Do you know what the 401 error is and when will you encounter this error 401? What causes the HTTP error 401? How to fix the 401 error code? This post from MiniTool will show you how to fix the 401 error in 5 ways.
What Causes the 401 Error?
The 401 error is an HTTP status code that means the page you were trying to access cannot be loaded until you first log in with a valid user ID and password.
If you come across the HTTP 401 Unauthorized error when logging in, it means that the credentials you entered were invalid for some reason.
The 401 error message is often customized by each website, especially very large ones. So, besides the 401 error message, you may also encounter the same error coming with the following different messages.
- 401 Unauthorized.
- Authorization required.
- HTTP Error 401 – Unauthorized.
In addition, the error 401 is displayed inside the web browser window, just as web pages do.
After knowing what the HTTP error 401 is, do you know how to fix this 401 unauthorized error? So, if you are looking for solutions, too, please keep on your reading.
5 Ways to Solve HTTP Error 401 Unauthorized
In this part, we will show you how to fix the 401 error.
Way 1. Check URL
It is possible that you may come across the error 401 because the URL was typed incorrectly or the link was selected point to the wrong URL – one that is for authorized use only.
So, if you encounter the 401 error, you can check the URL first.
If this solution does not work, try another one.
Way 2. Log out and Log In
If the URL is valid, you should visit the website’s main page and look for a link that says Login or Secure Access. Input your credentials and try again to check whether the 401 error is fixed.
If you have forgotten the username and password, you can follow the instructions provided on the website for setting up an account or resetting your password.
Way 3. Reload the Page
In order to fix HTTP error 401, you can try closing down the page and reloading it. But this solution is only effective for the error that was caused by a misloaded page.
If this 401 error code does not cause by the misloaded page, try other solutions.
Way 4. Delete Browser’s Cache
The fourth way you can try is to delete the browser’ cache. There might be invalid login in your browser that’s disrupting the login process and giving rise to the 401 error. So, clearing the cache in browser will remove any problems in those files and give a page an opportunity to download fresh files directly from the Server.
Now, here is the tutorial. We will show how to clear cache on Google Chrome as an example.
- Click the three dots of Google Chrome to continue.
- Then click Settings.
- Scroll down to find Privacy and Security.
- Then click Clear Browsing data.
- In the pop-up window, click Clear data.
When all steps are finished, you can reload the page and check whether the 401 error is fixed.
Way 5. Rollback Recent Update
If you recently updated the browser before HTTP error 401 unauthorized appeared, you can choose to roll the browser back to the previous version you had installed when things were working fine.
Besides, any extension or modules that you may have recently upgraded can also cause server-side issue, so revert them to the previous versions. After that, check whether the 401 error code is removed.
Final Words
To sum up, this post has introduced what HTTP error 401 is and how to fix it. This post also shows 5 ways to fix this 401 error, so try these solutions if you have the same error. If you have any better idea to fix the error 401 unauthorized, please share it in the comment zone.