You're scrolling through a thread about the best way to seasoning a cast-iron skillet or maybe checking the latest score on a match thread when it hits. The screen goes white. Or maybe a little Snoo mascot looks at you with dead eyes. The message is blunt: reddit we had a server error. It’s frustrating. It’s annoying. Most of all, it’s incredibly common.
Reddit is basically the front page of the internet, but that page feels like it’s held together by duct tape sometimes. When the site hits a snag, it isn't always because the whole company is underwater. Sometimes it’s just your browser throwing a tantrum. Other times, the CDN (Content Delivery Network) is having a bad day.
Look, we've all been there. You refresh. You refresh again. You toggle your Wi-Fi on and off like a ritual. But understanding why this happens and how to bypass it can save you from staring at a loading icon for twenty minutes.
What's actually happening when you see reddit we had a server error?
Most people think "server error" means a literal computer in a dark room in San Francisco has caught fire. It’s rarely that dramatic.
Reddit relies heavily on a complex architecture of microservices. Think of it like a massive kitchen. One person is making the toast, another is frying eggs, and someone else is pouring coffee. If the guy making the toast drops the bread, the whole breakfast is delayed. On Reddit, one service handles your "karma," another handles the "comments," and a third handles the "ads." If the comment service lags, the whole page might fail to load, resulting in that dreaded reddit we had a server error message.
The Role of Fastly and CDNs
Reddit uses a service called Fastly. It’s a Content Delivery Network. Basically, Fastly keeps "copies" of Reddit on servers all over the world so the site loads faster for you. If Fastly has a hiccup—which happened famously in June 2021—half the internet goes down. When this happens, there is literally nothing you can do but wait. You can't fix a global infrastructure outage with a router reboot.
Is it them or is it you?
The first thing you have to do is figure out if the problem is local.
- Check DownDetector. This is the gold standard. If you see a massive spike in reports, it’s not your phone. It’s Reddit.
- The Incognito Trick. Open a private or incognito window. If Reddit loads there, one of your browser extensions (usually an ad-blocker) is clashing with Reddit’s code.
- App Cache. If you’re on mobile, the app stores a lot of junk. Go into your phone settings, find Reddit, and "Clear Cache." Do not "Clear Data" unless you want to log back in again.
Honestly, the mobile app is notorious for this. It’s often much buggier than the desktop site. If the app is giving you the reddit we had a server error loop, try opening Reddit in your mobile browser. If it works there, the app is just being flaky.
Dealing with the "Status 500" and "Status 503" nonsense
You might see specific numbers if you’re tech-savvy enough to look at the developer console. A 500 error is a "Internal Server Error." That’s the "it’s not you, it’s me" of the internet. Reddit’s code messed up. A 503 error means the service is "Unavailable" or overloaded. This usually happens during huge news events—think elections, Super Bowls, or when a massive AMA goes viral.
The site basically gets hugged to death.
Why Reddit is more fragile than other sites
Facebook and Google rarely go down. Why does Reddit struggle? It’s because of the way the site is built. Every time you upvote a post, that data has to be reconciled across thousands of servers. Reddit deals with a massive amount of "write" operations (voting, commenting) compared to "read" operations (just looking). This makes their database incredibly heavy. When a thread gets 50,000 comments in an hour, the database starts to sweat.
Practical steps to bypass the error
If you are desperate to read a specific thread and the site is acting up, you have options.
- Google Cache: Search for the URL on Google, click the three dots next to the result, and hit "Cached." It’ll show you a snapshot of the page from before it crashed.
- Unddit or Reveddit: These are third-party tools usually used for seeing deleted comments, but they often pull from different data streams and might work when the main site is wonky.
- The "Old" Reddit trick: This is the most reliable "hack" in the book. If
www.reddit.comis giving you the reddit we had a server error, try going toold.reddit.com. The old version of the site is much lighter. It doesn't use the same "Redesign" API that the modern site does. Often, the old site will stay up while the new site is crashing. It’s ugly, it looks like it’s from 2005, but it works.
When to just give up
Sometimes, Reddit goes into "Read Only" mode. This is a deliberate choice by their engineers. They disable voting and commenting so the site stays searchable while they fix the backend. If you can see posts but can't reply, you're in the "Read Only" zone.
There is no fix for this.
You’ve just got to go outside. Or go to X (formerly Twitter). Or check a different forum.
The reality is that reddit we had a server error is part of the user experience. It’s the price we pay for a platform that hosts millions of subcultures. Reddit’s engineering team, led by their CTO, has made huge strides in the last few years to move to more stable cloud infrastructure, but when you have 50 million daily active users, things break.
Quick Fix Checklist
If you're seeing the error right now:
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- Refresh three times. No more.
- Try
old.reddit.comin your browser. - Turn off your VPN. Sometimes Reddit flags VPN IP addresses as "suspicious" and serves an error page to prevent scraping.
- Check the official Reddit Status page. They are surprisingly honest about when things are broken.
Reddit is a giant, messy, beautiful disaster of a website. Most of the time, a server error is just a five-minute blip while a server somewhere restarts.
Actionable Next Steps
To minimize seeing this error in the future, consider using a third-party browser extension like "Old Reddit Redirect." This forces your browser to use the more stable legacy version of the site. Additionally, always keep your Reddit app updated to the latest version, as many "server errors" on mobile are actually just bugs in the app's communication with the API. If you're on a desktop, clearing your "Cookies and Site Data" for Reddit specifically—not your whole history—can often resolve persistent login-related server errors.