"Article creation failed" and "Unknown error" when attempting to access article.

open
· Articles & templates ·
By NexusBio on 06/21/2026
· Assigned to Xuroth

I can't create or access articles. I have a premium account, my titles use plain text, and I am able to access the articles on my phone. I tried resetting my browser. The issue isn't that I can't access the article button, when I attempt to open, it says "unknown error", and when I try to write a new article it says "article creation failed", and "Guild feature required". I refreshed world index. I tried to access it on chrome with the same problem. I tried to open the list to see all the articles to delete "ghost articles", it didn't show any, and said "search failed", I can access in "old version edit", but I would like to be able to use it normally. I cleared data, still not working I turned off the ad-blocking, I don't have any antiviruses, I tried disabling autosave.

AI told me to copy paste this in here, not sure if it helps:


"My account is experiencing the Quick Editor sync bug on desktop. I get 'Search failed' on my article list and 'Guild feature required' when trying to create content. The mobile version and the desktop 'old version edit' layout work completely fine. Please force a backend database sync on my account tokens."

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open "Articles and world manager" on the sidebar.
  2. In a tree, attempt to open an article by clicking on the article name.

Operating System

Windows

Browser

Opera

Related Entity

Article access

History

NexusBio @ 23 Jun, 2026 06:04:01

Here are images of the issue:

Xuroth @ 23 Jun, 2026 04:11:54 Assignee

Hello! I did some investigation and was unable to reproduce the issue. If I'm not mistaken, you also published a thread on our Reddit pertaining to this. In that post, there was mentions that things work correctly on mobile and on a work computer. This is likely a browser or addon issue. Can you try logging in on a private/incognito window and see if the issue persists?

Side note: In this case, the AI suggested message is not accurate as we don't use split access tokens or anything like that. There isn't anything to update/sync. The issue is that some requests the UI is making to our servers is getting blocked before they can reach us, and this is almost always a browser extension issue or a browser's built-in adblock/popup settings. You may google to see if you can "whitelist" World Anvil (we don't show ads in the UI when you're logged in and a guild member, so it is pointless to have those tools blocking anything on WA)

Xuroth @ 23 Jun, 2026 04:12:05 Assignee
Assigned Xuroth
NexusBio @ 24 Jun, 2026 06:34:14

I did make a post about it just to see if it was a known bug or not. I have attempted to open using an incognito tab on chrome with no success. Not really sure what's going on. It was working before, and then I accessed it on my work computer, and from that point on it hasn't been working at home, not necessarily causation but it was correlated.

I will try a few things when I'm at my computer next, I will make sure cookies are on, I will completely turn off my ad blocker for all websites, and I will see if it is "forcing dark mode" and disable it if it is.

NexusBio @ 25 Jun, 2026 05:08:58

Okay, I have attempted everything that I mentioned, anything else I can do?

NexusBio @ 26 Jun, 2026 07:00:42

I also uninstalled my anti-virus completely, and attempted to run with no success...

NexusBiokill @ 26 Jun, 2026 07:26:43

I've now also tried getting a subscription with a different account, and that didn't work either. I think I'm gonna use a different service, it's been almost a week, and I've paid for a service I can't use. If you guys can find a way to fix it, I would happily stick with WA, bc I love the platform.,

Xuroth @ 01 Jul, 2026 07:51:07 Assignee

I have been investigating the issue. We've had multiple people reporting this, and a significant number of our team was away last week. I have gathered information that points to a likely culprit, but I need some additional time to test my theory and bring my colleagues up to speed. In my testing after you first reported this, I could see operations succeeding, they just erroneously would make the "Upgrade Required" modal appear when it should not have. I have tested across several impacted accounts and had the same experience, and I've been informing them that they are, indeed, getting all the features they are supposed to, just that the message implies otherwise (but it is incorrect).

Not that I think it is related, but just to cover all our bases, could you tell me what kind of router you use at home? I ask because you specified the issue is present on both mobile and your home computer, but seemingly not from your work computer. I just want to ensure I am leaving no stone unturned.