TweetLater’s Twitter API Issue – Explanation and Status
Update Wednesday, 11:17 PM EST: Fingers crossed. It looks as if the Twitter API issue has been solved.
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Around last week Wednesday (March 25) we started noticing an increasing number of Twitter API calls getting an HTTP response code of 0 from the PHP cURL call to the API.
On Friday (March 27) the issue reached such proportions that we submitted a Twitter API issue. It was clear at that point that it wasn’t just a temporary glitch in the matrix.
Initially, the Twitter folks thought the issue was a networking problem on our side of the fence, which is quite understandable.
We, with the help of our hosting provider’s technicians, ran tests to troubleshoot the issue.
On Saturday morning we ran conclusive tests that showed the following:
- Calls to the Twitter Search API and to any other web site went through without any issue.
- Calls to the Twitter API went through sometimes, and other times received a Connection Refused, which resulted in the HTTP response code of 0 in the PHP cURL call.
Those tests showed that it was not a networking issue on our side, because only calls to the Twitter API experienced the problem.
Since it was weekend, not much further could be done at that point. We sent through the details to Twitter.
On Monday Twitter further investigated and determined that the issue was not with the site rate limit of TweetLater. We were well within the 20,000 API calls per hour limit.
The logical conclusion was that something somewhere on the Twitter network is (seemingly) randomly blocking API calls from our IP address. This could be a switch, router, firewall, etc.
Currently the Twitter operations staff and hosting provider technicians are investigating to see if they can pinpoint the problem.
There is unfortunately no time to resolution yet, until such time that they can actually pinpoint the root cause of the problem.
We’ll update this post with new information as it becomes available.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but please understand that the problem is out of our hands.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:41 am
Thanks for the explanation. Hoping to have you back soon.
March 31st, 2009 at 11:06 am
Thanks for the update! I love the Tweetlater services and up till now I found both your free services and the Pro services outstanding! I hope this get resolved soon for all our sake!
Best Regards Anteek
March 31st, 2009 at 11:09 am
thanks for the update. Will any calls we made be sent when it is fixed or are they lost forever
March 31st, 2009 at 11:47 am
Appreciate the update. Thanks for keeping us posted.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Once processing resumes, the system will pick up new followers that followed you since the last time your account was checked. That you can see when you click the Auto Stats menu tab.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Switching IP addresses is not so easy because the site's Twitter whitelisting is connected to the IP address.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Yeah Twitter has definitely been slow.
The software that I've written that auto-tweets 24/7 is still going strong though – hopefully that doesn't get affected soon.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:42 pm
thanks for the update. But I swear I didn't let the hamster out of the cage.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:36 pm
It would be great if this got resolved ASAP, because I'm having to spend about 7 hours a day manually doing what Tweetlater usually does in the background for the Twitter accounts I manage for my job.
And the whole “her having to pay for 7 hours a day of my time to do these tasks” thing is KIND of putting a dent in my campaign to get my boss to sign up for Tweetlater's Pro service. :/
March 31st, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I am new to TweetLater. On some of my tweets I see a white circle with a black square in the middle. Is this an indication that the tweet failed?
March 31st, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Well I'm not sure what API is but I'm guessing that it has something to do with why I cannot set up my Tweetlater account huh? Any idea on how much longer this will take?
March 31st, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I'm hoping Twitter can get this resolved ASAP as well.
On the positive side, I am very glad to hear that TweetLater normally saves you 7 hours per day!
March 31st, 2009 at 1:49 pm
It means the recurring tweet has been published the number of times that you indicated as the maximum number of times it should be published.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Are you close to having a resolution on this?
March 31st, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Thanks!
So, is there any indication on my screens of which tweets are making it through and which ones are not?
March 31st, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Thanks for explaining. I've been there with those router problems. Not fun.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:09 pm
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/31/twitter-to...
You see that article? I wonder if they're killing you off.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Looks like it's working again!
March 31st, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I noticed that my automatic replies to people who follow me stopped working on the 27/28 of March. I see a few coming through every once in a while. Is this a symptom of the issues you mentioned here? Will it be remedied when this issue is solved?
March 31st, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Tweetlater is headed for the deadpool.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I left the recurrence box empty on all my tweets and yet many of them are showing up with the little dots saying they have reached their recurrence limit. Why would that be? Also, both my “spinnable” tweets were disabled. Could this Twitter issue be the reason for these issues?
Love Your Product,
ShellyB
March 31st, 2009 at 10:22 pm
On Thursday, after a good night's sleep so I don't mess up things, I will extend everyone's free trial.
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Thanx for the update, I have been without your services for over 5 days now….will it be running again soon?