When clipping goes wrong

Most pages clip without any fuss. These four cases are the ones you'll hit when it doesn't.

"We couldn't extract the article content"

Then the text wasn't anywhere we recognise it — some sites build their article in a way that departs from every normal layout. The clip isn't saved in that case.

What does work: create an article yourself, paste the text into the markdown editor and add the link. Or save the page as an HTML file with an archiving extension and upload that — that route keeps the formatting too.

An article behind a paywall

The clipper sends the page exactly as your browser is showing it at that moment. What you can read, you can clip — so a subscription you hold works along with you. What you can't read, we can't keep either.

Two things to watch: dismiss the cookie or consent notice first, and let the article load fully. Clip too early and you save the interstitial instead of the piece.

Images are missing

Plenty of sites only load photos as you scroll past them. If a photo isn't in the page yet at the moment you clip, we can't take it along. Scroll through the article once before you hit the clip button.

The photos that are there we pull into your own library, so they keep working when the site changes. Tracking pixels — the invisible dots ad networks leave behind — get thrown out.

"Invalid API token"

Your clip button carries the key it was given when you dragged it to your bookmarks bar. If you revoked or recreated that key later, it no longer matches. Go back to the bookmarklet page, drag the button across again, and throw the old one away.

Your monthly ceiling

Once you're through this month's clips you'll be told so instead of getting a clip. The counter starts again next month. See Installing the clipper for the numbers.

Only pasting a link

If you just drop a URL on an article, we go and fetch a preview card for it ourselves. Some sites won't let our server in — then that card stays empty while the link itself works fine. Clipping usually still succeeds, because that happens from your own browser.