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Scanner Errors

Symptom A: Scan fails with "Could not reach URL"​

Causes:

  • Site is behind a login or password protection
  • Site blocks headless Chrome user agents
  • Site is only accessible on a private network / VPN

Fix:

  • Ensure the URL is publicly accessible without authentication
  • If you use bot protection (Cloudflare, Imperva), allowlist the ConsentForge scanner IP range: check Scanner → Settings → Scanner IP ranges for current IPs
  • For staging environments on a private network, use a tunnel tool (ngrok, Cloudflare Tunnel) to expose temporarily during scanning

Symptom B: Scan completes but finds very few cookies​

Causes:

  • Many scripts load only after user interaction (scroll, click, form submit)
  • Site uses heavy client-side rendering — scripts load asynchronously after page ready

Fix:

  • Use crawl mode to scan multiple pages
  • Run a manual scan after accepting all consent (the scanner does this automatically, but check the "post-consent" findings tab)
  • For SPAs, enable Scanner → Settings → Wait for dynamic content (extends scan time by 5s)

Symptom C: Scanner finds cookies that aren't on the live site​

Cause: Scanner cache from a previous scan run. Old findings are retained unless manually dismissed.

Fix: Mark resolved findings as Ignored in Scanner → Findings → [Finding] → Ignore.

Symptom D: Scan stuck in "Running" for more than 5 minutes​

Cause: Scanner worker timeout due to page taking too long to load or an unresponsive resource.

Fix: Cancel the scan (Scanner → [Scan] → Cancel) and try again. If it consistently times out, check for very slow third-party resources on your page that might be blocking page load.

Scheduled scan not running​

Cause: Scheduled scans are paused if 3 consecutive scans fail.

Fix: Scanner → Scheduled Scans → [Schedule] → Resume. Fix the underlying access issue first.