RSS Feeds
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      Revalidating Your RSS Feed in Letterhead

      Learn how to troubleshoot common RSS feed errors, resolve issues, and revalidate your feeds in Letterhead to keep your curations library up to date.

      Letterhead automatically crawls each RSS feed you add, retrying up to five times. If more than five consecutive errors occur, the feed is marked invalid and an email is sent to your channel admins with the error details and suggested next steps.

      What’s Inside the Notification Email

      When a feed is flagged invalid, the notification includes:

      • Error reason: A brief description of what went wrong

      • Suggested actions: Steps to resolve the issue

      • Helpful resources: A link to the full list of RSS errors and root causes (Full RSS error guide)

      Common Errors & Resolution Steps

      1. Unable to Pull Content
        Cause: The feed returned no items (empty or no new content).
        Resolution:

        • Open the feed URL in a browser to confirm valid XML with <channel> and at least one <item>.

        • Use a validator (e.g., W3C Feed Validator) to catch formatting issues.

        • Publish new items to the feed, then revalidate.

      2. Unable to Access Feed
        Cause: The crawler can’t reach the feed (URL is wrong or blocked).
        Resolution:

        • Verify the feed URL is correct and accessible in your browser.

        • Safelist these domains on your server: *.tryletterhead.com, letterhead.email, letterhead.ai.

        • Ensure your server recognizes our crawler’s User-Agent: “Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; LetterheadCurationBot/1.0; +http://tryletterhead.com/bots)”.

      3. Too Many Requests
        Cause: Your feed is throttling or rate-limiting access.
        Resolution:

        • Work with your RSS Feed admin to adjust throttling rules or increase rate limits.

        • Wait a few minutes before revalidating.

      4. An Unexpected Feed Error Occurred
        Cause: An internal processing issue on our end.
        Resolution:

        • Wait 30–60 minutes, then try again.

        • If it persists, contact Letterhead Support.

      5. Service Unavailable
        Cause: The feed’s source server is offline or overloaded.
        Resolution:

        • Confirm the feed source is online.

        • Retry later; if downtime continues, reach out to your RSS feed provider.

      6. Bad Gateway
        Cause: The feed’s source returned an invalid response or gateway error.
        Resolution:

        • Ensure the feed source is operational.

        • Retry after a short interval, or contact your RSS feed provider if errors continue.

      💡 Note: Ensure you’ve fully resolved the root cause on your feed or its source server before attempting to revalidate.

      How to Revalidate Your Feed

      1. Using the left navigation bar go to Newsletters > Curations.

      2. On the Curations page, select the RSS Feeds tab.

      3. Locate the feed marked Invalid.

      4. Click the Revalidate button on the right-hand side.

      5. The status will update to Valid (green) if the issue is resolved.

       

      Need Help?

      If you have questions or need assistance, please contact our support team at support@tryletterhead.com or log a support ticket through the Help Center!