Reported Issues with Freecycle.org

Here's our current list of reported issues. List updated as things change.

As a nonprofit organization that is run almost entirely by volunteers, we have to make hard decisions about where to focus our limited development resources. We appreciate your patience as we work our way through the issues and requests for changes.

People who are not Freecycle members who receive spam messages that look like they are from Freecycle. See this article for more information.

Making and Editing Posts

Including Photos in posts
- Photos don't appear in the post in the order in which they were uploaded (1286)
- Not able to drop and drag photos. Try this: Upload photos instead. (1763)
- Photos cannot be included in Wanted posts. This is being considered as a future feature. (548)
Don't see the Make a Post button: This could be one of a few things:
- If you are using a phone, turn the phone sideways so that you can see more of the screen. You should now be able to see the Make a Post button. (2257)
- You are not a member of any Freecycle towns yet. Check your My Towns page to see if you are a member of any towns. See this page for how to join a town: Join a Town
- You are not logged in. Click here to log in: https://freecycle.org/login
When making a post, please do not put quotation marks ( " ) in the title. This will cause issues for other members trying to reply to the post. (1540)

Online messaging

Can't see the box to type a message when replying to a message. Try this: Zoom out in your browser to 100% or less. (1463)
Time/date stamps are not showing on messages when using the Safari browser on all devices, and when using any browser on iPad and iPhone. Please try using a different browser or device. (1409).
Not able to report another member. The Report Member link on a member profile is not currently working. To report a member, send a message to your town moderators. Provide the other member's username and explain why you are reporting them. (1760)
Not able to reply to a message about a post. It may be that the posting member has blocked one of the other members who replied to the post and this is stopping all messaging about that post. Please unblock the blocked member, reply to the member you want to communicate with, and then block the other member again. Here's more information on blocking and unblocking members. (2258)
Photos cannot be included in messages. This is being considered as a future feature.

Search and Search Results

Closed posts appear in search results. Clicking on a post that has been closed may result in a 410 error or a message that the post has been closed. This happens particularly with posts that had previously been edited and then closed. (1503)
Posts not found in search. Some items that are visible on the Dashboard, My Posts or Town page, particularly new posts, are not included in search results. (1472)
Items listed in a Digest email are not found in search or visible on Dashboard or Town page: Since posts in digest emails can be up to 24 hours old, there is a chance that the item has already been given away and the post removed.
US state and Canadian province abbreviations entered in Find Towns search do not produce a list of Towns in the requested state or province. Try this: spelling out the full name of the state or province in the search box to see a list of all towns. (1462)

Viewing and replying to posts

All posts for a Town don't display on Dashboard, even when you click Load More multiple times. This is related to filtering and is particularly noticeable when you filter your Dashboard on a specific Town and that Town has only a small number of posts. A workaround is to view the posts directly on the Town page. (1352).
No posts display on Dashboard, My Posts, or Town page. If you are using an older iPad, iPhone or Windows Vista or XP, See Operating Systems, Browsers, and Applications not working well. OR you need to Join a Town.
Clicking the "Show photos full size" link in the post details window doesn't enlarge the photo. If the photo was below the maximum allowed size when uploaded, then it will be enlarged when the link is clicked. If it was already the maximum size, it cannot be shown any larger.
Post appears grayed out and Reply button doesn't work. This may happen when the member who made the post included quotation marks ( " ) in the title. If you experience this, go to the Dashboard or Town page and locate the post in the listing there. Click on Reply from that listing and you should be able to send a Reply message. (1540)

Member Accounts and Account Settings

Signup: If you see a message that your username was not accepted when signing up, even after multiple entries, try tabbing or clicking into the next field to restart the username check. See this page for more information: Username not accepted for signup.
Unable to log in after resetting password. See this page for more information.
Member Since date is inaccurate. We are aware of this minor issue. (1184)
"Password" error when making changes to settings to changes other than password. This may be caused by your password manager (particularly Last Pass) trying to insert a password automatically. Try disabling or logging out of your password manager and then changing your settings.
Don't see a place to put a password when logging in or creating a new account? Try this: Close your browser tab and open an new one, then try signing up again.

Joining a Town

The map on the Find Towns page is not currently working. Please use this alternate map to find your nearest Freecycle town.

Error Messages

Error message in the 500 range (500, 503, etc.), is usually a code or server timeout issue. Specifically, a 503 error is probably an indication that what you were trying failed because some part of the system timed out (database, email, etc). This is likely temporary. Please try again later.
Error messages in the 400 range usually mean that the post or member profile you are trying to view is no longer available, possibly because the post was closed or is awaiting approval by the Town moderators. If you are clicking through from a Reply Online link in an email, try going to the Town page for the town the post was made in to see if the item is still available.

Alerts: The Alerts feature is currently online only. We are considering email alerts as a future feature (870)

Unsupported or problematic apps, operating systems and browsers: Please click here for more information.

Notes for Town Moderators

Automatic file sending (for example, Welcome email when a new member joins) is working intermittently. (1461)
It is not possible for a moderator to initiate a conversation with a member using My Messages This is by design. Mods who need to contact a member a Town should use Modtools to send the first message. You'll see that message and all replies in My Messages after that.

Last updated January 18, 2025