HTTP 506 Variant Also Negotiates Error - Meaning & Fix

The HTTP 506 Variant Also Negotiates status code indicates a server error due to misconfiguration. It occurs when the selected resource variant is also set to perform content negotiation, preventing the server from providing a definitive endpoint for the resource. In web scraping, this error can appear when scraping websites that use content negotiation to serve different versions of a page or API response based on factors like language, encoding, or device type.

Main causes

Misconfiguration in the server's content negotiation settings where the selected variant is incorrectly set to perform further negotiations.
Incorrect server setup leading to a loop in variant selection, where a variant points to another negotiable resource instead of a final content.
Errors in the server's .htaccess or similar configuration files that improperly direct negotiation processes to negotiable variants.
Faulty implementation of the content negotiation protocol in the server software, causing it to select negotiable variants as endpoints.

# Request example 
curl -X GET https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/ -H 'Accept: */*;q=0.8' -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate' -H 'User-Agent: Safari/537.36'

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Common fixes

Review the server configuration to ensure that the resource variants are not set to perform content negotiation themselves.
Check and update the content negotiation settings to avoid conflicts between resource variants.
Verify the server's algorithm for selecting resource variants to ensure it does not recursively negotiate.
Simplify the resource variant management to prevent overlap in negotiation roles and responsibilities.

# Response example 
HTTP/1.1 506 Variant Also Negotiates
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Encoding: gzip

[Binary gzip-encoded data]

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Common scraping HTTP error codes

401 Unauthorized	403 Forbidden	404 Not found	405 Method not allowed	406 Not acceptable
407 Proxy authentication required	408 Request timeout	409 Conflict	410 Gone	411 Length required
412 Precondition failed	413 Payload too large	414 Uri too long	415 Unsupported media type	416 Range not satisfiable
417 Expectation failed	421 Misdirected request	422 Unprocessable entity	423 Locked	424 Failed dependency
426 Upgrade required	428 Precondition required	429 Too many requests	431 Request header fields too large	444 Connection: close
451 Unavailable for legal reasons	499 Client closed request	501 Not implemented	503 Service unavailable	505 Http version not supported
506 Variant also negotiates	507 Insufficient storage	508 Loop detected	510 Not extended	511 Network authentication required