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So, What Are The Mysterious bX- Codes About?

In the past - not so long ago, and not infrequently - you might be accessing or updating your blog, and you'd see a monolithic error message that made many bloggers want to tear their hair out by the roots.
We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it.

If you've been blogging for any past amount of time, I'm sure that you remember seeing that. I know that I do.

On January 17, 2007, all of that ended. Blogger replaced that incredibly annoying message with a large series of error codes. Such a simple task, in concept. Each possible failure point in the Blogger codebase was assigned a different bX- code, replacing the old "We apologize for the inconvenience ..." message with a unique failure point code for each different problem encountered.

For all of their simplicity though, many bloggers don't seem to see the forest for the trees.

it's disheartening to see that the bx error code problems are still existing.

Many bloggers seem to associate some major significance to these codes. Some have compiled a list of codes, as if listing enough codes will help them understand the secrets of the universe. Letting somebody "look at my code list" is of special social significance, like showing my family picture album.

There is no special meaning to any code.

Long ago, people who worked with the major computer operating system in the universe ("IBM" mainframe) would maintain a library of reference manuals (yes, paper - and a lot of paper). A large portion of many libraries would be incredibly large glossaries of system termination codes. Each code would have a special significance, such as attempting to enter a date containing an alphabetic character. Seeing a given code for a specific database entry, a database engineer would look up the code in the reference manual, then patch the record in error accordingly, and the problem would be solved.

The bX- codes have no similar significance. They are simply unique codes, which identify each individual point of abnormal termination. There's no secret glossary assigning the cause for any single code, just a pointer to the individual termination point in the Blogger codebase. When enough bloggers report a given code, a Blogger employee simply examines the termination point, and using the diagnostic information hopefully provided by the bloggers problem reports, makes a diagnosis of the problem cause. Rarely, the code will be added to a small database which lists specifically significant codes.

In some cases, this will lead to solution of a given problem, and the end of that bX- code from further observation. However, just as repairing an aged engine with a few new parts, this may fix one immediate symptom but put additional stress on other parts, causing them to fail. You will see one bX- code become popular for a while, then be replaced by others later. This isn't a random scenario - it's natural.

There isn't a lot to do, when you get a bX- code. In very limited cases, clearing both cache and cookies, and restarting the browser, may help. If not, then the problem is probably in the blog that you're trying to access or update. Diagnose any changes that you recently made - then report the code, using the bX- Code Reporting Form, and let Blogger analyse the problem.



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