In terms of vague, monolithic error messages, I don't know of a more mysterious error. The referential WikiPedia article List of HTTP status codes tells us simply
If you Google for information, you'll get dozens of supposed explanations. Here, a sample:
The problem with the Error 400 is that it is seen in very low volume - maybe 1 or 2 reports / week. It's consistent in volume - we simply don't see an affinity.
If you're seeing this, first try one of the most universally prescribed nostrums in Blogger land - clear cache, cookies, and active logins, and restart the browser. An alternative would be to try using a different browser - if this helps, you could rule out your computer in general, your Internet service, and Blogger in general being the primary cause of the problem.
Next, help us to help you and others - and answer as much as possible. Partial answers are better than no answers.
(Update 2011/06/30): Today, we are seeing a significant increase in Error 400 and related symptoms, reported from some portion of the Blogger community.
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The request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled.The relevant clue here may be that "4nn" errors are "Client Request" errors.
If you Google for information, you'll get dozens of supposed explanations. Here, a sample:
- About.com: 400 Bad Request Error Resolution
- ASP FAQ: Why do I get HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request errors?
- CheckUpDown: HTTP Error 400 - Bad request
The problem with the Error 400 is that it is seen in very low volume - maybe 1 or 2 reports / week. It's consistent in volume - we simply don't see an affinity.
If you're seeing this, first try one of the most universally prescribed nostrums in Blogger land - clear cache, cookies, and active logins, and restart the browser. An alternative would be to try using a different browser - if this helps, you could rule out your computer in general, your Internet service, and Blogger in general being the primary cause of the problem.
Next, help us to help you and others - and answer as much as possible. Partial answers are better than no answers.
- What are you doing - are you using Blogger (maintaining your blog), BlogSpot (viewing a blog), or a non BlogSpot URL (also viewing a blog, but one published externally)?
- Are you logged in to Blogger when you see the error? If so, are you logged in using a GMail based Google account, or a non GMail based account?
- What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using? Do you have any download accelerator, download manager, or speed enhancement add-on installed?
- What anti-malware / anti-virus / personal firewall product do you use?
- Where are you located (city, county / region / state, and country are useful here)?
- What ISP do you use? Does your ISP offer any bandwidth enhancement, download accelerator, or speed increasing option?
- How often do you see this error? How often do you not see this error? When did you start seeing this error?
- If the problem goes away mysteriously, you could tell us that, later, too.
- Seeing a report "I am having this problem." is good.
- Seeing two reports - "I am having this problem.", later followed by "I am now not having this problem.", is better.
- Seeing two reports - "I am having this problem.", later followed by "I am now not having this problem - and this is what I know changed recently:", is better still.
(Update 2011/06/30): Today, we are seeing a significant increase in Error 400 and related symptoms, reported from some portion of the Blogger community.
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Comments
--trying to upload pictures to a post.
•What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using?
IE 8
•Where are you located (city, state, and country appreciated)?
Anchorage, AK
•What ISP do you use?
GCI.
•How often do you see this? How often do you not see this?
I have seen it every single time I try to load pictures. It has been two weeks.
iMac OSX 10.5.6
los angeles, ca
time-warner cable
several times in the last few days
* What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using? - Firefox 3.5.2 on Windows XP
* Where are you located (city, state, and country appreciated)? - Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia.
* What ISP do you use? - TM
* How often do you see this? - Every time the past week.
How often do you not see this? - Never before this week
What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using? IE
Where are you located (city, state, and country appreciated)? Moorpark, California, USA
What ISP do you use? AT&T
How often do you see this? How often do you not see this? It happens at least half the time when I publish a blog post. When I get the message, the post and/or the edits to my post still appear on my blog, I just have to get through the error screen first.
Also, when I try to post a picture using Picasa "BlogThis!" button, I get script errors (or no error message, it just doesn't work) every single time. I have not been able to use "BlogThis!" for months now. Both problems began at the same time.
* What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using? - Firefox 3.5.2 on Windows XP
* Where are you located (city, state, and country appreciated)? - Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia.
* What ISP do you use? - TM
* How often do you see this? - Every time.
How often do you not see this? - Never before this week
Update for my case: Only happens when I use this account, but I can upload photos perfectly with another account. Not tried another PC yet though.
Individual composer pages posted fine, but my cumulative page "Recent Additions (sorted by posting date)" returned the error when I tried to save it. I observed that I was able to change the posting date of the original file (without updating its content). Then I was able to create a new post with the new information for today's postings.
My conclusion is: There is a size limit to individual posts. Exceed this limit and you get the "Bad Request. Error 400" message. This would explain why it happens so much when adding a photo to the post. If the photo is too large, your post exceeds the limit.
I'm using IE 7.0.5730.13 with XP (SP3). Comcast in Maryland. Same error occurs on my other PC at work, which also has XP/IE7.
• What browser and operating system Windows XP and IE 7.0
• Where are you located Miami, FL USA
• What ISP do you use? Comcast DSL
• How often do you see this? How often do you not see this? Never saw it until today, now I am having problems on multiple computers when trying to post
On another note, is that on my gmail I have been for the past week getting 008 errors when trying to send emails. Strangely when I sign out the drafts are sent…
I have no idea what ISP I'm using right now (whatever wireless the hotel provides), so that could very well be a contributing factor.
2) I was logged in to Blogger, using a GMail based account.
3) I was using Safari with the OS 10.4.11. I don't believe I have any ad-ons like that installed.
4) No firewall product and I don't think I have any anti-virus programs installed, either. I have a Mac.
5) North Bay Area, CA, USA
6) I use Comcast, wireless, not sure about bandwidth enhancements.
7) I got this error for the first time about 10:00 last night. It's now 2:40 the next afternoon and I still can't comment on any Blogger blogs or even access blogger.com or my own Blogger blog.
When I tried using Firefox right now I was able to comment on the blogs (I was not able to last night; I didn't get any error, but nothing I typed showed up).
I could not save as draft, tried several times, then I tried to open it in a new tab, then it appears again, 'bad request, error 400'. Since then, every blogspot/blogger blogs i opened has 'b r' on top left corner.
It seems to have disappeared as I clear all my recent history from the browser.
Very annoying.
Browser : Seamonkey v2.0.2
Location: Liverpool, United Kingdom
Never had an issue with seamonkey and blogger before. Used other browsers to see if it was a common problem and it worked fine on Firefox and Avant. Left it a few hours and problem persisted on Seamonkey. Cleared out cache, cookies browsing history the lot and the problem was solved.
I hppe this helps.
I think that you're maybe the third person who has mentioned clearing cache, cookies, maybe authenticated sessions as having an effect here. I'm adding that recommendation, in a more obvious display.
Are you logged in to Blogger when you see the error? No. There is a Bad Request sign on the top left of the page. But I cannot see the top navigation bar either to even log in.
If so, are you logged in using a GMail based Google account? No.
What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using? Safari 4.0.4. However, The same error does not happen when I'm using Firefox 3.0.10
Do you have any download accelerator, download manager, or speed enhancement add-on installed? Not sure. I'm on a Mac - no additional enhancements installed.
What anti-malware / anti-virus / personal firewall product do you use? Not sure. I'm on a mac - no additional installed.
Where are you located (city, county / region / state, and country are useful here)?
New York City
What ISP do you use? Does your ISP offer any bandwidth enhancement, download accelerator, or speed increasing option?
Time Warner
How often do you see this error? How often do you not see this error? When did you start seeing this error?
Started seeing it weekend just gone. I see it everyday, everytime in Safari on my blog and every blog associated with Blogspot. But not in Firefox. I have cleared cache and all history - it's still there.
Please help!
I have a theory regarding the mysterious appearance of "Error 400":
THE ERROR OCCURS WHEN THERE ARE TOO MANY BYTES IN EACH POST.
---------------------------------------------
Although google says Blogger doesnot have a word/size limit per post. I find that whenever I post a very long paragraph of txt (book length), or a very large picture/multiple pictures.
Here is what happened to me:
I was pasting a very long story to one post (copied from one website), and the error occurred. I tried to delete the formatting of the text (e.g. make it plain txt, rich txt, html, etc.) and copy again, the same error still occurs.
However, when I cut my story to 3 pieces and tried to post 1/3 of it, the post was published no problem. -- so it seems that it is the length/size of the post content that determines whether you encounter an "error 400". --At least this is one of the reason.
GOOGLE needs to check whether there is an implicit word/byte limit to each post!!!!!
It is ridiculous that so many supposedly smart people cannot figure out such a simple error!!!
I don't think this is the sole cause, as there are too many people reporting it (intermittently), and you are the first who has explicitly noted a long post.
"Error 400" is a transient problem. If you see it now, and don't see it later, it could be similar to my cure for wandering elephants.
Just to clarify: I am not saying that "byte size limit" is the sole cause of "error 400". But as I mentioned in my last post, I am pretty certain it caused my problem.
I have experimented several times: when a article is very long (in my case 112,489 characters), I saw the error consistently. However, when I post only part (e.g. 1/3) of the article--all other things held constant--I can publish successfully with no problem.
I know ppl encounter the error 400 in various scenarios, and fixing the "implicit byte limit restrict" alone won't solve all "error 400" problems. However, at least it is a place to start. I hope Blogger.com still address this issue. As you said "error 400" is a complicated problem, one cannot expect the problem being solved by just one fix, however, the technical team should not ignore an obvious possible cause either just because it doesn't concern everyone. For instance, I think getting rid of the byte limit will at least help a portion of the "error 400" victims.
Are you logged in to Blogger when you see the error? Yes
I am logged in with a GMail based Google account
Chrome 5.0.375.70 and IE vers 8.0.6001 Windows XP pro SP3
I do not have any download accelerator, download manager, or speed enhancement add-on installed.
Avast antivirus, malwarebytes (manual)
Located in San Ramon, CA Northern California.
ISP ATT uverse no accelerators 5.5 mbps down 1.5up
I only see the error in the picture upload window. Every time I try to upload a pic to a new draft post.
I have tried this on multiple computers from my home not from another ISP
Started seeing this yesterday.
If the problem goes away mysteriously, you could tell us that, later, too. Sure
Adding a new post with pics under size limits
Are you logged in to Blogger when you see the error? If so, are you logged in using a GMail based Google account, or a non GMail based account?
Yes gmail account
What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using?
Windows xp SP3, Chrome 5.0.375 and also IE 8
Do you have any download accelerator, download manager, or speed enhancement add-on installed?
NO
What anti-malware / anti-virus / personal firewall product do you use?
Avast malwarebytes manual
Where are you located (city, county / region / state, and country are useful here)?
East bay SanFrancisco, CA
What ISP do you use? Does your ISP offer any bandwidth enhancement, download accelerator, or speed increasing option?
ATT uverse no acceerators.
How often do you see this error? How often do you not see this error? When did you start seeing this error?
Whenever I try to upload photo the error is in the pic upload window. Started seeing it 2 days ago
Thanks for the help, frustrating...
I'm logged into Blogger, attempting to update my blogroll.
Are you logged in to Blogger when you see the error? I'm logged in via Gmail.
What browser and operating system (name and version please) are you using?
Firefox 3.6.13
Do you have any download accelerator, download manager, or speed enhancement add-on installed?
I don't believe so.
What anti-malware / anti-virus / personal firewall product do you use?
No idea. Sorry.
Where are you located (city, county / region / state, and country are useful here)?
Milwaukee, WI 53202 USA
What ISP do you use? Does your ISP offer any bandwidth enhancement, download accelerator, or speed increasing option?
AT&T at work, Time Warner at home
How often do you see this error? Every time I try to add something to my Blogger template sidebar.
When did you start seeing this error?
Not sure. It's been at least a month.
If the problem goes away mysteriously, you could tell us that, later, too.
Will do.
I'm trying to maintain my blog with blogger, specifically trying to upload pictures. I've tried Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari; they all produce the error. Operating Windows 7 Starter. Located in SLC, Utah, internet provider is Qwest. I see this message every time I try to upload any picture to my blog, have been for the past month. HELP.
Trying to create a blog post
Are you logged in to Blogger when you see the error?
Yes and with a non-gmail account
What browser and operating system
Safari Mac OS X 10.5.8
Do you have any download accelerator, download manager, or speed enhancement add-on installed?
No
What anti-malware / anti-virus / personal firewall product do you use?
Whatever is already on my Mac
Where are you located (city, county / region / state, and country are useful here)?
USA, Oklahoma
What ISP do you use? Does your ISP offer any bandwidth enhancement, download accelerator, or speed increasing option?
Cox Cable, yes
How often do you see this error? How often do you not see this error? When did you start seeing this error?
Started today, seeing it every time I try to go to the website. Opened up firefox and it works, but it is not working with Safari and I prefer to use the Safari browser.
Then I started to get Error 400 Bad Request in my Chrome.
It turned out that I could approach all the blogger.com servers without any problem on another computer. Later, I realized that the error still persisted on the first computer, but only in Chrome - I didn't get the error in Firefox.
I decided it had to be cookies so I went to Chrome/WrenchMenus/Options and searched for "Cookies". In cookies, I searched for all cookies containing blogger.com, erased them, and the problem went away!
So the advice to everyone who thinks that the problem could be on the client side: erase the cookies from the given domain, or all cookies, if you don't have time for cherry-picking. ;-)
Cheers, LM