You're staring at it again. That annoying, grey-and-white loading screen or the spinning circle that says one more step before you proceed... deepseek. It feels like you’re trying to get into a club where the bouncer just won't look at your ID.
DeepSeek has basically exploded. It’s the new favorite child of the AI world, and honestly, its servers are screaming for mercy. When you see that "one more step" message, it’s usually not a bug in your computer. It’s a traffic jam.
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Think of it like this: DeepSeek’s infrastructure is currently a two-lane highway, but the entire world just showed up in semi-trucks at the same time. The "one more step" screen is the toll booth trying to keep the whole thing from collapsing. It's frustrating when you're in the middle of a coding session or trying to draft a long email, but there are actually a few specific reasons why this happens and real ways to bypass it.
The Reality Behind the One More Step Before You Proceed DeepSeek Wall
Most people assume their internet is down. It isn't.
The prompt one more step before you proceed... deepseek is primarily a Cloudflare or high-traffic mitigation screen. DeepSeek, being a Chinese-based AI powerhouse, has seen a massive surge in global users following the release of their R1 model. Everyone realized they could get GPT-4 level performance for a fraction of the cost—or for free—and they flocked there.
High demand equals security checks. The site needs to make sure you aren’t a bot trying to scrape their model or a DDoS attack trying to take them offline. If your IP address looks a bit "noisy" or if you're using a VPN that hundreds of other people are also using to access DeepSeek, you’re going to get flagged.
It’s about resource management. DeepSeek uses a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture. While that makes the model efficient, the web interface still has to handle millions of concurrent WebSocket connections. When those connections peak, the "one more step" gatekeeper drops down to throttle the intake.
Why Your Browser Might Be the Problem
Sometimes it’s not the server. It’s you. Well, it’s your browser's "junk drawer."
If you have a dozen extensions running—especially ad blockers or "privacy protectors"—they might be stripping away the very cookies DeepSeek needs to verify you’re a human. Cloudflare, which often sits in front of these big AI sites, hates it when a browser looks "headless" or automated.
I’ve seen cases where a simple Grammarly extension or a rogue VPN browser add-on triggers the one more step before you proceed... deepseek loop. You click the box, it refreshes, and then it asks you again. It’s a loop of doom.
Try opening an Incognito window. Seriously. It sounds like basic IT advice from 2005, but in the world of modern web security, it’s often the quickest way to see if your extensions are sabotaging your AI sessions. If it works in Incognito, you know one of your add-ons is the culprit.
Scaling Issues and the R1 Surge
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: DeepSeek-R1.
When DeepSeek released the weights for R1, the hype went orbital. Because R1 uses reinforcement learning to "think" through problems—evidenced by those little thought blocks you see in the UI—it takes more compute time per request than a standard chat model.
When the server is busy processing someone else's complex 5,000-line Python script, you might be stuck at the one more step before you proceed... deepseek screen just waiting for a slot to open up. It's a queue, disguised as a security check.
DeepSeek’s growth has been faster than their hardware acquisition in some regions. While they have massive clusters in China, their global edge nodes (the servers closer to you in the US or Europe) can get overwhelmed. This leads to latency. Latency leads to timeouts. Timeouts lead to—you guessed it—the verification screen.
The VPN Paradox
You’d think a VPN would help. Often, it makes it worse.
If you’re tunneling through a popular server in San Jose or London, Cloudflare sees thousands of requests coming from that single IP address. To the security system, that looks like a botnet. You’ll get hit with the one more step before you proceed... deepseek prompt every single time you click a button.
If you must use a VPN, try a less crowded server or a dedicated IP. Better yet, try turning it off just to get past the initial handshake. Once you're in and the session cookie is set, you can often turn it back on, though your mileage may vary.
How to Actually Get Through
Stop clicking refresh like a maniac. It doesn't help. It actually makes the server think you’re a bot, which extends your "timeout" period.
First, check the official DeepSeek status pages or community forums like Reddit’s r/DeepSeek. If the servers are legitimately down for maintenance, no amount of "stepping" will get you through.
Second, look at your DNS settings. Switching to Google DNS (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1) can sometimes resolve routing issues that cause the verification screen to hang. It’s a small tweak that stabilizes the connection between your home router and the DeepSeek entry nodes.
Third, if you're a developer or a heavy user, stop using the web interface entirely during peak hours. The DeepSeek API is far more stable. While the web UI might be stuck on one more step before you proceed... deepseek, the API often breezes right through because it uses a different authentication method (API keys) that doesn't rely on browser-based Cloudflare challenges.
There are plenty of "Third-Party UI" tools where you can plug in your DeepSeek API key and get a much smoother experience. It costs a few cents, but it saves your sanity.
Hard Refresh vs. Simple Refresh
If you're on a Mac, hit Command + Shift + R. On Windows, it’s Ctrl + F5.
A standard refresh just reloads the page using cached files. A "hard" refresh forces the browser to re-download everything from the server. This can clear out a "stuck" verification token that’s keeping you trapped in the one more step before you proceed... deepseek cycle.
It’s also worth checking if your system clock is accurate. It sounds weird, but security certificates and "step" verifications rely on timestamps. If your computer clock is off by even a few minutes, the handshake fails, and the site will keep asking you to "proceed" because it thinks the request is expired.
Practical Steps to Avoid the Loop
Nobody wants to solve puzzles all day just to ask an AI for a recipe or a code snippet.
- Clear your cache for the specific domain: You don’t have to wipe your whole history. Just go into settings and delete cookies for deepseek.com.
- Switch browsers: If Chrome is acting up, Firefox or Brave might handle the scripts differently.
- Check for "Beta" features: If you're opted into any experimental DeepSeek UI features, disable them. They are often less stable and more likely to trigger security flags.
- Timing is everything: DeepSeek traffic usually peaks during US business hours and late evening in Beijing. If you can shift your heavy work to the "gap" between these time zones, you'll rarely see the verification screen.
The one more step before you proceed... deepseek message is basically a growing pain. As DeepSeek scales their global infrastructure and optimizes their load balancing, these hurdles will likely fade. Until then, treat it like a busy restaurant. If the front door is crowded, try the side door (Incognito) or come back when the rush is over.
To keep your workflow moving, start by disabling any heavy-duty ad blockers specifically for the DeepSeek domain. If that fails, move your session to a clean browser profile without any extensions. For those who can't afford the downtime, setting up a basic API-based chat interface like LibreChat or TypingMind with a DeepSeek API key is the most reliable long-term fix. It bypasses the web-tier "step" checks entirely and gives you direct access to the model's brain.