites or .sites2.
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To get the site showing up in iWeb just open the Domain.sites file by double clicking on it. If that’s not the case hit ctrl+click the file and choose Open With=> Select iWeb
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If still nothing happens
1. Select the domain file
2. Hit ctrl+click choose "Show package contents"
3. There must be a file called index.xml.gz some people reported that the file sometimes renamed itself to index-new.xml.gz if that is your case rename it index.xml.gz
I can’t name a page the way I want to, it reverts to the previous name
When this happens you probably already had a page named this way some time ago.
The solution is to go to File=>New Site. Create the page under that site and name it the way you want. Drag&Drop it into the other Site and you now have the page named the way you wanted and where you wanted it to be. Now delete the Site you created to create the page. That’s it.
iWeb “doesn’t” or “doesn’t let me” save changes I made: "You do not have permission to save to this file."
If you transferred the domain.sites2 file where iWeb stores its files from one computer to another or from one user to another...
Change permissions of the Domain file
Select Domain file press Command(Apple)+i under Ownership & Permissions go to =>Details =>Others and select Read & Write
You have to do that in the original user account and computer in which the Domain file was created. If you don’t change permissions you will find an error while publishing and saving from another user account or computer as by default "Others" permissions are set to Read only thus you can't modify/save it.
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...If that is not your case or if that didn’t help try repairing disk permissions as described in “A few general tips” at the top of this page.
I can’t publish
Try the things listed here in the same order as they are listed step by step following instructions to the word:
If you publish to .Mac be sure to have the account setup right in System Preferences => .Mac
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Some people report that the following tip solved their publishing issue (most useful):
“I was having problems logging in to iWeb. This occurred when I selected to publish the site. The prompt would not get past ‘Logging in to .mac’
I tried everything on this FAQ nothing worked.
I restarted my router. and voilà, fixed!”
How to restart your router: If there’s an on/off button then switch it to off and back to on. If there isn’t any on/off button unplug the cable that gives electricity to the router and plug it in again.
That should be tried even if all the other internet stuff works.
Restart your computer after restarting your router.
("Thank you Abid!")
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Some people report that the following tip solved their publishing issue (second most useful):
Try repairing disk permissions:
1. Go to Applications/Utilities
2. Open Disk Utility
3. Click Macintosh HD
4. Click on Verify Disk Permissions
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5.Click Repair Disk Permissions.
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Some people report that the following tip solved their publishing issue (third most useful):
Be sure that your password is about 6-8 characters long. Avoid long passwords!
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1. Quit iWeb
2. Delete the following file:
User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iweb.plist
3. Relaunch iWeb
If that doesn’t work... Retry it but instead of relaunching iWeb in 3. restart the computer and relaunch iWeb
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Do not name pages “index” in the left navigation bar where iWeb displays the list your pages no matter whether you’re publishing to folder or .Mac
("Thank you Richard!")
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Have a look at this page by Apnewbie, especially the part about Keychain issues.
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NOTHING WORKED?
Use the Form you find half way down on this page to contact Apple and tell them about your publishing issue.
If you feel adventurous try this last thing but as stated be careful...
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! ! ! CAUTION: BE CAREFUL ! ! !
Last thing to try: People whom would like to try the following procedure suggested by Steve on the iWeb Discussion Forums please make a Backup of your Domain file before going through it.
“I started getting 'Publish error - unknown error' with iWeb '06 which continued with iWeb '08. this wasn't following any specific update to my sites that I could remember. 'Publish to folder' also stopped working, so it didn't appear to be a connection issue.
I noticed that it always seems to get the error when publishing certain pages in the progress bar, so I started deleting pages and re-trying the publish. (I'd delete a page, re-try the publish and then Command(Apple)+Z to restore the page you can also do that by going to Edit menu and then select Undo delete XXXXX).
I narrowed it down to a set of 3 pages that I hadn't touched for ages - when I deleted them, publish worked.
I didn't want to permanently delete them, so what I did was to 'duplicate' the offending pages, delete the originals and then rename the new pages back to the old name - lo and behold, this worked!. There was obviously something wrong with the pages that prevented them from being published that was fixed by duplicating them.
I'm not suggesting that this is the solution for everyone, but it worked form me”
("Thank you Steve!")
The changes I made don’t display on the web when published
If a change doesn't display to you in the browser after you published and uploaded it mostly is because the old version of the page is cached (memorized) by your browser. Thus simply emptying the cache of the browser (Open Safari, choose Safari from the menu and go to Empty Cache) and reloading the page should display the changes.
Internet Explorer Incompatibility
Note that this is not a problem of iWeb. It is a problem of Internet Explorer. A quote:
“I call Internet Explorer the WWB - World's Worst Browser.”
- Roddy -
Most of the people and myself agree.
But what can one do to make the site compatible with Internet Explorer?
iWeb built sites will not show the standard navigation when downloaded to a PC where Java is turned off in IE as the iWeb navigation bar is Javascript rendering. The solution would be downgrading your site and build your own navigation bar by creating a textfield and make text links. Copy&paste the textfield with the links to all of your pages. You can deactivate the standard navigation menu by selecting the page of interest in iWeb, opening the Inspector, going to the Page tab (second from the left) and unchecking the Display navigation menu box.
Make Safari and Firefox (and Quicktime) download links available on your site. Both of this Browsers are real Browsers, they work both on Mac + PC and they are both freeware. Most PC users are stunned by how much better Safari 3 is.
Have a look at Roddy’s page http://roddymckay.com/PlanetRoddy.html for an example on how to add links to those downloads.
However downgrading is a bad move. Make a second navigation bar while keeping the iWeb navigation bar too instead. You could put the second navigation bar at the bottom of your pages. This will also help google indexing your pages.
Photo pages trouble
Get rid of the Download button
Have the download button displaying
and more...
Have a look at the photos FAQ pages
When I enter my url I don’t get redirected to the page I want it to redirect to
The site and page you want yourdomain.com or your base-url to be redirected to have to be on the top in the left side list of your pages in iWeb. If that’s already the case what you would have to do is replace the main index.html file.
You can do it either hitting "publish all" from the File menu in iWeb with the site and page you want to have displaying entering web.mac.com/username or you base-url on top
or publishing this site to a folder and then take the index.html file of the result and drop it in your Web/Sites/ folder in your iDisk replacing the one that is there now.
The navigation menu does not display
If you publish to a folder and upload your website via FTP have a look at this page where it tells which files are important for the navigation menu and be sure you uploaded them.
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Further if you publish to a folder have a look at this post in the Apple iWeb Discussion Forums, you may have the same problem.
Keychain problems with .Mac/iDisk (example: computer is not memorizing the password)
Have a look at this page made by Apple. (Thank you Roddy!)
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If you have a question please make sure it is relevant to the content of the page. Look through our FAQs and look where it fits best. If you can't find any FAQ on the topic post on the main page of our FAQs. Please do not post your question to the main page if there's a relevant FAQ. However we recommend you to post questions to the AppleDiscussionForum for iWeb.
Thank you.
