Claude issues fall into three categories: Anthropic service problems (their servers), account or subscription issues, and device/browser problems on your end. Most self-resolve in minutes. Start with the status check — if Anthropic is having an incident, nothing on your side will fix it.
claude.ai shows a blank page or infinite spinner on load
Messages send but no response appears — cursor just blinks
Error banner: 'Something went wrong. Please try again.'
Claude stops mid-response and never finishes generating
Projects, uploaded files, or conversation history won't load
'This conversation is unavailable' when opening a saved chat
Claude mobile app (iOS/Android) crashes on launch or mid-chat
Anthropic experiences periodic degraded service, especially during high-demand periods or after model releases (Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus launches caused widespread slowdowns). Check status.anthropic.com before any local troubleshooting.
Claude's web app stores session state aggressively. After Anthropic deploys updates (common on weekdays), stale cache data causes blank screens, infinite loading, or broken UI. This is the most common cause of 'it was working yesterday' reports.
Content-modifying extensions — ad blockers (uBlock Origin, AdGuard), privacy tools (Privacy Badger, Ghostery), and reading-mode extensions — frequently break claude.ai's interface. Claude's frontend is more sensitive to DOM manipulation than ChatGPT's.
Claude Pro ($20/mo) has a usage limit that resets every 8 hours. When you hit it, Claude shows a banner and refuses new messages until the window resets. Free tier limits are stricter. Claude.ai is transparent about this — you'll see a countdown timer.
Corporate networks, school networks, and some VPN configurations block claude.ai or Anthropic's API endpoints. Common in enterprise environments that whitelist AI tools individually. Symptoms: requests hang indefinitely rather than returning errors.
The Claude iOS and Android apps require frequent updates. Running an old version after Anthropic makes backend changes causes crashes, blank responses, and sync failures. App stores don't always auto-update immediately.
When to try: Always first — before any local troubleshooting
Go to status.anthropic.com. Look for any active incidents or degraded performance notices. Also check X/Twitter for 'Claude down' to get real-time user reports — they precede official status updates by 10-20 minutes. If there's an active incident, wait for Anthropic to resolve it.
When to try: First local fix — 30 seconds, no data loss
Press Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) in your browser to bypass the cache and force a full reload of claude.ai. This resolves most 'blank screen after update' issues without needing to clear all cookies. Try this before the more disruptive cache-clear step.
When to try: If hard refresh didn't resolve the issue
In Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies → See all site data and permissions → search for 'claude' and 'anthropic' → Delete all. In Firefox: Address bar, click the lock icon → Clear cookies and site data. In Safari: Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data → search 'anthropic' → Remove. Sign back in after clearing.
When to try: To isolate browser extension conflicts
Open an incognito window and go to claude.ai. If it works there but not your normal browser, a browser extension is causing the issue. Return to your normal browser and disable extensions one by one — start with ad blockers and privacy tools, as these most commonly break Claude's interface.
When to try: If Claude loads fine but refuses to respond to new messages
Sign in to claude.ai and look for a usage banner near the message box. If you've hit your limit, the interface will show a timer indicating when your next window opens (resets every 8 hours for Pro users). Free users have stricter daily limits. Upgrading to Claude Pro gives higher limits and priority access.
When to try: For Claude mobile app issues specifically
For iOS: App Store → your account icon → scroll to Claude → Update. For Android: Play Store → My apps → Claude → Update. If already up to date and still broken, delete the app and reinstall it fresh. This clears all cached data and corrupted local state. You won't lose conversation history since it's stored server-side.
When to try: If the app loads but requests always hang or time out
Switch from WiFi to mobile data (or vice versa) to test whether your network is the issue. Disable VPN if active. If on a corporate or school network, try from a personal device on mobile data. Claude is sometimes blocked by network-level content filters before the error reaches your browser.
When to try: If all other fixes fail and you need to keep working
Try claude.ai in Chrome if you normally use Safari or Firefox (or vice versa). Claude works best on modern Chromium browsers. If it works on a different device, the problem is local to your original browser profile. Create a new browser profile with no extensions to confirm.
Bookmark status.anthropic.com — it's the fastest way to confirm outages
Keep the Claude mobile app updated to the latest version to avoid compatibility issues
Use a separate browser profile for Claude if you rely heavily on extensions in your main profile
If you use Claude for critical work, track your 8-hour usage window to avoid hitting limits mid-project
Claude Projects sync conversation history server-side — you won't lose context if you need to clear local cache
Contact Anthropic support via support.anthropic.com if: (1) Your account shows an unexpected suspension, (2) Billing issues persist after verifying your payment method, (3) You've tried all fixes and the issue affects your account specifically while status.anthropic.com shows all systems operational, (4) You believe your Pro limits are being applied incorrectly. For general service issues, self-service troubleshooting resolves the vast majority of cases.
Incomplete responses happen for a few reasons: (1) Network interruption during streaming, (2) Response hit Claude's output length limit (very long generations sometimes cut off), (3) Content policy filter triggered partway through, (4) Server-side timeout on Anthropic's end during high load. Fix: refresh the page and rephrase the request into shorter steps. If asking for something very long, break it into parts.
Check status.anthropic.com for official status. For real-time user reports (which often precede official updates), search 'Claude down' or 'claude.ai not working' on X/Twitter. Downdetector.com also tracks user-reported Claude issues. Anthropic typically acknowledges major incidents within 15-30 minutes of onset.
Claude Pro users have a fair-use limit that resets every 8 hours. The limit adapts based on model demand but is approximately 100-150 messages per 8-hour window on Claude 3.5 Sonnet (less on more compute-intensive models like Opus). Free users have stricter daily limits. The claude.ai interface shows a timer counting down to your next window.
Yes. Claude has native apps for iOS (App Store) and Android (Play Store) as of 2024. The mobile apps support full conversation history, Projects, and file uploads. Common mobile issues: app crashes after updates (fix: reinstall), slow responses on cellular (fix: switch to WiFi), and login loops (fix: sign out fully and back in).
The web interface (claude.ai) and API use the same underlying models but have slightly different system prompts and context configurations. Web Claude has a 'helpful assistant' system prompt built in; raw API calls start without one. Output format also differs since web is optimized for markdown rendering. This is expected behavior, not a bug.
Claude's error messages are generally more transparent — it tells you directly when you've hit a usage limit and shows you the reset timer. ChatGPT tends toward generic 'Something went wrong' messages. Claude's status page (status.anthropic.com) is also usually updated faster. However, Claude's usage limits (8-hour windows) differ from ChatGPT's model-specific rate limits.
No. Claude is a cloud-only service with no offline mode. All inference runs on Anthropic's servers. There's no local version of Claude available to end users (unlike some open-source models you can run locally). You need an active internet connection for every message.
Claude speed varies with server load. Peak times (US weekday afternoons, shortly after major news about AI) cause noticeably slower response times. Claude 3 Haiku responds faster than Sonnet which is faster than Opus due to model size. If speed matters, Claude.ai Pro lets you switch models — try Haiku for faster turnaround on simpler tasks. Verified April 2026.