The URL redirected too many times

What it means

The origin kept answering with 3xx redirects rather than content, and the chain exceeded the three hops we are willing to follow.

Why it matters

Long redirect chains are usually a loop — commonly an authentication redirect bouncing back to a page that redirects again. Players apply their own limits, so a chain this long will fail for viewers too, and every hop adds start-up latency.

How to fix it

1. 1.Follow the chain by hand and find where it starts repeating.
2. 2.A redirect to a login page means the request is unauthenticated; add the token or Authorization header.
3. 3.Point at the final URL directly where you can — each hop costs a round trip on every playback.

Frequently asked questions

What does "The URL redirected too many times" mean?

The origin kept answering with 3xx redirects rather than content, and the chain exceeded the three hops we are willing to follow.

Why does it matter?

Long redirect chains are usually a loop — commonly an authentication redirect bouncing back to a page that redirects again. Players apply their own limits, so a chain this long will fail for viewers too, and every hop adds start-up latency.

How do I fix it?

1. Follow the chain by hand and find where it starts repeating. 2. A redirect to a login page means the request is unauthenticated; add the token or Authorization header. 3. Point at the final URL directly where you can — each hop costs a round trip on every playback.

How do I confirm this is the origin and not the player?

Run the URL through the stream tester, which reports the response the origin actually returned — status, headers, redirects and size — so you can separate a delivery fault from a manifest fault.

What is the first thing to try?

Follow the chain by hand and find where it starts repeating.

Related Fetching and delivery checks

• The browser blocked the request (CORS)Your browser refused to read the response because the origin did not send an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header.
• The origin returned an error statusThe server answered with a 4xx or 5xx status instead of the manifest, so there was nothing to analyze.
• That address cannot be reached from our serversThe URL resolves to a private or reserved address, so we will not connect to it from the server. Local mode tests it from your own browser instead.
• That is not a valid URLThe address could not be parsed, so no request was attempted.
• That URL scheme is not supportedOnly http and https can be fetched; schemes such as rtmp, rtsp and file cannot.
• The response was too largeThe document exceeded the size limit for a single analysis.