Guides troubleshooting checklist

Troubleshoot Visual Design Studio launch issues

If you can't open the Visual Design Studio to edit a guide or tag Pages and Features, start with these checks. First, confirm that Pendo is installed on the page you're opening.

Note: If multiple users are affected at the same time, check Pendo's status page for active incidents before troubleshooting individual browsers.

Check communication between Pendo and your application

If the Visual Design Studio opens from the browser console but not from Pendo, your application's Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy (COOP) can be blocking the window.opener reference used for launch communication.

1. Start the Visual Design Studio launch from Pendo.
2. In the application tab that Pendo opens, open the browser developer console.
3. Enter window.opener and press Enter.

If the result is null, the opener reference is unavailable. COOP can cause this; your development team can check the application's response headers to confirm. Run this check in the tab opened by Pendo, because a tab you open directly can also return null.

Allow URL-based launch

Subscription admins can allow Pendo to pass temporary, encoded launch data in the application's URL instead of relying on window.opener.

1. Go to Settings > Subscription settings > Applications and select the guide's application.
2. Open Tagging & Guide Settings. Under Basic Settings, clear the checkbox that disables designer launch from a URL token.
3. Try launching the Visual Design Studio again.

For Page or Feature tagging, change this setting on your subscription's default application instead. Pendo uses the default application's settings because it doesn't know which application you're tagging until the Visual Design Studio opens.

If your application removes the ?pendo-designer= query parameter before Pendo can read it, URL-based launch can't complete. Use the console or bookmarklet workaround instead.

Launch from the console or a bookmarklet

These alternatives let you launch without changing your application's COOP policy.

1. Start the launch from Pendo for the guide or tagging task.
2. In the application tab that opens, open the browser developer console.
3. Enter pendo.designerv2.launchInAppDesigner() and press Enter.

If the console command works, you can save it as a bookmarklet. A bookmarklet is a browser bookmark that runs code instead of opening a webpage.

1. Create a browser bookmark, or edit an existing bookmark, and name it Launch Visual Design Studio.
2. Set its URL to javascript:pendo.designerv2.launchInAppDesigner(); and save it.
3. After starting the launch from Pendo, select the saved bookmark while viewing your application tab.

Check browser and session settings

• No application tab opens. Check other browser windows, allow pop-ups for Pendo and your application, and turn off ad blockers for both sites.
• The application doesn't load. Confirm the application URL, sign in to your application if needed, and try launching with the final URL if your application redirects.
• An authentication error appears. Sign in to Pendo again and confirm that your browser allows Pendo cookies.
• The launch remains stuck. Confirm that local storage is allowed. If the other checks don't resolve the issue, clear cookies and local storage for pendo.io, sign in again, and retry. This signs you out of Pendo; clearing all browser data isn't necessary.

If the Visual Design Studio reports changes to native JavaScript methods, follow the JavaScript method checks.

Contact support if the launch still fails

If the applicable checks don't resolve the issue, contact Pendo Support and include:

• Your browser and version
• Your Pendo Web SDK version, available by entering pendo.VERSION in the application console
• The application URL
• The window.opener result from the tab opened by Pendo
• Any browser console errors
• Whether pendo.designerv2.launchInAppDesigner() opens the Visual Design Studio

One or more guides or guide steps aren’t appearing

Basic configuration

Please confirm that each of the following is true:

• The guides haven’t been seen by ‌visitors.
• The visitor is included in the guide’s targeted segment.
• The guide isn’t being restricted by guide throttling.
• The page matches the Page location of the first (or only) step of the guide.
• The matched element is visible and the CSS selector is valid (if applicable).
• If using a programmatic activation, the proper method and parameters are used, like pendo.showGuideById(‘GUIDE_ID’).
• The guide is accurately targeted to the intended domain, public or staging.
• The domain (public or staging) you're expecting aligns with the status of the guide.
• The current date, time, and day of the week match the schedule window of the guide (if applicable).
• The device settings under "Advanced" are accurately assigned.
• The correct guide transition type is selected.

Multi-step guide left early by a user is reset to step 1

For multi-step guides, if you close the browser window or tab, Pendo remembers the guide step you were on for up to 12 hours. When you reopen the same Page or Product Area, the guide resumes at the last step you viewed.

To retain progress, you must remain eligible for the guide segment, and no other guide activates within that 12-hour period. If you become ineligible, view another guide, or exceed the 12-hour limit, the guide resets to step 1.

Advanced troubleshooting items

The items below are intended for more technical users. Provide screen captures of the below console command results if you need to contact our support team.

• If your application has iframes, note that the URL for the frame(s) is likely different than the URL shown in the browser menu bar. Each of these underlying URLs will require an instance of the Pendo Snippet. Use pendo.getURL() to determine how Pendo reads the page URL.
• When opening the developer console, running pendo.guides has results ([ ] is considered "no results") and pendo.validateInstall()shows accurate metadata.

Pendo data is missing or incomplete

Basic configuration

Confirm each of the following are true:

• Verify date range and segment filters are displaying for the information you're expecting to see.
• The user, account, domain, and IP aren't currently excluded.
• The user, account, domain, and IP are currently included (if applicable).
• The top-of-hour processing time frame (30 minutes) has passed and expected data isn't showing.
• The API keys inside your install script are the same as the key listed in your subscription settings.

Pendo is causing issues for your product

If you determine Pendo is causing issues for your product, contact our support team.

Confirm each of the following are true:

• If applicable, comment out any recent changes for global CSS and confirm the issue is no longer present.
• Open the console in your web-browser and verify the command pendo.validateInstall() runs without error.
• Open the console in your web-browser and verify that the console contains no errors related to the Pendo Web SDK.
• Change the suspected guides to Staging or Inactive and confirm that the issue is no longer present.