How to Fix Link Preview Problems
Link preview broken? Here's how to diagnose and fix the most common problems — starting with the quickest checks first.
-> Check what your page is actually showing with TryUnfurl
Step 1 — Confirm what platforms actually see
Before changing anything, paste your URL into TryUnfurl.com. This tells you exactly what metadata platform crawlers are reading from your page — the same way Slack, Discord, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter see it.
This single step tells you whether the problem is:
- Your metadata — TryUnfurl shows missing or wrong values → fix your tags
- Platform cache — TryUnfurl shows correct values but the platform shows wrong → clear the cache
- Inaccessible page — TryUnfurl returns an error → fix the URL or server
Fix: Wrong or Missing Title / Description
Add or correct the Open Graph tags in your HTML <head>:
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Correct Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="Your accurate description under 155 characters.">
If the tags are present but showing old content, your CDN may be caching old HTML. Purge the CDN cache for that URL, redeploy, then re-test on TryUnfurl.
Fix: No Preview Image (or Wrong Image)
Check these in order:
- Is
og:imagepresent? — search your page source forog:image. If missing, add it. - Is the URL absolute HTTPS? —
/images/og.jpgwon't work. Usehttps://yourdomain.com/images/og.jpg - Does the image load publicly? — paste the image URL into a private/incognito window. If it doesn't load, crawlers can't get it.
- Is the image large enough? — minimum 600 × 315 px; recommended 1200 × 630 px
- Are dimensions declared? — add
og:image:widthandog:image:height
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-image.jpg">
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200">
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630">
Fix: No Preview Card at All
If no preview appears on any platform:
- Check for Open Graph tags — view your page source (
Ctrl+U) and search forog:title. If missing, add the four core tags. - Check for JavaScript rendering — if your site is a React/Vue/Angular SPA without SSR, crawlers see an empty page. Use server-side rendering or static generation.
- Check robots.txt — make sure your page and og:image aren't disallowed for crawlers.
- Check for bot blocking — if you use Cloudflare or a WAF, ensure
Slackbot,Discordbot,facebookexternalhit,LinkedInBot, andTwitterbotare not being blocked.
Fix: Preview Outdated After Metadata Update
Each platform caches previews independently. Fixing your page metadata is only step one — you also need to force each platform to re-fetch:
| Platform | How to clear the cache |
|---|---|
| Sharing Debugger → Scrape Again | |
| Twitter / X | Card Validator — each validation clears the cache |
| Post Inspector → Regenerate | |
| Slack | Delete the message, re-share the link |
| Discord | Add ?v=2 to the URL when resharing |
Also check your CDN — if your CDN is caching old HTML, platform debugger tools will still see old metadata even after you deploy changes. Purge the CDN cache for the affected URL first.
Fix: Preview Works on Some Platforms, Not Others
Platform-specific issues usually come down to image size differences or metadata format preferences:
- LinkedIn requires a minimum 1200 × 627 px image for the large card format — smaller images show as a tiny thumbnail
- Twitter/X requires
twitter:cardto be explicitly set, even if OG tags are present - Slack/Discord need server-rendered HTML — they don't execute JavaScript
Full Diagnostic Guide
For a comprehensive symptom-based troubleshooting walkthrough, see the Link Preview Troubleshooting Guide.