Skip to main content

Blog Owners, Composing A Post, Seeing "Required field must not be blank"

We're seeing a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners attempting to compose a new post, and seeing
Required field must not be blank

The problem appears to result from trying to compose a post, without first entering a Post title.

It appears that Blogger, trying to stabilise the post editor, is requiring non blank post titles, to save posts being composed. This includes the post being under effects of AutoSave, and the creation of Draft posts.

If you are composing a post, and seeing "Required field must not be blank", ensure that you are entering a valid Title to your new post.

As you enter this non appreciated new requirement, you may consider the requirement for Post Title uniqueness. A single space is accepted as a Title - but multiple posts, with the same Title, will result in duplicate titles, and an anti-duplication title suffix.

As an alternative to the single space, you may be able to hide the Title altogether, by adding custom CSS code.
.post-title.entry-title { display: none; }


If you have to change the Title before actually Publishing the post, you may be able to use the Permalink option, to change the URL to match the final Title.

We have a rollup discussion, where we are asking the people who are seeing this problem to provide details of what they are seeing, to help Blogger Engineering diagnose the underlying problem.

If you're willing to provide details, we ask that you be brief, polite, and on topic. Blogger Support needs objective statement of details - but using the rollup discussion to simply complain won't effectively encourage them to do anything.
(Update 7/8): We're seeing reports that this problem has been fixed.


>> Top

Comments

Fearguth said…
I caption pictures on my blog and have done so since 2006. This morning (7/1/13), Blogger won't publish my posts without a title. Is this a planned change or an error?
cre8ivesky said…
So helpful- thank you, thank you! Glad this was a simple fix :)
Phil said…
I've been writing a blog for more than ten years, and have NEVER used post titles, as it's my (online) diary, and I don't feel the need to title every entry - I wouldn't give titles to an entry in a written journal.

Does this change mean I can no longer publish my blog posts without titles? I've always elected to have the title field turned off, but now it's suddenly there, and insisting that I enter something into it!
What if I want to post a photo, only, no title included?
Arthuro said…
But I don't want a title !
Jeez, why fix something that isn't broken ?

Any tip on how to bypass this ?
"Ignore warning" doesn't do anything.
WHY was this change necessary? I have created at least 100 posts, none with a title in the box--since there is no way to center it, which I want for my design, I simply write a title myself and it becomes the title of the post as seen by the viewer. With this new requirement, I can keep my design, but nothing now shows up on the list of posts.
Jim McKee said…
Maybe I'll just name all new posts, "Required field must not be blank", until I get around to naming them.

:-)
KL said…
Hi Nitecruzr,

Thank you for starting a thread for this in Google Groups. I've posted my blog address there already.

Not sure if you're the right person to ask, but do you know if they will reverse this latest update? It's affected me so much so that despite close to 10 years with Blogger, I will be looking out for other blogging platforms if the issue is not resolved.

Hope to hear from you soon! =)
MrK said…
Hi,

I'm still using Windows 98 and Netscape 9.0, and I haven't been able to post a title for months now.

Therefore, with this new requirement, I can now not post at all.

And before you say 'please update your browser', I'm already working with the highest browser for Windows 98. Upgrading my browser would include buying a new computer.

Just a thought.
Nitecruzr said…
MrK,

Blogger provides their product with features which are supported for a limited set of browsers, browser versions, operating systems, and operating system versions.

Windows 98 and Netscape 9 are long declared obsolete. Blogger simply cannot support their use. You are allowed to use your computer, as you wish - but you are on your own when you do this.

Buy a new computer - please.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2011/08/blogger-browser-support-policy-and.html
Unknown said…
Could someone please tell me exactly how to put something in the title field???? I've tried putting the first line of my blog in both single and double quotation marks and this does not work. Help please!!
MrK said…

The error message is:

Required field must not be blank Ignore warning

Now the real problem is that the 'Ignore warning' option is not working. You can click on it, but it immediately bounces back whenever there is an automatic or manual save.

Question: why force everyone to have a title, when a) not everyone can save the title and b) not everyone wants to fill in a title.

For that matter, why force people to use the new interface, and not give the users the option to keep using the old interface?

Is blogger there for the ease of use for the actual bloggers, or for the programmers.

Just a suggestion.
Nitecruzr said…
Mike,

Most people simply put the cursor in the Title box, and hit the Space bar once, to simply add one space.
Nitecruzr said…
MrK,

One of the problems here is that the "Title field must not be empty", the "You can't have more than 20 labels", and the "You can't have more than 200 characters in labels" error conditions, which are all common post editor problems, share the same error format - an error message (in this case, "Required field must not be blank"), followed by the option to "Ignore the warning".

Blogger programmers reuse a lot of code - some excessively. This is, to our eyes, excessive reuse. Whether they will agree remains to be seen. Obviously (to our eyes), the option to "Ignore warning" is wrong, since the Title is a required field.

There may be actual reasons (however misguided) behind the change which currently causes this new error condition. I'll explore these reasons, separately.

I do hope, however, that you are able to heed my advice, given quite seriously - that you purchase a new computer. Windows 98 is seriously out of date - and it's continued use poses a security risk to you, and to your neighbours.

Popular posts from this blog

Adding A Link To Your Blog Post

Occasionally, you see a very odd, cryptic complaint I just added a link in my blog, but the link vanished! No, it wasn't your imagination.

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".