80 Problems Previewing Changes to your Blogger Template? Here is a solution September 19, 2008 /

On the Blogger Help forums I've noticed many people are experiencing bX-errors when attempting to preview changes to their template through the "Edit HTML" page.

This only seems to happen when the "expand widget templates" box is checked; it can even occur when no changes have been made to the template at all, or when trying to upload a new template.

I experienced this issue myself last week, and for a while I thought there was some issue with my templates (which are heavily customized). However, this also happened with new, default, un-customized templates. In my experiences of this issue, the error codes changed each time I tried to preview the template.

If you are experiencing this issue for your own blog, there is a simple solution for you: clear the cookies in your browser!


Once you have done this, refresh the page and log in to Blogger again (as clearing the cookies will clear your login information). Then when you attempt to preview your template, you should receive no errors and be able to edit your template code as required.

Note: Any changes to your template will not be saved! If it is important to save these changes, copy your entire template and paste into Notepad (or a different text editor) so you can access this after logging into Blogger again.

How to clear cookies for your browser

Depending on your browser, you may have to try a different method to clear cookies. Here are methods for the major browsers:

For Internet Explorer 7.0

1. Select "Tools" from your browser menu
2. Select "Internet Options".
3. Open the "General" tab.
4. In "Browsing history" area click the "Delete" button.
5. In "Delete browsing history" window click "Delete cookies" button and then click "Yes".
6. Click Close and then click OK.

For Internet Explorer 6

1. Select "Tools" from the browser menu
   
2. Select "Internet Options".
3. Open the "General" tab.
4. Click the "Delete cookies" button.
5. Click OK.
   

For Firefox 3

1.  Select "Tools" from the browser menu
2. Choose "Clear Private Data"
3. Check the "Cookies" box
4. Click the "Clear private data now" button.

For Firefox 2

1. Select "Tools"
2. Select "Options".
3. Select "Privacy".
4. In Private area click "Clear Now".
5. In "Clear Private Data" window put the check mark for "Cookies" and click "Clear Private Data Now".
6. Click OK.

If your browser is not listed here, take a look at this page which explains methods for all other major browsers.


For those of you running Windows, you may like to check out CCleaner. This is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system, and really does make your computer run faster!

I've been using CCleaner for a few years now, and can honestly recommend using this. It usually takes less than a minute to run (unless you have not deleted temporary files for a LONG time!), and has cleared up the problem previewing my template each time it has happened for me.

Unfortunately CCleaner is not available for Mac users, though if anyone can recommend a similar program which may be of use to Mac users, please do let us know by leaving your comments below.

I'm not sure why this is happening; there is no mention on Blogger's Known Issues blog (yet), though I hope this information will be of use for those of you experiencing issues when previewing your template!

Photo by Renaissancechambara.