The app was working yesterday. Today it opens, shows you its logo, and quits. The Wi-Fi icon says you’re connected, but your browser disagrees. The printer is offline again, despite being close enough to hear you complain about it.
We help you figure out what has gone wrong with apps, websites, devices, and the services they depend on.
Our starting point is the question you came here with: Why is it not working? The answer matters because a fix that helps with one cause can waste your time, or make things worse, when the cause is something else.
How We Approach a Problem
We start with what you can observe. An app that will not open is a different problem from one that opens but cannot sign you in. A website failing on every device calls for different checks than a website failing on just one laptop.
Our articles use those details to narrow down the possibilities. We put quick, useful checks first and explain what the results mean.
If switching to mobile data makes a website load, for example, that gives you a better clue than restarting everything in reach and hoping for the best.
When a step could erase saved information, sign you out, or change a setting you may need later, we say so before you take it. The “clear data” button deserves an explanation, not a surprise entrance halfway through a list.
What You Can Expect
You will find explanations in plain language, steps you can follow, and honest limits. Some problems have a dependable fix. Others depend on your device, software version, account, or an outage you cannot solve yourself.
We will not call every possible cause *the* cause just because the headline would sound more confident.
And yes, we think a little humor helps. It is hard to stay solemn when a device displays “Unknown Error” as though that settles the matter. But the joke should take less time to read than the fix takes to try.
WhyIsItNotWorking.net is here to make the next step clearer. Find the clue, check the cause, and get back to what you were trying to do before the printer decided it needed the afternoon off.
If you want to learn more about how we do things around here, be sure to check our Editorial Policy.