HTTP 401 Unauthorized Error - Meaning & Fix
The HTTP 401 Unauthorized status code means that the request could not be completed due to missing or invalid authentication credentials. It is often accompanied by a WWW-Authenticate header outlining how to provide valid credentials. Unlike the 403 Forbidden status, authentication may grant access to the resource.
Main causes
Incorrect or missing credentials provided by the client.
The authentication method required by the server is not supported by the client.
The authentication data provided by the client has expired or is no longer valid.
The client did not provide any authentication data.
# Request example curl -X PUT https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/ -H 'Accept: application/xml;q=0.9' -H 'Accept-Encoding: compress' -H 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0'
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Common fixes
Ensure that the correct authentication credentials (username and password) are used for the request.
Check if the authentication method (e.g., Basic, OAuth, Bearer Token) required by the API or resource is correctly implemented in the request header.
Verify that the account associated with the credentials has sufficient permissions to access the requested resource.
Confirm that the authentication credentials have not expired or been revoked, and renew or update them if necessary.
# Response example HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized Content-Type: text/xml WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Access to the staging site" <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <error> <code>401</code> <message>Unauthorized: Access is denied due to invalid credentials.</message> </error>
