How to Fix 502 Bad Gateway Error

Computers, mobiles, networks, internet, etc. almost all these terms go hand in hand. The interconnectivity between devices is of quite a value. Even though you have a well powerful and a new computer or any other such device, without the internet working properly, they seem to have very limited use. Now there can be a lot of reasons as to why this is happening. Sometimes it’s the fault of the ISP, server or even at the user’s end. There may be some servers down and no one would know what has happened. So to counter problems like these in an efficient way, many different companies have established common grounds while setting up error codes.

This helped the users and even the professionals to resolve it in a timely manner and with little to no effort. There are a lot of error codes but one of the most common of them is “502 bad gateway”. This error code, though common, is also customized according to the structure and functioning each website has. So even though a lot of norms are established, 502 bad gateway errors can mean different things across different platforms and companies. So in this article, I am going to discuss what is error 502 bad gateway and how you can fix it. Have a look:

What is a 502 Bad Gateway Error?

There are a lot of internet errors and codes. This 502 bad gateway error is one of the HTTPS status codes that shows the relationship between different servers and the state of data transmission. You can see this error in your web browser’s window when you are trying to open a new web page or clicking on a link. This error generally shows that a proxy server has received some kind of invalid response from other upstream servers.

502 Bad Gateway Error Variations

As mentioned before that there can be a lot of different types of 502 bad gateway errors. Here are some of them.

What are the reasons for 502 Bad Gateway?

Generally there are three main reasons for this error. They are:

Related to Upstream Server

One of the main reasons can be  because the origin of the signal or data that is the upstream server is down. This can be due to a lot of reasons, maybe it is down for maintenance, maybe it is down due to overload of traffic, lack of maintenance, accident, disaster, etc. Even connectivity may have severed somehow, so as you can see that there are a lot of reasons for this.

Related to Firewall

Firewall can be a hindering factor when it comes to data transmission between upstream and downstream servers. The firewall may either be blocking some of the features, plugins, links, etc. or maybe the entire domain.

Related to Domain Name

Another common reason for 502 error could be due to domain name that is somehow getting stopped from resolving to the correct internet protocol. If the owners have made some changes in the domain name system then it could take some time before they are reflected worldwide.

There are some other reasons due to which you can see this error and not specifically due to issues between servers. There may be an issue with your web browser, your network settings or your network setup. Now that we have discussed the reasons behind this error, let’s move on to the part where we will discuss resolving this issue.

How to fix 502 Bad Gateway errors?

As mentioned above that problem could either be between the servers or also among the setup that you have at home or office. It is recommended that you check the issue first on your end. This can save you a lot of time and you can quickly resume your work.

Do a hard refresh

You already know what refreshing a web page means, the shortcut to do that is to press the F5 key on your keyboard. It reloads the data on your web browser and asks for it again from the server. Now hard refresh takes this on another level. You can do that by pressing Ctrl + F5 on your keyboard, you can even click on the refresh button on the screen while pressing Ctrl key. The same can be done by pressing Command + Shift + R keys or Shift + Reload button on your keyboard. This will delete the cache from your browser for that particular web page, making it easier to load.

Restart your Browser

Close your browser, all the tabs, all the windows, completely and then launch it again. This may also clear any small interferences in the browser’s working. Don’t forget to save all your work before you close your browser.

Get rid of Cache

Earlier we did the cleaning of cache for a single webpage by hard reset method but now, in this step, I would suggest you to clear all the cache that your browser has curated over the time. At times old and missing files from cache can mess up with the functioning and give you a hard time by projecting errors like 502 bad gateway. After the removal, try loading that page again.

Get rid of Cookies

Not the ones on your kitchen shelf but the ones sitting in your web browser. Cookies just like cache can get corrupt and that can put up errors. So you can first try to remove cookies only of the web pages that are not loading up and then if you still don’t get the desired results then you should move on to deleting all the stored ones.

Reboot your Computer

If you are still facing this same issue then reboot your computer. A lot of temporary and small issues can be fixed just by restarting the computer. Do remember to save all your work before you proceed or you may just lose your data.

Try new Browser

If you have been working on a single web browser then there may be some issue that crept in over the time with its files that may be stopping the program from surfing the internet as it should. I would suggest you try a different browser. For example if you are using Google Chrome then you can try using Mozilla Firefox or if you are on Mac then you can also try the inbuilt Safari browser.

Reboot your Router

Similarly like the computer system, there may be some issues with the networking equipment that you have setup. So it would be a good idea to restart them. Now this applies to the whole setup and not just the router. If you have hubs, switches, modem, etc. Make sure you restart them all.

Check if the Website if Down

Now the website servers, the hosting servers or the upstream servers can be down. As mentioned above they can be down due to many reasons like too much traffic, maintenance, crashdown, lack of maintenance, accident, etc.

Contact your ISP

If you think that you have a lot of machines, wires, connections and what not then wait till you see your ISP’s setup. Every signal you send, receive, every bit of data is passed through your ISP. Contact them about the particular website and check if they can access it or not.

Try Later

If you have already performed all the above mentioned steps and have made no progress. If you are still getting the same 502 bad gateway error then there is certainly some issue either on the hosting company’s end or on your ISP’s end. So since we have already exhausted all the possible steps that users can take to resolve this code, it would be ideal to wait until the company or the ISP detects the fault and resolves it.

Conclusion

So these were the troubleshooting steps for resolving the 502 bad gateway error that I wanted to share with you. If you can’t wait long enough for it to be resolved on its own then you can also try to contact the company directly. Most of the tech companies contact only via email and can even take upto a week to reply and it may be possible that your issue gets resolved before that.

Hope it helps. Thanks for reading!