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Atom / RSS Feeds Are Empty

This week, we have a few complaints about Atom / RSS feeds, in various blogs.
When I republish my blogs to my FTP server, the atom.xml and rss.xml files are empty.
or
I published a new post, and feed file size is 0. Tried republishing template/settings and deleting the rss.xml file, but it still publishes with a 0 file size.
or
I recently selected "Publish Entire Blog" from the dashboard settings and now both the rss.xml and atom.xml files are zero bytes. I have tried republishing selected entries and the entire blog again but to no avail, the feeds are still blank.


We also had one very insightful and interesting post.
I see the file here:
http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8073700612434047107/posts/default
but it is at 0 in my FTP here:
http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/atom.xml
and here
http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/rss.xml

This observation is very useful. It points out that the problem isn't the feed, it's the involvement of FTP Publishing. I verified the observation - "www.blogger.com/feeds/8073700612434047107/posts/default" isn't empty, though "www.afnews.info/public/afnews/atom.xml" is empty. Other blogs, given the actual blog URL, will help us verify this observation.

If your blog is suffering from this problem, can you please find a thread in Blogger Help Group: Publishing Trouble or Something Is Broken (there are several threads, in each forum, take your pick), and provide details about your problem.
  • What's the URL of the blog? (If the blog has multiple URLs, this could be very important).
  • What's the URL of the problem feed?
  • Is the blog published to BlogSpot, to Google (as a custom domain), or to an external server (using FTP publishing)?
  • Is the feed published only to Blogger / BlogSpot (native Blogger feed), or is it redirected (FeedBurner et al)?
  • When did you first observe the problem?
  • When did you last not observe the problem?
  • If the blog uses FTP publishing, can you look inside each folder below the root, for an unexpected "atom.xml" / "rss.xml" file?
  • If the blog uses FTP publishing, can you please provide all relevant FTP settings?


The blog that you save may be your own, if you can help us out.

(Update 3/28 06:00): It appears that, possibly as part of some changes to Blogger yesterday, this problem has resurfaced.

(Update 3/14 19:00): We are seeing multiple reports that the problem appears to be resolved.
I was able to republish my index earlier this evening and again just now and both files are non-empty.


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Comments

C. Max Magee said…
Thanks for working on this issue. Is there anywhere we can go to keep track of progress on fixing this? This is a major problem and I'd like to keep tabs on it until it is fixed. Thanks!
Nitecruzr said…
Max,

You're here, and this is my blog. As soon as I know an update, I'll update the blog.

If you Follow or otherwise watch the blog, you'll know what I know.

I'm trying to train Blogger Support, but so far I wouldn't bet money that they will post updates where you can see them.
Weirdgrrl said…
I am one of the many people affected by this FTP/Feeds issue, so thank you for posting this. And I will definitely be checking back for updates!
louisgray said…
I am impacted by this as well. There are no new files created, but the ones that are there are zeroed out.

http://louisgray.com/live/files/page0.xml
Rob said…
I posted this same info on the Blogger Help Group but I thought I'd add it here as well...

I'm seeing the same feed issue on our FTP published Classic Blogger blog. We're hosted at Powweb.com. The index.html and archive files (http://www.2dolphins.com/2009_03_01_blogarch.html, for example ) are receiving new content that I publish, but the xml feeds files are zeroed out. When I try republishing, everything seems to work as expected - no errors - and the date/time stamp on the xml files do update, indicating that they are being rewritten to. This seems to have started on Thursday, March 12th tho I'm not sure at what time.

(Commenting on my blog does not seem to be affected by this issue.)

#FTP Server ftp.powweb.com
#Blog URL http://www.2dolphins.com
#FTP Path htdocs/
#Blog Filename index.html
#Feed Filename 2d_atomfeed.xml

and on the Site Feed Page:

#Site Feed URL http://www.2dolphins.com
#Site Feed Filrename 2d_atomfeed.xml
#Site Feed Path /htdocs

Rob O.
Hi! I'm the one, from Italy, who wrote:
I see the file here:
http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8073700612434047107/posts/default
but it is at 0 in my FTP here:
http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/atom.xml
and here
http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/rss.xml

Now I give you other data, I hope it could be useful for you to understand what went wrong with Blogger:

feed url: http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/atom.xml

ftp: ftp.afnews.info
name of file feed atom.xml
feed path: I did not write anything - I did not find instructions about it... but it worked all fine until a few days ago. What sould I have to write in there?
Amy Ridenour said…
I just posted on Blogger Help/Something is Broken, with all the info you suggested. Tried to repost it here in case it could be helpful, but because my post had tags in it, I wasn't allowed to. If anyone would find it useful you can find it there by searching under my name there, which is AmyR.

Thanks for running this blog. It is very helpful to know others are going through the same problem, even though we have not yet found a fix.
Rob said…
Seems to be working again! Let's cross our fingers that it stays up!

Thanks for being a clearinghouse for these problems, Chuck!
Anonymous said…
Uh oh. Looks like this problem is back again! I just published around 11:45pm PDT, and now my feeds are empty again. I realized it when I tried to leave a comment on another blog and CommentLuv couldn't find my feed. Sure enough!

My blog is http://www.fakeplasticfish.com and I publish via FTP. Have you heard anything else about it this weekend?
Russell Blanc said…
I too am having this problem.
wakasavan said…
Thanks for the information

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