Blogger's bX-Codes Blog (and other useful resources)

I doubt there's anyone using Blogger who hasn't come across one of those dreaded bX-codes at some point or another. These codes are created by the Blogger system when an error occurs to help the Blogger team track down and solve any problems.

If you've ever poked around the source code of an error page, you'd have noticed a section of code which appears like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://bx-codes.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/bX-gsx5n6?alt=json-in-script&callback=showErrorMessage"></script>

.

The code refers to a JSON-callback to the Blogger Error Codes blog. This is used a "database" of error codes which is used to display a message if the specific error code has been registered on this blog.

The Blogger Error Codes blog uses posts organized by labels attributed to a particular error code. When a particular error occurs, the error page references the bX-codes blog. If this matches an existing label, the body of the post attributed to this label is used to display a message to the user to inform them of the problem or explain that the Blogger team are aware of the problem.

Unfortunately, the error codes blog is not updated very often. This means we usually receive a default error message telling us to inform Blogger of the error code and a description of what was happening when this occurred.

Generally speaking such errors are resolved soon after they appear, especially when people report these error codes directly to Blogger to ensure Blogger employees are aware of the problem and it's scope more quickly.

But it can be quite frustrating to receive continual errors, so I've gathered a few resources which may offer some advice about the error codes you may receive and how these could be resolved:

• Report your bX-Error code to Blogger: Use this form to report your bX-codes to Blogger directly.


• The Real Blogger Status (BX codes Section): Chuck is doing a great job of documenting error codes and recent issues with Blogger. In this section of his blog, you'll find loads if useful information about bX-error codes, including their status and possible resolutions.


• Blogger Known Issues: Here the Blogger team document known issues and error codes with status when these issues are resolved.


• The Blogger Help Group: It may be helpful to search the official Blogger help group for the bX-code you have received. If this has been experienced before, others may have posted a solution. You may also want to report your error code here as Blogger employees do keep an eye on the help group.

As we can now report error codes directly to Blogger, I hope this will result help the Blogger team correlate and resolve specific codes more quickly. It would be reassuring to receive more messages on our error screens: "Engineers are aware of the problem and are working in a fix" is so much better than a default message telling us to report the problem!

If you know of other useful resources about Blogger's error codes, please let us know by leaving your comments below.