Guide
"Page not found" when I refresh a page or open a shared link
Updated
The app works when you click around. But refresh a page like the dashboard, or open a link someone shared, and you get "404 Page Not Found". For a customer following a link from an email or a post, that is a dead end.
Why it happens
Apps from AI builders are usually single-page apps: there is one real file, and the app draws each page itself. Clicking inside never asks the server for that page. Refreshing does, and the server has no such file.
Possible causes
- The host has no rule to serve the app for every path, so any address except the home page answers 404 (Netlify and Vercel both need this).
- A link from an email, a post or a bookmark goes straight to the server instead of through the app.
- The app moved to a new host, and the old host's routing rule was not carried over.
You can't see it yourself
You're signed in, your customers aren't. You get around by clicking from the home page, which never asks the server for the inner page. Visitors arriving by link do.
Related: My builder says the app is tested, but my customers hit problems · It works in the preview but breaks after I deploy · Why my first customer leaves without telling me
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