Skip to content

Add environment-level troubleshooting guide for API authentication #1337

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
goodnessnwajichukwu wants to merge 1 commit into
base: master
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Add environment-level troubleshooting guide for API authentication #1337

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
19 changes: 19 additions & 0 deletions docs/-troubleshooting.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
---

## Environment-Level Troubleshooting for API Issues

In some cases, API authentication or connectivity errors may not originate from Pi-hole itself, but from the local system or network environment. Before assuming the API is malfunctioning, check the following common setup issues.

### Common Causes

| Issue | Description | What to Verify |
|------|-------------|----------------|
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

@PromoFaux PromoFaux Feb 7, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

The linter is complaining about how the table was formatted.

The | and the other characters should be separated by a space

- |------|-------------|----------------|
+ | ------ | ------------- | ---------------- |

| Port conflicts | Another service may already be using ports required by Pi-hole (commonly 80 or 443). | Stop other local web servers or check active ports using system tools. |
| Reverse proxy interference | Reverse proxies (e.g., Nginx, Apache, Traefik) may modify headers or routes. | Review proxy configuration and ensure API requests are forwarded correctly. |
| Local DNS overrides | Entries in `/etc/hosts` or custom DNS rules may redirect requests incorrectly. | Confirm that the API hostname resolves to the correct IP address. |
| Container networking issues | In container setups, using `localhost` instead of the service name can cause connection failures. | Use the container service name within Docker networks. |
| Firewall restrictions | Local firewall rules may block internal API communication. | Temporarily disable firewall rules to test connectivity. |

### Why This Check Is Important

These environment-level issues can produce errors that resemble API failures, even when Pi-hole is functioning normally. Verifying the local setup first can help reduce unnecessary troubleshooting and support requests.
Loading