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If you use the Tailwindapp to schedule your pins on Pinterest. Then you may have noticed at some point that Tailwind failed to schedule some pins.
There are many reasons that the Tailwindapp can fail to schedule your Pinterest pin. But there’s one that seems more common than the rest. One that if you are like me, will have you scratching your head. Because everything looks fine!
💡 Note: The Tailwindapp is a Pinterest scheduler. Don’t have access to Tailwind yet? Then you should check out this Tailwind review
Well, by the end of this post you’ll know why these pins fail and how to quickly fix the issue. So your time isn’t wasted trying to fix these pins. As well as what you can do to prevent your own pins getting the same error when someone else schedules them. After all, you don’t want them to give up and delete your pins from their schedule!
So, do you know which failed pin message I am talking about? No? Then let me tell you.
The Tailwindapp Failed Pin Source Url Error
It’s that pesky ‘Please add a new Source URL!‘ error. One that if you check the URL it looks fine. Right? Even if you paste it into your browser manually it works too. So why is the Tailwindapp still failing to schedule it?
Well, you might think, that the Tailwindapp is just having a funny moment. So you just reschedule the pin as it is. And chances are if you have a lot of content scheduled. It can take
When this happens. You may or may not notice that the same pin failed twice. If you do, chances are you just end up deleting it at this point. Which sucks because there was a reason you scheduled it in the first place. Because of this error, your time was wasted finding, scheduling and rescheduling that pin. Your audience will miss out on the valuable content you wanted to share with them. Plus, the person who created it won’t get their content shared. It’s a loss for all sides.
Other Tailwindapp Failed Pin Errors
To clarify, a failed pin doesn’t always mean a Source URL error. There are other error messages as well. Let’s take a brief look at them, so you can easily distinguish between them. And understand that the fix outlined below won’t fix these types of errors.
This message suggests that the pin failed because there was a problem with the Pinterest servers. The solution recommended is to reschedule them again later as the issues should have been resolved quite quickly.
A failed board error means that the Tailwindapp could not find the board. This could be because you no longer have access to a group board, deleted or renamed a board. Though in my experience the Tailwindapp is usually able to follow renamed boards.
Why Does The Tailwindapp Fail On These Pin URLs?
What if I told you, that you could avoid all that wasted effort? As all the pins with this failed Source URL error have something in common. Something which you may not have noticed.
Not sure what I am talking about? Then try taking the Source URL of a failed pin and pasting it into your browser. Once the page loads successfully, take a look at the URL in the browser vs the one you pasted.
Did you spot any differences? If you did, you probably noticed that the pin scheduled in the Tailwindapp uses HTTP and the browser URL takes you to the HTTPS version. Whilst this won’t always be the case. It is
How To Fix The Tailwindapp Source URL Error
Now, that we know the difference that causes the error. Fixing it becomes simple.
When you get a failed pin for the Source URL you should click the error to get the URL to show. Look at the beginning of it. Does it use HTTP? If it does, simply add the missing ‘S‘ so it reads as HTTPS. You can then click Requeue to get it back into your schedule. And enjoy your pin working this time around!
It’s really that simple. And will save you extra frustration, as fixing those problems pins is a slow and clunky process already.
Why Does HTTP Cause Pins To Fail In The Tailwindapp?
The Tailwindapp checks a few attributes of pins when you schedule them that we know of. Including, whether the pin has a description. And whether the pin has been pinned before.
It also makes sense that the Tailwindapp would check other things that are less obvious like whether the pin URL uses the more secure HTTPS or not. This is probably something Tailwind implemented due to the recent pushes in using HTTPS. With Google Chrome marking all HTTP websites as insecure in their browser in July (2018).
Therefore pins still using the HTTP could be insecure, so Tailwind fails to publish them. Or perhaps it is on Pinterest’s end. It is not really clear. It just makes sense that Tailwind would expect quality pins to point to a secure (HTTPS) website.
The Importance Of Checking Your Own Pin URLs
Fixing failed pins with this tip will help save you time. But it is important to make sure your pins don’t have the same problem of using HTTP instead of HTTPS in the URL.
Why? Because someone else could get the failed pin message for sharing your content if it still points to HTTP. Even if it eventually redirects to HTTPS. And they might not spend the time fixing it. Which means you risk hurting your reach!
This Source URL error is more common than you think. And whilst you won’t be able to get rid of it completely because of older pins floating around Pinterest. You should at a minimum make sure all new pins you create use HTTPS. If you can update old pins on your website then even better!
Pro Tip: Did you know that you can write your Pinterest descriptions without using Alt text?Which is better for your SEO too!
If for some reason you don’t have HTTPS, then it is time to reconsider how important it is. Since it can stop people from sharing your content in the Tailwindapp! Don’t miss out on these shares and go talk to your web hosting about setting up with an SSL and HTTPS for your website.
Recap – What To Do Next!
So, now that you know how to fix this error. Here’s a quick summary of what you should do!
When you next see this Source URL error message. The first thing you should do is check if the URL uses HTTP. If it does, change it to HTTPS and reschedule it. So long as the website has HTTPS setup the rescheduled pin will work.
If you are using the Tailwindapp. Then it’s almost certain you also share your own content. So make sure your pins also use HTTPS. Either when you create them in Tailwind or when you embed them in your website. The more places you can update it the better. But don’t obsess over it, since you won’t be able to update older pins that others have shared previously.
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Definitely good to know as I pondered TailWind. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Ryan, I’m glad you found this Tailwindapp trick helpful ^^
So glad I found this article! I just saw I had over 70 failed pins. Is there a way to prevent this from happening when uploading? I copy+pasted the direct HTTPS link, mine added the HTTP in front of it.
Hey Steph,
To help reduce this from happening on your Pinterest pins, I’ve found that making sure that your blog is setup with HTTPS helps. Most web hosts give you a free SSL for this and will set it up for you if you raise a support ticket with them.
Also, depending on how you add Pinterest pin images to your blog posts. You may also need to update your Pinterest pin links to HTTPS too.
Sadly with pins from other people it is much harder to prevent them from failing in Tailwind. It also seems to happen more often with older pins. Most likely because HTTPS wasn’t always as important as it is today. The only option you have prevent or fix these is to edit the Pin URL to HTTPS. But this will only work if HTTPS is setup correctly on the blog itself.
You can check the Pin URL before scheduling it by clicking on the website name for the pin. But this is even more time consuming than fixing them after they have failed in Tailwind.
Wonderful information! Always have wondered what the problem was. Am going to correct some of those failures today.
Thanks for the comment!