Retrieved unsupported status code “403”

  • Resolved worlok

    (@worlok)


    5 months, 3 weeks ago

    Migrated free to v5. My v4 feeds used to fetch fine now getting this a lot:

    Retrieved unsupported status code “403”

    Hitting the feed URL in the browser immediately gives me the feed code so it’s not being refused from the feed site AFAIK. It’s a Reddit feed but I’ve never had issues with them until v5.

    Has there been a change that would cause Reddit to reject feed requests? I found these suggestions online about Reddit rejecting feed requests:

    Potential Solutions from Reddit Users and Developers

    Users and developers on Reddit and GitHub have suggested several workarounds: 

    • Use the old.reddit.com Subdomain: Many users found success by changing the feed URL from www.reddit.com... to old.reddit.com.... This subdomain may have less stringent bot-detection mechanisms.
    • Modify Request Headers: Configure your RSS aggregator to send a custom User-Agent string that mimics a standard web browser. This often helps bypass the restriction by making the request appear as a normal browser request.
    • Disable Cookies/DNT Header: Some users found success by disabling cookies in the aggregator’s internal browser or ensuring the “Do Not Track” (DNT) header is not sent, as its presence can sometimes cause the request to be flagged.
    • Adjust Fetch Frequency: If your aggregator allows it, reduce how often it checks for new posts (e.g., from every 30 minutes to every hour or more) to avoid hitting rate limits and getting your server’s IP banned.
    • Contact the Aggregator’s Developer: The issue might be specific to how your particular RSS aggregator application handles requests. Check the application’s support forums or GitHub discussions for known issues and potential patches or configuration changes. 
    • This topic was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by worlok.
    • This topic was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by worlok.
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 24 total)
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  • Plugin Support Hendra Setiawan

    (@hendcorp)

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hi @worlok

    Thanks for sharing the details so far.

    To help us investigate this further, could you please share the exact RSS feed URL that is returning the 403 error? Once we have the specific feed URL, we can test it on our end and take a closer look at how it is responding to requests.

    This will allow us to better understand what is causing the issue and determine the best possible solution for your setup.

    Looking forward to your reply.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Ok don’t laugh.

    ANY reddit feed link does this, but here are 2 in different frms and it doesn’t work with either.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/.rss

    https://old.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/.rss

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    V4 worked fine with reddit rss feeds, for years. Now this v5 complains about 403 error.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Blogging/.rss

    ANY reddit subreddit URL with an appended “.rss” should work as a feed.

    Plugin Support Hendra Setiawan

    (@hendcorp)

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hi @worlok

    Thanks for sharing the feed URLs.

    I checked them using the W3C Feed Validator and found that the RSS feeds are not valid. Because of this, Aggregator is not able to process and import the content correctly.

    Aggregator requires a valid RSS feed in order to work as expected, and this is especially important in version 5, which follows stricter feed parsing and validation rules than previous versions.

    At this point, the best next step would be to have the feed issues resolved at the source. Once the feeds validate successfully, Aggregator should be able to import them without any problems.

    If you have any other feed URLs you would like us to test, feel free to share them and we will be happy to take a look.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    5 months, 1 week ago

    It always complained about Reddit feeds but v4 still showed them.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    5 months ago

    So let me get this striaght. Your earlier version supplied these feeds just fine. If you put those feed URLs into a browser you get a feed. But because there is some tool out there that doesnt think it’s valid you don’t support when earlier versions did?

    Now I have to look for another aggreggator.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    5 months ago

    Thanks for screwing up my sites by not allowing less than perfect (but still valid because they do supply a feed) feeds to be shown. You couldn’t just leave v4 alone and fix the simplepie errors?

    Plugin Support Hendra Setiawan

    (@hendcorp)

    5 months ago

    Hi @worlok

    You’re absolutely right that version 4 was more tolerant of feeds like Reddit’s. Regarding the SimplePie error you mentioned, we have already released a fix for that in Aggregator version 5.0.10.

    The important part is that updating to version 5.0.10 does not force you to migrate to version 5. You can safely update the plugin to 5.0.10 and continue using the version 4 interface and workflow, while benefiting from the SimplePie fixes included in that release.

    In other words, this update allows you to keep using Aggregator as you did before, without changing your setup, while resolving the SimplePie errors.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    5 months ago

    But I went through the “upgrade” process as per your instructions, not knowing it would be this much of a problem, so I can’t just downgrade to that version, or can I?

    I really wish you could make it tolerant of less than perfect feed b/c let me tell you there are A LOT of them out there.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    5 months ago

    Then there is this:

    Support and maintenance for Aggregator v4 has been extended to January 31, 2026. After this date, the plugin will continue working, but it will no longer be maintained and supported.

    We strongly recommend migrating to v5 for continuous support and updates.


    So if WordPress makes changes after that and it breaks we’re still stuck?
    Will all v5 updates still work with V4 “settings” or do we have to stay on this early version of 5 and how long will that even be good for?

    Plugin Support Hendra Setiawan

    (@hendcorp)

    4 months, 4 weeks ago

    Hi @worlok

    I understand where you’re coming from, and I appreciate you sticking with us while we work through this.

    To answer your question first: yes, you can roll back to version 4. If you have already gone through the migration process, you can use the built-in rollback option to return to the v4 interface and behavior. You can refer to our documentation here.

    This allows you to keep using Aggregator as you did before, while deciding on the best next steps.

    Regarding your comment about tolerating less-than-perfect feeds, this is something we are actively looking into. We know that many real-world feeds are not fully compliant, and improving tolerance is an ongoing effort on our side. We have also replied to your other thread here.

    Based on our latest testing with the current version, Aggregator is able to import feeds from Google News successfully. Please take a moment to review our reply there, as it may help clarify what we’re seeing on our end.

    While we do recommend migrating to version 5 for long-term support and updates, we always suggest testing the migration on a staging copy first. That way, if anything unexpected comes up, we can help investigate and resolve it without affecting your live site.

    We understand this has been frustrating, and we appreciate your feedback. Let us know how you’d like to proceed, and we’ll do our best to assist you.

    Thanks again for your patience.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    4 months, 3 weeks ago

    I have my main news aggregator site running v5 but thanks to the lesson learned on my other site I didn’t do the migration, so right now that one is working and processing Reddit feeds JUST FINE and everything else is working, but if I never do the migration I fear that at some point it’ll stop working, so it’s important that you make the migrated v5 more tolerant.

    Unfortunately the feed page on my UFO site is now not working correctly. I’ll have to look at that rollback thing but if it’s complicated and deals with DB stuff it’s not for me I’ll probably break it worse.

    If you guys want to convert free people to paid, this kind of upgrade is NOT the way to do it…

    Plugin Support Hendra Setiawan

    (@hendcorp)

    4 months, 3 weeks ago

    Hi @worlok

    As mentioned in our reply here, I took a closer look and ran additional tests on our end using the Google News RSS feed you shared.

    Based on our testing, Aggregator v5 is able to import and update items from that feed as expected, without any issues.

    As a next step, could you please try creating a brand new source using the exact same Google News RSS feed URL and check whether the same behavior occurs there?

    This will help us determine whether the issue is related to the migration from version 4 or to Aggregator behavior in general.

    Looking forward to your update so we can narrow this down further.

    Thread Starter worlok

    (@worlok)

    4 months, 3 weeks ago

    Well, on my UFO site the Google feed last article is 12/28, but I use that same feed on my tech site and over there it’s also 12/28 so it might just be that there are no new items yet for that feed.

    On my UFO site the rest of the feeds are either reddit ones that we know are broken after migration or other feeds that just don’t update with new items all the time so they are not good for testing this.

    I will have to get another Google feed added and test with that and report back.

    Plugin Support Hendra Setiawan

    (@hendcorp)

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hi @worlok

    Thanks for checking and confirming that.

    If the Google News feed shows the same last update date on both sites, then it does sound like there simply haven’t been any new items published yet for that feed.

    Testing with another Google News feed or a different feed that updates more frequently would be a good next step. That will help us clearly determine whether everything is working as expected on the migrated v5 setup.

    Feel free to update us once you’ve had a chance to test, and we’ll be happy to take it from there.

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