Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 35

I reported this as a bug to Phabricator a few weeks ago, but sometimes (very rarely -- something like once every 30,000 edits) AWB replaces entire articles with others without any indication. I've just updated AWB so I'd like to ask, has anyone else had this issue before and has it been fixed in newer AWB versions? ―Panamitsu (talk) 23:06, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

If using Windows then suggest reboot at least once a week and perhaps try David's 64bit version AWB, a couple of items above. Neils51 (talk) 00:09, 20 July 2025 (UTC)

I use AWB as much as anybody on the planet — way more than 30,000 edits —— and I have never seen such a thing. Maybe it's my setup. BD2412 T 02:36, 20 July 2025 (UTC)

It might be a version thing. After I updated it, instead of replacing articles, it now just raises an error saying that it tried to do that but didn't. ―Panamitsu (talk) 03:10, 20 July 2025 (UTC)

I'm not doubting BD2412's claim, I'd just like to know how far down the list I am. :)Naraht (talk) 16:57, 20 July 2025 (UTC)

Because of automated tools like AWB, the number of edits made by editors who use those tools is a truly meaningless metric. But, for those who care about such trivial bs, see Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:35, 20 July 2025 (UTC)

Trappist the monk, I know where I am there, I was specifically wondering about a count of those done through AWS.Naraht (talk) 03:30, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

On XTools there is an "automated edits" link on the right. Clicking it will show you the number of edits you've made using tools such as AWB, HotCat and so forth.

Here is a link to your stats. It's not loading for me for some reason but it might work for you. ―Panamitsu (talk) 03:57, 22 July 2025 (UTC)

In https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-api/2014-July/003308.html it is explained that having an user agent that is just pywikipediabot is not sufficent. In August 5 libary and external user agents will be restricted and ultimately banned, as per phab:T400119. What procedure should AWB users follow to provide an adequate user agent, in line with foundation:Policy:Wikimedia_Foundation_User-Agent_Policy ? Snævar (talk) 15:59, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

Good catch. Currently the interactive AWB User-Agent is WikiFunctions/n.n.n.n (Microsoft Windows NT n.n.n.n; .NET CLR 4.0.n.n) (I don't know about bots). That could be deemed not distinctive enough. I'll ask. David Brooks (talk) 16:09, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

After getting clarification on T400119, it appears that AWB will not be subject to the block. If that changes, I have a simple fix, but apparently right now it ain't broke. David Brooks (talk) 02:18, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

Not sure this raises to the level of a bug, but annoying. In the Article List in the Lower Left Hand Corner, sometime I see that later words in a page name may not align (off by one pixel column). So for example, even though I am working on a lot of files that start with "List of Sigma", some of the occurances of the word "Sigma" are one pixel relative to each other making part of the list look wavy.Naraht (talk) 16:48, 1 August 2025 (UTC)

While not completely consistent. It appears that length of the article name (long enough to not be entirely visible?) affects things. So the "Alpha" is one pixel to the right in "Sigma Alpha Epsilon Chapter House of Miami University" relative to "Sigma Alpha Epsilon Building".Naraht (talk) 10:38, 2 August 2025 (UTC)

I opened up AWB and it successfully updated to 6.4.0.0. Then I reopened AWB and went to log on, but after it had loaded my article list, a popup says 'Login failed; aborted', and shortly thereafter I get sent a Wikipedia verification code by email. Is there somewhere I should enter the verification code? (I'm currently logged into Wikipedia without any issues.) Colonies Chris (talk) 17:20, 7 June 2025 (UTC)

I've tried again today, and now I can log in as normal. Colonies Chris (talk) 10:00, 8 June 2025 (UTC)

I have been facing this issue since the past Thursday(?), I presume. You'd have to log in with OTP on a different browser/incognito mode on the same device, and after that AWB will not ask for OTP until the next day. —CX Zoom[he/him] ^{(let's talk • {C•X})} 20:53, 8 June 2025 (UTC)

@CX Zoom, is there a more permanent solution to this? Idoghor Melody (talk) 13:54, 23 June 2025 (UTC)

Not anything that I am aware of. One solution would be to update the AWB software to accept OTP, but it would take time for someone to implement this. For now, we may only ask at WP:VPT . —CX Zoom[he/him] ^{(let's talk • {C•X})} 16:10, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

The other is WP:Using AWB with 2FA. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 18:21, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

What is actually causing this behaviour, and is there anything i can do to change it? Until two months ago i could log on and use AWB any time, no matter what my browser situation was; now i have had to log out of my editing account (user:LindsayH), log into Kahtar, close my browser, re-open it, log back into Kahtar, and only now am i able to log into AWB. Is this a permanent change/requirement for using AWB, or is there something wrong with my settings? Thanks, Kahtar 11:06, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

Oh, and now, when i'm back with LindsayH in order to do some other editing, Kahtar is automatically logged out of AWB. I'm afraid i just don't understand ~ Lindsay^Hello 11:14, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

Did you set up a botpassword for yourself and are still having the issue? — xaosflux ^Talk 11:19, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

Xaosflux, i'm sorry, but i don't even know what a botpassword is ~ i'm not a bot, in either of my accounts; do i go to Special:BotPasswords and set one up? And if Yes, as Kahtar or as LindsayH? ~ Lindsay^Hello 11:28, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA. You can set up the 'botpassword' for AWB if if you don't use 2FA. — xaosflux ^Talk 13:03, 15 July 2025 (UTC)

Thank you so much! This is why i love our community: People with knowledge happy to share it for the benefit of others; what a great place! ~ Lindsay^Hello 08:02, 16 July 2025 (UTC)

Was there a server-side change that I missed? I only started seeing this a few days ago. I am traveling, so it could be because I keep changing my IP address. In any case, I filed a feature request and will start researching it. David Brooks (talk) 14:51, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

WMF is doing some additional authentication for accounts, especially ones that are logging in from new networks. This isn't AWB specific. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:11, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for that. It explains why it only started when I was traveling (a different place every few days). I'm trying to come up with an AWB fix in spare moments, but I can't test it to completion because that will kill the repro! Maybe I can use a VPN or something to trigger it again. David Brooks (talk) 10:11, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

Thanks to some pointers from reedy, this seems to be due to the recent rollout of the email authentication process. We've asked for an urgent implementation of an API extension that can be used by apps like AWB. Until then, the bot or side-login solutions are all we have. David Brooks (talk) 10:57, 21 July 2025 (UTC)

I think I've found a fix for logging in with your regular username (although it depends on an undocumented feature). It lets you get the auth code from your email and enter it into AWB. I have to get on a plane soon, but I've uploaded the fix to my cloud although with substandard error handling. Own risk etc. Responses probably tomorrow. David Brooks (talk) 09:09, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

It's been a while, but I did a more comprehensive fix and uploaded it to github. This build is from the most recent source tree. Click on "latest" (to the right) - there is a regular build and one optimized for ARM64. One drawback: there are two different implementations of the email auth process; this only handles the most recent one but it seems to be installed on most of the large wikipedias now. Own risk of course. David Brooks (talk) 21:54, 12 August 2025 (UTC)

In accordance with MOS:TIES, I added the {{Use American English}} to a lot of American articles in July. But someone at Talk:Sacred Heart Church (Pomeroy, Ohio) then opposed these edits. I have stopped due to rule 3 of the AWB rules which states that in order to continue, I must find consensus in support of the addition of these templates. I would really appreciate if we can find consensus, whatever it may be.

WP:COSMETICBOT says that adding the template is not cosmetic, because it adds a maintenance category (Category:All Wikipedia articles written in American English). WP:CONTEXTBOT says that I was not editing like a WP:MEATBOT because bots are not allowed to change spellings (and English varieties) because those use context, which requires human oversight. Also, the category is "All articles written in American English". If we don't have the Use American English template on all American English articles, then name of the category is not accurate. Another point is that the category can be used to find non-US spellings in them and correct them.

Last time I asked for consensus, I didn't get any responses, so I would really appreciate some feedback. Thanks ―Panamitsu (talk) 04:16, 16 August 2025 (UTC)

Generally I have considered that if a language template is missing then American English is considered the norm and have seen no reason to apply a template (some exceptions). In the situation you have met I would consider it incorrect to revert your edit however is it really necessary to perform just such a focused edit (technically I have no issue with your argument above)? Some editors object to their watchlist items 'going off' with shall we say 'trivial' edits and 'trivial' may be a personal definition. I make some 'trivial' edits however usually piggybacked off valid grammar/spelling corrections. Although there is a Wiki definition of cosmetic edits, for most editors cosmetic means no change to the look/feel of the article. My suggestion would be that if you wish to continue with this template addition, then do so at the same time as say making grammatical/spelling corrections (a bottomless pit of work available) or adding content. There is perhaps another method, some bots perform very minor edits however these are within minutes of other edits so they are monitoring 'recent edit' lists for criteria, hence a watchlist item when reviewed may have say two edits, one trivial and the other perhaps not. Bottom line though there are probably millions of articles that could validly have this template applied. Let's say conservatively 50% of the 7 million articles could validly have this template applied, you average 10/15 per minute and edit 1 hour a day. That's around 10/16 years of editing. Could not your time be of more value elsewhere? Neils51 (talk) 14:00, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Got here from Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). American English isn't considered the norm – the norm is to retain the existing variety in which the article is written, with the exception of articles with strong national ties. American English is treated exactly like all other varieties for that purpose. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 15:12, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Here is the discussion for future reference. ―Panamitsu (talk) 20:53, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Honestly thinking this through I don't see a problem. I reverted one of your edits a while ago thinking it was not needed, but if it provides value (via the category and potential to detect issues in variety of English), then I don't see an issue. Also, no "American" is never the default, and as an English language Wikipedia we shouldn't make sweeping assumptions like that. 📎 JackFromWisconsin (talk | contribs) 15:48, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

• I fully support this as an application of MOS:TIES, with the caveat that you should be careful to curate the list of articles you work on to ensure that you're not catching ones that don't belong (anything with ties to multiple countries, another ENGVAR tag already applied, any other sort of ambiguity). There is a related task I've long wanted to see taken up of applying MDY dates tags to articles with clear U.S. ties, but that didn't get a great reception when I floated it previously (I'd recommending taking a look at that discussion to get a sense of the waters you're wading into and associated hazards). Sdkb ^talk 21:37, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

  Also, to avoid the perception of favoring American English over other varieties, you might be able to expand your task to also add tags for British English to British articles, etc. Sdkb ^talk 21:38, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

  Yes I've done a lot New Zealand English templates and I now consider NZ to be complete. Other people have added a lot of Indian, British and Australian English templates so there isn't much work for me to do there, although there are a few other English varities that I haven't checked yet.

  I've already done quite a bit of work of removing 'false positives'. In Petscan I'm usually using negative categories for Canadian and Mexican articles to prevent them from getting in. Then I look at the list after it's been generated. I also have a few skip regexes in AWB to avoid obviously non-US articles (such as when an article has 'Canada' in the short description). And of course I watch the article titles when the edits are being made. ―Panamitsu (talk) 22:53, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

• The opposition at Talk:Sacred Heart Church (Pomeroy, Ohio) § The only thing this adds to is edit count. doesn't make sense to me. The complaint is that warnings should point out the un-obvious, or address actual problems. That guideline/philosophy is about reader-visible article message boxes, not categorization. Instead of opening discussions after being challenged, Rule 3 permits you to demonstrate that consensus already exists for your changes. The community has long held that the addition of maintenance categories is useful for the functioning of the encyclopedia (see WP:COSMETICBOT). I think the complaint, which is not based in policy, can be dismissed. Dan Leonard (talk • contribs) 22:57, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

  Yeah that's what I was thinking. I'll wait a few days to see if anyone has anything to add and will probably get back to it then. ―Panamitsu (talk) 00:12, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

I read on one of the AWB pages that users should consider having a bot/AWB-only account if they make several edits per minute. After getting access to AWB, I was making ~4 edits per minute on various US Navy ship articles today. Am I being obnoxious and need to move the activity to its own account, or should I keep everything on my current one? With only 81 AWB-enabled bots, it seems like it is only used in rare cases, although I have seen bots run AWB with human oversight before. GGOTCC 03:39, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

@GGOTCC: I use my main account when fixing typos with AWB. I sometimes hit 10 edits a minute when fixing the same typo on a series of related pages, and no one has ever raised any concerns with my editing rate. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:19, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

I see, thank you! That is reassuring. GGOTCC 16:55, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

There may be some mixed messaging. I use an AWB-only account to keep my manual AWB-enabled edits easily identifiable compared with my browser-based account. Using AWB manually you won't be able to get near a rate that will upset the servers (plus, the Wikimedia folks have just added a shield against a rapid sequence of editing from the same place). David Brooks (talk) 23:40, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Indeed; there are really three "types" of accounts one can use with AWB: the vast majority of users only have one account and they use it for AWB as well as regular editing. Some prefer to keep their AWB edits separate from their main account and create an AWB-only account (see any user with "AWB" in their name). Others like myself want to run automated processes and thus have an AWB bot account. It doesn't really matter where the edits are coming from if speed is a concern, and to be honest (as said above) no one is going to bat an eye at 4 epm. I'd just carry on doing what you're doing unless you really want to keep the edit types separate. Primefac (talk) 21:26, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

The Mediawiki team has just introduced some features that can rate-limit or block bots, but we have been assured that AWB will not be impacted, even in bot mode. I believe that may change, which could require some changes to AWB, but for now don't worry. David Brooks (talk) 20:29, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Can anyone help me out with a regex? I’m trying to clean out unknown parameters and am using the following regex.

\n*\s*\|\s*(SAT|ACT|ACT_year|SAT_year|pushpin_image|pushpin_label|pushpin_label_position|pushpin_map|pushpin_map_alt|pushpin_map_caption|pushpin_mapsize)\s*=.*\n*

I’m simply replacing it with /n.

The problem is that in some cases it is inserting multiple new lines, see this diff. Is there an easy way to solve this?

Testcase: regexr.com/8h4ea Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 20:40, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

Try this regex:

^\s*\|\s*(SAT|ACT|ACT_year|SAT_year|pushpin_image|pushpin_label|pushpin_label_position|pushpin_map|pushpin_map_alt|pushpin_map_caption|pushpin_mapsize)\s*=.*$\n*

With a blank replacement. Kiwipete (talk) 23:33, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

Thanks!!! —Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 23:37, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

@Kiwipete: doesn’t work. :-( See regexr.com/8h4ea. — Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 23:43, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

@Zackmann08 - I've tested this myself in AWB. You have to leave the "Replace with" text box blank, i.e. don't put "\n" in it. Then you should be OK. Kiwipete (talk) 02:20, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

Hmm. It still doesn’t work for me. It never finds the text. I wonder if it is because I’m using WP:JWB instead of WP:AWB… Oh well. Thanks! Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 03:19, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

You need to check multi-line in the find-replace as well.Naraht (talk) 08:38, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

Naraht that did it! Thanks - Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 18:47, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

Not sure if JWB has the ability to make modules, but if so I would use WikiFunctions.Tools.RemoveTemplateParameter in a module. Primefac (talk) 17:27, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

Requesting access be granted to this account? Returning user (formerly User:Renamed user e2bceb05e0c43dd19cc50e3291d6fac5. I know there is a list of users eligible to use AWB, more appripriate talk page than this one, but don't remember what it's cold. 8rz (talk) 02:16, 22 September 2025 (UTC)

You may request access at WP:PERM/AWB. Izno (talk) 02:28, 22 September 2025 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8rz (talk • contribs)

Can't edit it yet. Can you add me manually? Don't want to wait 4 days to reach established account status. 8rz (talk) 02:34, 22 September 2025 (UTC)

Even if someone were to add you manually, it's likely you would fail due to this - "Users are rarely approved unless they have either 250 non-automated mainspace edits or 500 total mainspace edits." Kiwipete (talk) 02:51, 22 September 2025 (UTC)

Great. That and the 30 days account age requirement... See you in a month or less, depending on the approvers' leniency. 8rz (talk) 02:55, 22 September 2025 (UTC)

@Kiwipete, edit requirement met. Can you add me, please? 8rz (talk) 02:54, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

No. Why can't you do it yourself? Kiwipete (talk) 02:56, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

Cannot edit the request page because I am on a brand new account. 8rz (talk) 03:05, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

If you are still getting authentication-challenged by the "code sent to your email" (as I was in the library yesterday) and haven't used one of the workarounds, a reminder that a fix has been checked in and I have put a snapshot build here on github. David Brooks (talk) 17:10, 18 September 2025 (UTC)

I'm having this problem. What are the workarounds you're mentioning here? Colonies Chris (talk) 09:44, 8 October 2025 (UTC)

Well, if you use my snapshot build it will prompt for the authentication code, and if you enter the 6-digit code sent to your email you should be good to go. If you would rather stay with the official build, the workarounds (log in on a separate browser instance, or create a botpassword) are in the archive: Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Archive 35#Can't log on. David Brooks (talk) 22:41, 8 October 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. I've created a bot password and it's working now. Colonies Chris (talk) 20:04, 9 October 2025 (UTC)

Moved from Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks

Many long tables can be improved with a systematic change to most or all rows. Regex can often do this far easier than manually, also if it's a single table. This page (Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks) has low activity and fast replies from technical users who know regex and are willing to help others. I wonder whether we could add a note to Help:Table and maybe other table-related pages that you can seek help here either to get regex code or get an edit made? If it becomes popular then a separate page might be made later. The default desktop toolbar has regex after clicking "Advanced" and a magnifying glass icon to the right so most requests probably wouldn't use AWB. I know some regex and am not seeking help for myself. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:49, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

I would love if we had a regex examples subpage here at AWB. For example, I've always wanted to be able to match a parameter limited to a single template, but I don't have the regex competence to tackle something like that when I've been presented with some of those problems before. I'm sure there are other AWB users who have managed that task before, but we don't have any way to share those things and build each other's skills and toolset. VanIsaac, GHTV ^contr_about 17:47, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Regular expression#Examples has some such examples.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:03, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

Part of the reason there are fast responses here I think is due to the low activity. A much higher new-topic/activity rate would probably degrade that, especially if it's not AWB related. A slight uptick might be ok though.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:03, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

Is use of JWB also subject to AWBRULES? Nikkimaria (talk) 02:47, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Hmm, while WP:JWB doesn't explicitly say "Use of JWB is subject to WP:AWBRULES", I've assumed that it's implied by "You take full responsibility for any actions taken using JWB" and "To use this script, you need to be listed on the wiki's AutoWikiBrowser CheckPage (Project:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON on your wiki), or have administrator rights on the wiki." Do you think it needs to be spelled out with that wording? ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · email · global) 20:43, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

WP:MEATBOT still applies, so no sure the difference. Jonatan Svensson Glad (talk) 20:48, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Yes, I think that would be helpful. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:13, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

I'm using the ThitxongkhoiAWB bot and it says "not enabled to use" and can not work anymore. What is this error? Thái Nhi (talk) 04:09, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

@Thái Nhi - I don't see your name here - Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON. Have you applied here - WP:RFP/AWB? Kiwipete (talk) 06:52, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

I'm not sure what changed, but I was still using it until yesterday. vi:Đặc_biệt:Đóng_góp/ThitxongkhoiAWB Thái Nhi (talk) 07:12, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

That's a different language project; did you change the language you were looking at for AWB? Primefac (talk) 19:52, 19 October 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for your advice! Thái Nhi (talk) 00:41, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

In the years of 1900-1976, for every article about the year, I would like to remove the births and deaths section and replace it with this code which is a comment in this page to avoid adding a new section using AWB. I am hoping that someone can help me put in the right settings to AWB so that I can easily do these edits.

Interstellarity (talk) 21:30, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

I've un-hidden it for ease of reading (though I've dropped it to a lvl 3 just for the sake of readability). Is there a consensus for this type of edit? Primefac (talk) 23:19, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

@Primefac I tried getting a consensus for the edits, but the discussion didn't attract enough people to comment on it. I would assume that we could possibly go through with the edit, since any editor can revert the edits and follow the WP:BRD cycle. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do? If I need to get a consensus, what page would be best for this kind of discussion? Normally, I would go to the article talk page for this kind of discussion, but the pages in question are of multiple pages, so I wasn't sure if I needed to go to a higher end noticeboard or something else. Interstellarity (talk) 23:47, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

No, that sounds like SILENCE to me, which is fine. Am I correct that all of the pages in question follow the format ==Births==....==Deaths==....==Nobel Prizes=== (with the exception of 1900)? In that case, you'd want to use the following: Replace == *Births *==[\s\S]*== *Deaths *==[\s\S]*== *Nobel with

== Births and deaths ==
{{Main|Category:{{subst:PAGENAME}} births|Deaths in {{subst:PAGENAME}}}}

== Nobel

That seems to do what you want. If there are any pages where there isn't a Nobel Prize section (like 1900) just change the last bit of the code to match. Primefac (talk) 00:08, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

As of now at least 1975 and 1976 have broken syntax. David Brooks (talk) 11:44, 13 October 2025 (UTC) ETA: same with every page I checked; the error in the source is clear. David Brooks (talk) 11:48, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Just looking at 1976 as an example, @Jonesey95: you have fixed the syntax error with a revert, but by leaving "Category:Deaths in 1976" (as in the first edit by Interstellarity) it results in a self-link. It should be "Category:1976 Deaths". @Interstellarity: shouldn't we revert all the way back, take a breath, read the comments, and think again? David Brooks (talk) 11:20, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

This discussion has split into (at least) 3 forks. I made a compromise suggestion at User talk:Interstellarity#Deletion of births and deaths. David Brooks (talk) 17:32, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

@DavidBrooks Please see my reply on my talk page. I am willing to take your suggestion to revert everything and discuss more, but I would like to automate my reverts so that I don't have to revert everything manually. Do we have tools on Wikipedia that can do reverts on multiple pages? Interstellarity (talk) 20:16, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/massRollback is good for mass rollback. Primefac (talk) 00:44, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

I've installed AWB on another computer and I'm running into a display issue. When I do "Find and Replace" Replace special, and try to create a rule in the subwindow, the Find section goes all the way down to the bottom of the area that should be Find and Replace With. The "Replace with" is *just* above the Regular Expression checkbox. I'm pretty sure it looks differently on my home computer giving area for the Replace with: area.Naraht (talk) 14:41, 23 October 2025 (UTC) Any ideas or do I need to drop this in Phabricator?

Re-up from June: That will be fixed in 6.4.0.1, but I see that isn't on sourceforge yet. If you trust me, try this, which is based on a recent source tree:

https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest

David Brooks (talk) 15:40, 23 October 2025 (UTC)

I've been using David's 6.4.0.1 build since June this year, and have had no problems with it. Kiwipete (talk) 21:10, 23 October 2025 (UTC)

My regex partially works in a manner I am completely unable to figure out. I am using Advanced settings for find and replace, and I have the regex ([\u4E00-\u9FFF\u3400-\u4DBF\uF900-\uFAFF\u3040-\u309F\u30A0-\u30FF\uAC00-\uD7AF]+) in find, and {{lang|zh|$1}} in replace, with the article as User:Just_a_generic_username/sandbox. The strings "燕然都护府" and "鎮北都護府" do get replaced as I want, but strings like "瀚海都护府" and "安北都护府" do not. However, if I manually check the Unicode values for each character in the string, it should match.

(It is entirely possible that I messed up something in my settings because it took me over half an hour to figure out how to even display the page due to the manual not appearing to mention anything about how to display only one page.)

Just a generic username (talk) 12:26, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

In AWB I would first use Tools / Regex tester to confirm that your regex matches everything you want it to. Once it's working there, if not working within advanced find and replace then it may well be something to do with whether the text you want to match is within a template or not, and how you are using the advanced rules for that. You may find it simpler to use the Normal find and replace, at least to get started. Rjwilmsi 18:14, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi! I would like to request access to AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) for my account User:Will229. I plan to use it for small helpful edits, such as fixing typos, formatting, and adding categories. I understand and will follow all Wikipedia policies regarding the use of AWB. Thanks! Will229 (talk) 15:20, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Will229 Requests go to WP:AWB/R.Naraht (talk) 16:15, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Is Win7 still supported? As AWB 6.4.0.0 requires .NET 4.8.1, it's unable to run on Win7, because 4.8.1 doesn't support Win7 (last supported version should be 4.8). — Draceane ^talk_contribs. 20:42, 23 October 2025 (UTC)

Reedy changed the .NET versions earlier this year under T385223. I think the bigger picture answer you will get is that Wikmedia/Wikipedia want to support/enforce the current/latest browser encryption standards so that means dropping older operating systems. The major browsers are doing something similar - Firefox support for Windows 7 has been extended to next year but won't continue for ever, so at some point you may have to use a newer Windows version (or other modern OS) for Wikipedia editing. However, I think the snapshot releases I build here only require .NET 4.8 so you should be able to use one of those in the meantime. Rjwilmsi 18:25, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

@Rjwilmsi: Not that I have looked at the downloaded bits, but I think those four builds postdate the 4.8.1 update, which was in source rev 12730. The last archive on sourceforge that predates the change seems to have been of release 6.3.1.1, and that will be missing some useful updates. I've made a version of the latest update (rev 13010) using framework 4.8, and it seems to work OK on Windows 11. You can find it without plugins on my onedrive. As usual, unblock the exe before running. LMK if it works or doesn't; obviously this isn't a longterm solution. David Brooks (talk) 19:17, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes, but I have custom AWB solution/projects which target .NET 4.8 and the snapshots I've uploaded are from that. For me they do run under wine with .NET 4.6.2 installed. Rjwilmsi 19:47, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for the clarification. David Brooks (talk) 20:55, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Maintainers, should the official build be reverted to using 4.8, if there are still enough Win7 users? As far as I can tell, the main advantage of 4.8.1 is native ARM64 support for people like me, and some accessibility improvements. The current build tree creates x86 binaries which run under emulation on ARM64 boxes (more slowly and using much more memory than native, but it works). So downgrading to 4.8 wouldn't make a difference in that respect; I have a private build with native support but I'm not suggesting that be shoehorned into the official build. David Brooks (talk) 04:05, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

+1 for Windows 7 support. I'm still using Windows 7 and have no plans to "upgrade" to anything later (other than ultimately Linux), and I use AWB quite a lot. Mitch Ames (talk) 03:20, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

I got asked why this edit was made, which then led to me finding this bug report where it was stated "Unicodify whole Page" is not part of general fixes. It has it's own box. It has made me wonder why it should be treated any differently; unicodifying a page is a good thing, but it should be done in the background and skipped if it's the only edit. I'd rather not turn off the change just for the few random pages that have only that issue. Primefac (talk) 15:34, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

There was a request about tagging a page with a specific WikiProject (still checking for authorization before going through with it). Does anyone know of a script that can be used in an AutoWikiBrowser module to make it happen? Can't just prepend the Wikitext since it has to go at the bottom of the header materials and be added inside any WikiProject banner shells if they are present. Any ideas? aaronneallucas (talk) 22:46, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

How many pages need to be added to the WikiProject? If it's not many, AWB is overkill. If it's just several pages, it's best to go with WP:Rater. Stefen 𝕋ower ^{Huddle • Handiwerk} 23:19, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

@StefenTower Per the user's request, it would be well over 1,000 pages that would have to be processed and potentially tagged. I'd use rater if it was only a few, but I definitely can't do it on that many. I'd think this would be a common enough need to have a script for it in AWB, but I'm totally lost in finding one. aaronneallucas (talk) 01:40, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

I've been using AWB for a long time, and I know of no script for this per se. This is a Find/Replace matter where regular expressions will need to be used to insert a WikiProject banner template into the banner shell, assuming the pages have already been added to other projects. I have done this kind of job several times, but how it's done depends on what the WikiProject is (like whether it's a top-level project or a subproject or a taskforce). If you can tell me what WikiProject you're inserting, I should be able to provide specific guidance. Stefen 𝕋ower ^{Huddle • Handiwerk} 01:52, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

@StefenTower: There is a AWB plugin for this, Kingbotk plugin. — Ganeshk (talk) 02:17, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

Let me revise then. There's no script that can be trusted for this kind of work. Major changes to how WikiProject banners are placed have occurred since that plugin was relevant. Find/Replace is where it's at. Stefen 𝕋ower ^{Huddle • Handiwerk} 02:43, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

@StefenTower: One other option is to a create a custom module for it, but I get your point; the current solutions are rudimentary. I suggest asking at Version 1.0 Editorial Team or Content assessment; there may be solutions that I am unaware of. — Ganeshk (talk) 17:02, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

We already have a solution I mentioned above that works, as I have regularly used it. It's called Find/Replace with regular expressions. I was waiting to hear back from Aplucas0703 on the specific WikiProject they are adding so I can suggest the find and the replace. And please stop pinging me. Stefen 𝕋ower ^{Huddle • Handiwerk} 18:28, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

@StefenTower Should be for WikiProject Books, no sub-project or task force was requested by the user. aaronneallucas (talk) 19:16, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

I'm processing article Świerklany Dolne when the text "Unbalanced brackets (1)" appears in the Alerts box. I thought that clicking (or double-clicking) this was supposed to navigate to the offending text in the Edit box, but this is not happening. Am I correct in expecting this? I'm sure this used to happen in the past. Thanks, Kiwipete (talk) 03:23, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

What version are you using? Works OK with 6.4.0.1 (with that example (picks up debent esse XXIII) mansi)), though it's not infallible. Generally a useful tool function. Neils51 (talk) 11:49, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Yes, I am using version 6.4.0.1 SVN 12992 (2025-05-09 14:46:18). But no, it is still not working for me :( Kiwipete (talk) 21:18, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

I tried with 12992 and seems to work. Check you haven't got Options -> 'pre-parse mode' set. Other option perhaps is to try 'reset to original default settings' in case you have an XML corruption of some sort. Neils51 (talk) 02:41, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

I find it usually works, but not always, especially if there's another alert in the "Alerts" window. The alerts aren't usually central to what I'm working on, so if it's not working I move on. SchreiberBike | ⌨  15:52, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

I've tried those options - 'pre-parse mode', 'reset to original default settings' - and I have no other alerts in the Alerts window, but still no luck. Kiwipete (talk) 22:09, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Hmm... Back to basics then. You have been using AWB since early 2023 and based on your initial comments above you have used the function occasionally (used to happen in the past..). So what's changed? Other than changes in AWB revision any changes to your operating environment? Different device? OS? (What OS are you using? When did you last reboot?). I recall in the past editors mentioning incompatibilities with some .js modules. Have you loaded any of these since it last worked? Neils51 (talk) 15:23, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

FWIW, the double-click feature works if I have loaded one of my Settings files and then added Świerklany Dolne to the list, or vice versa. But it doesn't work if the settings file is the default with a few pages added, so there must be some setting in mine that is triggering the fix. It may take a while to find that though. David Brooks (talk) 19:40, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

Well spotted. It seems to be the Option "Highlight errors". Check that it's checked! Neils51 (talk) 22:59, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

Yes! Many thanks @DavidBrooks and @Neils51, turning that option on makes it all work perfectly. Thanks for persisting with this. Kiwipete (talk) 02:14, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

This edit request to Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

• Add user `Tonymetz` Tonymetz 💬 01:25, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

Not done. Please follow the instructions at WP:AWBCRITERIA. Kiwipete (talk) 01:32, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

thanks for the guidance. Tonymetz 💬 02:15, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

Hi, is there any way to use AWB to go through a list of File: pages, and have it actually show the image in question in order to assist in evaluating what should be done (e.g. tagging with a certain template, but wanting to see what it is before deciding whether to save or skip)? ~2026-41523-4 (talk) 00:37, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

NTIKO. You can list the file names however to view would require you double click an entry and view in your browser. Neils51 (talk) 23:25, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

I recently turned on two factor authentication on my account and now when I try to log in to AWB it keeps showing an aborted warning. Any help? CONFUSED SPIRIT(Thilio).Talk 09:12, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

If you have 2FA I believe you gotta use a bot password to log in. Check out WP:AWB2FA. Trialpears (talk) 10:04, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

David Brooks' current version of 6.4.0.1 may work for you. Refer this discussion. Neils51 (talk) 12:58, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

@Neils51 @Trialpears Thanks to you both. CONFUSED SPIRIT(Thilio).Talk 15:00, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

One small clarification about https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest: "-64bit" version is intended for an ARM64 device. The "regular" version is intended for a X86-64 Intel (etc) device. Sorry, that's confusing and I'll fix it next time. David Brooks (talk) 21:41, 29 January 2026 (UTC)

Uploaded the latest to https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest with a less misleading name. David Brooks (talk) 22:04, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

I first reported this last summer, but recently I have added to the phab ticket to have a more complete list of talk page templates that are moved down (or kept down) by AWB. Basically I have discovered ~14 templates that are supposed to be ordered somewhere above the list of WikiProjects but AWB errantly thinks they should be below them somewhere. A couple examples of what's being moved down are {{Contentious topics/talk notice}} and {{old move}}. When these templates are incorrectly moved, it adds time to the talk page cleanup process to manually move templates back where they belong. Can this be looked at by someone? I'm not in a big rush to see a fix, but I figured I would make AWB developers more aware, especially after I've added information to the ticket. Thanks! Stefen 𝕋ower ^{Huddle • Handiwerk} 20:46, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure what is going on here, but I am not able to log into AWB. I validated that the password I put on a web browser is the same password I'm putting into AWB; however, when I logged into Wikipedia via a web browser after I made multiple "failed" attempts on AWB, I received an alert on Wikipedia stating I made multiple failed attempts to login (which only occurred with AWB). I'm not sure what is happening, but it seems that most likely, AWB is including characters I am not typing when inputting the password (like an invisible space, etc.) Is this a known issue? (For what its worth, I don't have 2FA enabled on Wikipedia and never have.) Steel1943 (talk) 02:42, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

I've just successfully logged in to AWB, both while being logged in through the browser, and while not. I also don't use, and have never used, 2FA. Are you using version 6.4.0.1? Kiwipete (talk) 05:58, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

Refer the discussion above for your 2FA solution which you will now need (although not the only option). Neils51 (talk) 20:09, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

I got it to work by typing my password in a different window and then copy/pasting it into AWB's password box. Yeah, AWB is apparently adding invisible characters in the password box for some reason when typing the password manually into the password box. Steel1943 (talk) 22:22, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

Why are you keying in the password? What's changed? Presumably you received a failure message before attempting to manually key your password so perhaps your XML file has been corrupted? Neils51 (talk) 18:08, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

@Steel1943: Just to clarify, you don't have your password saved ("No" in the "Password saved?" column in the profiles dialog), and you are entering it in the small "Enter password for Steel1943:" dialog, and you get a FAIL message? If not, did you check your email for some one-time codes? David Brooks (talk) 05:06, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Long story short, the password worked being manually entered a day or so later. Steel1943 (talk) 06:12, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Due to recently constrained API rate limits, I hit the limit after only 500 pages using Tools.GetHTML() (for details see mw:Talk:Wikimedia APIs/Rate limits#Script-using humans are not bots). My typical API request is https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&titles=Lakwena_Maciver&rvslots=*&rvprop=content&format=php&maxlag=1. I assumed that AWB would handle the necessary background handshakes, tokens, etc., but it seems like the GetHTML request is being treated as an unregistered account, and not originating from my login. But the rate limit is being applied to my IP address, meaning that if I log in on my bot account, I am immediately limited without having performed any requests. Do I need to get a token and append it to the URL? Or something else? I've been doing it this way for over a decade and haven't had a problem until now.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:24, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

What I gathered from mw:API:Action API is that I need to:

1. get a centralauthtoken using Tools.GetHTML(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=centralauthtoken&format=json)
2. copy the token
3. paste it into the quest URI Tools.GetHTML(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&titles=Lakwena_Maciver&rvslots=*&rvprop=content&format=php&maxlag=1&centralauthtoken=83dc906edff323dd39e5f258784e95dc2ea7b2)

Since tokens evaporate after 10 seconds or on 1st use, I now hit the request limit twice as fast, since each prior quest now requires an additional token request. This seems self-defeating, given that the point of all of this is to cut down on abusive API requests...

Can someone explain this to me like I'm 5 please?   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:08, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Are you able to trace the HTTP transactions, for example by using a proxy (I use Fiddler2)? If so, can you see if the failing request gives a response code of 429 with an accompanying Retry-After header? That is, according to my understanding, how the rate-limiting is getting surfaced, and I've implemented the retries in the main AWB loop (where it will probably only happen in a bot anyway) and in list generation. That's in my private releases. I realized that they weren't necessarily all the places where an HTTP request is generated, though, and it's going to be like whack-a-mole. I'm traveling, online sporadically, but (if you confirm you are getting 429 responses) I'll look at that Tools interface and see what I can see. David Brooks (talk) 22:00, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Taking this to email. David Brooks (talk) 11:42, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

I don't know exactly how AWB's GetHTML works, but I want to clarify that centralauthtoken should only be needed while making cross-wiki requests. You aren't actually making cross-wiki requests, so you shouldn't be using centralauthtokens.

I am curious what e.g. Tools.GetHTML(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&meta=userinfo&format=json) gives you, because I would expect it to show you being logged in, so I'm not sure why the rate limit is assessed against your IP instead of your account. Legoktm (talk) 00:38, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

@Legoktm: {"batchcomplete":"","query":{"userinfo":{"id":0,"name":"my.ip.add.ress","anon":""}}}   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  02:14, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

OK, well that answers that; the issue is that these requests are being made as a logged-out user, so you're hitting the lowest rate limits. AWB needs to pass along your session cookies so you're getting the logged-in rate limit, and not the logged-out one.

I am not sure if AWB already has a function to do that or if one needs to be added. Legoktm (talk) 03:18, 17 March 2026 (UTC)

I've coded up a fix to Tools.GetHTML() assuming that the error response returns HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests), but it's not well tested (these things always pop up while I'm traveling) and I haven't tested it in the actual circumstances. As I said, I took it to email with Tom, but if anyone is willing to test it before I check in, please try this: https://1drv.ms/u/c/468817188d6582db/IQDHiikyxDr0TZv512JhK5QEAQrYYXAcl9S-yf5b6gnTXdc?e=SRdvxj David Brooks (talk) 09:58, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

ETA I realize that wasn't clear - the fix is to wait briefly and retry when the server says "slow down please". Not the session cookie thing. You probably need both for best performance. David Brooks (talk) 11:21, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Apologies, I've had to withdraw that version; I found a puzzling bug. I'll keep investigating. David Brooks (talk) 09:48, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

If anyone is still interested, I have addressed the commonest sources of requests that might run into rate limits. There remain some outliers that may get fixed in a few days. The fixes are hard to test "live" so I'd appreciate someone else giving them a spin. Download the exe from https://1drv.ms/u/c/468817188d6582db/IQAg-UsY5LZuRbUPvGaYar96AadNl_OG4kuw_5Tkv3TnSz8?e=09bkq5. David Brooks (talk) 16:20, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

Hello, I thought that using General fixes that this combined references. I have done a run changing some formatting on articles but it does not appear to have combined the references as expected. See for example this edit where I would have expected the 2 "craig1885" references to be combined. May be it does not do it because the reference was changed by the Find and replace list. Keith D (talk) 16:32, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

@Keith D: According to WP:AVOIDDUP, it could be because the reference is defined inside a call to a template. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:16, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

@John of Reading: Thanks for pointing that out. Interesting that the displayed output combines them, because of the name, it just has the clutter in the wikitext. Keith D (talk) 21:08, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Recently, when I run the AWB program, I get the error "Remote server returned error: (403) Forbidden" and then the program hangs. What did I do wrong? The version I am using is 6400. Thái Nhi (talk) 09:03, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Has it ever worked? I don't see your account in the list of users? When did you request access? Neils51 (talk) 22:27, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

My bot vi:Thành viên:ThitxongkhoiAWB Thái Nhi (talk) 07:53, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

May need one of the developers to assist. Check though that you haven't received any emails related to 2-factor authentication. Neils51 (talk) 21:54, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

I checked my email. I didn't receive any emails regarding 2-factor authentication Thái Nhi (talk) 23:38, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

I think you'll need to direct your request [here]. Neils51 (talk) 01:23, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

I submitted a request [here] but haven't received a response yet. Thái Nhi (talk) 05:31, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

That says you are submitting many requests in a short time. But that should result in an error 429 (Too Many Requests), so it's still puzzling. The MediaWiki people are rolling out rate limitation in stages (see the above discussion) and we're trying to catch up. Are you using AWB with vi.wikipedia.org? I don't know which server version they are using but I am willing to share the latest AWB fixes just in case it helps, although that's not likely. David Brooks (talk) 15:27, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

I only used AWB with vi.wikipedia.org. I was performing a bulk update that redirected articles about [Vietnam's administrative divisions]. This would not have been possible without AWB. I used AWB until March 24, 2026, after which AWB malfunctioned and stopped working. Thái Nhi (talk) 17:01, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Try this: https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest. It might work; no way of knowing without further probing. David Brooks (talk) 17:37, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

I tried it, but unfortunately it still didn't work and showed the error as in the image above. Thái Nhi (talk) 01:22, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

That's not David's latest version, still showing 6.4.0.0? Have you checked your Options->Preferences->Site - language setting is still 'vi'? This looks to me like it is erroring long before the login occurs. Suggest place the version 6.4.0.1 in its own folder and operate that to stay away from your usual settings file, in case of a corruption issue. I have experienced a corrupted settings file and had weird issues. Please also confirm that you can edit the (vi) Wiki normally, so you know you have not inadvertently been added to a block. Neils51 (talk) 07:45, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

I tried using the latest version of David, 6.4.0.1 (in different folder), and still encountered the same error as version 6.4.0.0. AWB immediately reported an error upon activation, and I couldn't access Options->Preferences, so I couldn't change anything. I tried logging in with a bot account and manually editing, and [it worked fine]. The error only appeared when I used AWB. Thái Nhi (talk) 11:34, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Are you up to using a debugging proxy? I use fiddler2. You may have to use the "tools/options/HTTPS/Decrypt HTTPS traffic" option. Then run AWB. You should be able to identify the request that raises the 403, and use the Inspectors tab to report the input and output headers. David Brooks (talk) 14:40, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

I think I've found the cause. For some reason, my IP address was being blocked by the server. I tried using a VPN to access AWB and it worked, although the access speed dropped significantly. Thái Nhi (talk) 15:59, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

The downside is that many of the IP addresses provided by the VPN fall within the range of IP addresses banned by Wikipedia. Thái Nhi (talk) 16:16, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

I've been trying to use AWB for a week and believe the cause of the aforementioned error is that the AWB server has restricted access from certain IP ranges. Therefore, I encountered a rather strange situation:

+ Normally, I can manually access it using my main account, but I can't use the bot account to use AWB.

+ If I turn on the VPN, I can use AWB with the bot account, but the main account is blocked by Wikipedia's IP range.

So, I had to go through a complicated process: I turned on the VPN to activate AWB with the bot account, then turned off the VPN to use the main account for manual editing tasks. Of course, the speed of AWB was significantly reduced.Thái Nhi (talk) 00:38, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Can't substitute and replace at once by using "\|", and I can't report in phablicator ~2026-20921-95 (talk) 08:17, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Can you explain a step-by-step of what you are trying to do? It seems like you are trying to do a regex replace, and if so, providing the find and replace strings you have written, along with related settings, and whether you are using 'Normal' or 'Advanced' settings, would help us help you. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:31, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

{{Fullurl}} has option to add "edit". I was trying to replace it with the one from special namespace while keeping name of link. It's in a "Advanced" settings also.

Expected to be vanished from linksearch. ~2026-20921-95 (talk) 07:38, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Regex I used is \[\{\{fullurl\:([^\][<>{|}\s"%]+)\|action=edit\}\} ([^\]\n]+)\] ~2026-20921-95 (talk) 10:33, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

If you're trying to scoop out all the innards between the parentheses (one or more of "not these characters"), you will want to escape any characters that have a regex context (e.g. brackets, pipe). Expecting the parser to distinguish the context is generally not safe coding. the Stefen 𝕋ower 23:38, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Doubt that this is AWB related....Neils51 (talk) 10:57, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

I have the same doubt, as it's always far more likely a problem in the regex coding than in the regex parser. Nevertheless, I see no issue with trying to assist here. the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:34, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

We have addressed, for now, the recently introduced rate limits on most aspects of AWB and WikiFunctions. Tools.GetHTML(), for use by plugins and modules, has two new overloads to get around the strict rate limits. As usual, I have uploaded an unofficial build, and its release notes document the new feature. Many thanks to Tom.Reding for his help.

Get it at https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest. David Brooks (talk) 21:43, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

The previous fix worked in order that pages were processed without infinite countdowns, but were created two new problems: pasting from clipboard no longer works, and external scripts no longer work with a 'Access denied' error. Does this new version have the same problems? To try the new fixes I would have to re-enable 2FA every time. IndyJr (talk) 21:56, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Not sure I understand. Are you referring to the HOTFIX AVAILABLE above as working OK, and the releases/latest version as having new bugs? And are you logged in with a "bot password"? (that is a misnomer; they should have been called application passwords). By "external scripts" do you mean the AWB "external processing" feature?

The hotfix was not meant to be submitted to the main source. Now you are able to use the Special:BotPasswords "Read my notifications" setting, so it shouldn't be necessary. I'm not having trouble with clipboard paste. And I admit I don't have experience with external processing, but I'll try to repro your error. David Brooks (talk) 19:10, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Yes, the hotfix above. It gives me different problems that I didn't have with 6.4.0.0, for example since the rules are now all in an external python script that I call from 'External processing' this doesn't work anymore with the fix. And also the paste doesn't work anymore, I don't know why. IndyJr (talk) 15:09, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

I'll check all the updates since 6.4.0.0 (there have been many of them) but I don't recall any changes to external processing. Is it possible you installed the app somewhere as administrator and when you run AWB it doesn't have write access to the install directory? As to paste, I can't repro. Is your edit field grayed out for some reason? David Brooks (talk) 15:30, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

I had tried debugging with Claude AI, it seems that the fix version did not execute external scripts at all. Putting the old 6.4.0.0 back on top of everything started working again. Now I'll try at the next release by reactivating 2FA, maybe there was some dependency that wasn't working perfectly on my system. IndyJr (talk) 17:29, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

The code specific to external programs hasn't changed since 2018. It does share a path with the C# module handler, but that code hasn't changed in a long time either. Does a module work? If you enable the default one it should just insert "text" at the top of the editor. David Brooks (talk) 18:34, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

@IndyJr: OK, I get "Access Denied" if the I/O file specified in the External Program already exists, and is read-only (check with the Properties page). If the exe is still marked as "came from another computer" then the error is in an AWB dialog, otherwise in a console window (weird). Can you check that file? If this isn't the cause, can you send a full screenshot when the error occurs? David Brooks (talk) 15:43, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

I'd like to know if there is currently a way or a way to request that the pale yellow/brown that highlights the deleted characters in a change in the upper area be able to be changed. (Not generally, but giving the user the option. ) Naraht (talk) 13:59, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

You can customize the diff colors & formatting by editing the style.css file in your AWB directory. I use User:Tom.Reding/Night-mode style.css.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:08, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

I don't see a style.css in my AWB directory (running 6401). I've got the program, the updater, the exe.config file, two dll files and a plugins directory. My settings xml files are up in my main personal directory.Naraht (talk) 14:28, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

I forgot that you have to create style.css first. Once created, style.css overrides AWB's internal default style. You can start with Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/style.css.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:41, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

I changed the feeec8 to fe00c8 and got an *obnoxious* magenta color. Not sure I'll keep quite that color, but still much easier to see. Thank you!Naraht (talk) 15:20, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

I haven't been able to use AWB for the last two days. I see that the API limits were due to switch to another level at the start of April, so I presume I've been swept up in that. I'm on version 6.4.0.0. There's no visible error message. Can someone direct me to where I might be able to find logs or a link where I can see if it is rate limiting. Thanks. - X201 (talk) 08:02, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

I'm seeing the same thing (likewise, for the last two days) with AWB version 6.3.1.1, Mitch Ames (talk) 10:06, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Wasn't happening to me until this morning. Every few pages. 6.4.0.1.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:12, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

https://www.wikimediastatus.net/ - "Investigating - We are currently investigating an issue which is causing a number of edits to Wiki's to fail. Investigation continuing and updates to follow."   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  11:20, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Can someone direct me to where I might be able to find logs or a link where I can see if it is rate limiting. I do it by running a debugger proxy (Fiddler classic in my case) and look for an HTTP status 429. But that shouldn't be it; so long as AWB is properly authenticated you shouldn't be hitting a limit. I'm working on better handling of rate limits, which is now urgent for non-authenticated code. David Brooks (talk) 15:47, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

I too tried to use AWB yesterday for the first time in a while and encountered a 'restarting in X' loop, which is continuing today. I'm not sure if it's the same issue everyone else has, but it happens after clicking 'start' and does not let me proceed. The response AWB gets (action=query&prop=info|revisions) is the following:

:<?xml version="1.0"?>
:<api servedby="mw-api-ext.eqiad.main-c7bcd7677-zjtx8" curtimestamp="2026-04-02T17:30:44Z">
:    <error code="echo-read-notifications" info="You don&#039;t have permission to $1." xml:space="preserve">See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php for API usage. Subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list at &amp;lt;https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-api-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/&amp;gt; for notice of API deprecations and breaking changes.</error>
:    <warnings>
:        <main xml:space="preserve">Subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list at &lt;https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-api-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/&gt; for notice of API deprecations and breaking changes. Use [[Special:ApiFeatureUsage]] to see usage of deprecated features by your application.</main>
:        <revisions xml:space="preserve">Because "rvslots" was not specified, a legacy format has been used for the output. This format is deprecated, and in the future the new format will always be used.</revisions>
:    </warnings>
:</api>

DatGuy^Talk_Contribs 17:41, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, but I actually meant the HTTP response code and headers. Any chance? The "You don't have permission..." doesn't sound like rate limiting. David Brooks (talk) 19:11, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Reponse is 200 OK. There's nothing obvious in the headers:

:::Key: date; Value: Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:00:37 GMT
:::Key: server; Value: mw-api-ext.eqiad.main-7d96dd4df8-6jn76
:::Key: x-content-type-options; Value: nosniff
:::Key: mediawiki-api-error; Value: echo-read-notifications
:::Key: content-security-policy; Value: default-src 'self'; script-src 'none'; object-src 'none'
:::Key: x-frame-options; Value: DENY
:::Key: content-disposition; Value: inline; filename=api-result.xml
:::Key: cache-control; Value: private, max-age=0, s-maxage=0
:::Key: set-cookie; Value: enwikiBlockID=deleted; expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:01 GMT; Max-Age=0; path=/; secure
:::Key: content-type; Value: text/xml; charset=utf-8
:::Key: content-encoding; Value: gzip
:::Key: age; Value: 0
:::Key: x-cache; Value: cp3072 miss, cp3072 pass
:::Key: x-cache-status; Value: pass
:::Key: server-timing; Value: cache;desc="pass", host;desc="cp3072"
:::Key: strict-transport-security; Value: max-age=106384710; includeSubDomains; preload
:::Key: report-to; Value: { "group": "wm_nel", "max_age": 604800, "endpoints": [{ "url": "https://intake-logging.wikimedia.org/v1/events?stream=w3c.reportingapi.network_error&schema_uri=/w3c/reportingapi/network_error/1.0.0" }] }
:::Key: nel; Value: { "report_to": "wm_nel", "max_age": 604800, "failure_fraction": 0.05, "success_fraction": 0.0}
:::Key: x-client-ip; Value: <REMOVED BY ME>
:::Key: vary; Value: Accept-Encoding,User-Agent
:::Key: content-length; Value: 528
:::Key: x-request-id; Value: a26e8434-<REMOVED BY ME>

DatGuy^Talk_Contribs 11:04, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

I am getting the same loop for several days now. --B. Jankuloski (talk) 20:53, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Which Wiki? It's not the English (en) one. Neils51 (talk) 13:47, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

I have no problems. I have just processed a list of 500 articles, of which I made edits to 381. It took about 25 minutes. I'm using version 6.4.0.1. Kiwipete (talk) 06:55, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

For mk.wiki. B. Jankuloski (talk) 19:31, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

To those experiencing a failure: are you connecting through a proxy server? When I used a proxy I got an immediate failure on login. On the other hand, I doubt that explains DatGuy's headers. Also it seems unlikely that the foundation would start banning them. David Brooks (talk) 15:58, 3 April 2026 (UTC) ETA: the response tells me that editing is specifically banned because my proxies (I tried several) are on a list. Again, I'm not convinced that matches the issues reported here. David Brooks (talk) 16:20, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

This one could be difficult because (a) not everyone is seeing it (b) it coincides with a WMF release of new throttling rules, but that doesn't look like the cause - unless someone spots an HTTP code 429 in their responses. To help narrow it down, here is a debug version of the official release:

https://1drv.ms/u/c/468817188d6582db/IQAt6zE0xaNUSq5mY7B1RWUtATNJldROZwCq6U0QtwGxOZg?e=QBKw7e

It should write a file log.txt in the folder where you put the binaries. I don't know what to expect, but it might help. The last few records before the hang might be interesting.

Also, the official build tree contains some improvements in this area, so you may want to give it a try. Here is a (non-debug) build of that:

https://1drv.ms/u/c/468817188d6582db/IQDttgbZEGk4RZhThDMvaji_AbspdCX2Ub8-uTZ5HAP7TZY?e=e0IMa7 never mind; that has a problem. Will fix later. David Brooks (talk) 17:32, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

I'll email you to avoid spamming the discussion page. DatGuy^Talk_Contribs 19:16, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

I've narrowed the issue down as I am also getting this error - from the code="echo-read-notifications" error response that DatGuy posted, looks like AWB is impacted by the same thing as https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T421991 - bot accounts and users using bot passwords (e.g. because of having 2FA enabled on their account) are currently prevented from requesting user notification counts. Because AWB requests the user notification counts to display in the bottom right corner of the AWB window as part of most API calls, the forbidden API response causes AWB to go into the Restarting loop. Reedy has a patch that's been merged to add a specific user right type for reading user notifications from the API - https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/Echo/+/1265608, but obviously this is still in in the works, as the user right hasn't been added to the BotPasswords interface yet. quickcategories has temporarily remove the notifications from their API requests https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/toolforge-repos/quickcategories/-/commit/eb7875d76b - maybe this could be done for AWB as well. Harryboyles 06:59, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

As an admin, I have been using my Bjankuloski06@AWB account for some time now, which it was required of me (that was set up with an authenticator at the time). Although it hasn't been an issue so far. I wonder if that has something to do with it. B. Jankuloski (talk) 07:54, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, Harryboyles, for spotting that. Until (and unless) a better workaround appears:

1. If you are using a bot password for AWB login, don't. Revert to a regular username if possible.
2. If you used a bot password to avoid the passcode challenge when you move to a new IP, download the build at https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest, which lets you enter the code sent to your email.
3. If that still doesn't work, let this thread know asap and we'll work on that temporary fix for bots suggested by Harry.

If you still must use the bot method for some reason, we'll have to wait for Reedy. David Brooks (talk) 12:31, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, none of them work. It insists on the bot - it doesn't let me use my regular account. B. Jankuloski (talk) 20:47, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Unless reedy can come up with his longer-term solution first I'll try a hotfix to the app, but that will probably be Monday. David Brooks (talk) 21:27, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

HOTFIX AVAILABLE – I hope. This should suppress the error for both real bots and interactive users logging in with <name>@<project> style. It's a bit crude and I haven't put it in the official source. Let me know. https://1drv.ms/u/c/468817188d6582db/IQDUx7XXsSqzQ64KqQVIdDULAYWCuq8zh9V1MMMslGA_wY0?e=DrVfnb David Brooks (talk) 03:08, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! It finally works for me. B. Jankuloski (talk) 04:07, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

The hotfix build works for me as well - thanks for the quick workaround. For those who are interested, the Special:BotPasswords workflow now allows you to add "Read my notifications" as a specific grant. Harryboyles 11:52, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Oh well; it was useful for a few hours! I hope all existing users get the message; I'm sure there are those who used a bot password as a workaround for Email Auth (fixed in the tree, not in the 6.4.0.0 release) and are still wondering. David Brooks (talk) 17:20, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

I had to disable 2FA to my bot to use AWB with simple username and password, and so it works. Now I try the fix by reactivating 2FA. IndyJr (talk) 18:41, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

@DavidBrooks, thank you for this. Idoghor Melody (talk) 07:50, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

Does AWB provide a way to find text within the preview pane? For example, I may fix a link or template and want to check the amended output as displayed in preview. In a stub this is trivial but, in a large article, scrolling through manually to spot the right place by eye can take some time. I'm more familiar with JWB where I just use my browser's built-in find (Ctrl+F). I noticed a Find button in AWB which is useful for searching within the wikitext but it excludes the preview pane. Have I missed something? Certes (talk) 19:47, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

No, I don't think you've missed anything. Possible options, that I'm aware of, might be, (1) Use the right-click print function within the preview window to create a file (PDF) and review that, (2) Double-click the list item to open the item in your browser and paste the specific fix and preview/review that before saving within AWB (abandoning the browser edit) and (3) Trust your instincts, save your edited page, use the append function (top of list) to place the item on the bottom of the list and then double-click and review the item in your browser. These options are all pretty clunky. Option (1), I rarely use, (2) occasionally and (3) the most often. Option (2) is perhaps most useful if the edit can be confined to a section. You could try suggesting an improvement via Phabricator however I would expect that significant change would be required to enable such a function (else it would be there?). Neils51 (talk) 11:40, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Thank you. I'm surprised to see such a useful feature missing but I suppose it's trivial in JWB and a lot of effort in AWB. Certes (talk) 13:02, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Another option is to <right-click>, select 'View source' and search the output (which includes the relevant HTML). Neils51 (talk) 20:02, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

I'm trying to start a quick run on AWB but it keeps going "Restarting in...", counting down then restarting again with an added five seconds. Is the server down? Timrollpickering (talk) 09:49, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

See #Loading ... Restarting Loop. Mitch Ames (talk) 11:14, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

TL;DR: You need to:

1. Go to your Special:BotPasswords.
2. Open the account you use for AWB (e.g. Special:BotPasswords/AWB).
3. Allow the account to "Read my notifications".

Nux (talk) 23:14, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

I'm observing some strange behaviour with AWB trying to replace an endash with a hyphen. A specific example is in 1941 Milan–San Remo where I have a rule that adds the text "Milan–San Remo" (with an endash) to the Category:1941 in Italian sport. When I have Options -> Apply general fixes selected, the modified text ends up being Milan-San Remo, but when that option is not selected, I get the modified text as I expect: Milan–San Remo. Can anyone explain why is this happening? Thanks, Kiwipete (talk) 23:17, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

WP:SORTKEY states "Hyphens, apostrophes and periods / full stops are the only punctuation marks that should be kept in sort values. The only exception is the apostrophe in names beginning with O', which should be removed. For example, Eugene O'Neill is sorted as . All other punctuation marks and symbols[8] should be removed. Dashes can be replaced with hyphens."

So AWB is correct in converting your dashes to hyphens.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  10:53, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Tom.Reding, thanks for your explanation, and for your subsequent fixes of the changes I did. But I now wonder about the AWB changes where you changed the default sort key for the Liège–Bastogne–Liège articles, from Liège–Bastogne–Liège itself to Liege–Bastogne–Liege. I manually reverted this change in 2018 Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes, and then processed this article through AWB, with only "Apply general fixes" selected. AWB didn't make any change back to Liege–Bastogne–Liege, and I assume this is because of the statement in WP:SORTKEY that "sort order merges (ignores) letter case and diacritics". Should I now revert the other similar changes? Thanks, Kiwipete (talk) 02:21, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

Most diacritics are in a grey area, and more of a style/consistency decision whether or not to keep, but dash -> hyphen isn't, so a hyphenated Liège-Bastogne-Liège is fine.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  10:33, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

I've just processed Category:Liège–Bastogne–Liège through AWB. I had all rules disabled, Apply general fixes selected, and Options -> Restrict {{DEFAULTSORT}} change/addition unselected. A DEFAULTSORT value was added to Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes and Category:Liège–Bastogne–Liège race stubs. In both cases, with a hyphen and with accented e's. I'm not sure what the effect of the Restrict {{DEFAULTSORT}} change/addition option is. I'll investigate this further. Kiwipete (talk) 03:22, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

I have a problem from ru.wikipedia.org: Aborted. https://prnt.sc/HEVBHGntU7I8. Login to ru-wiki. Access to my account is OK. Pessimist (talk) 19:00, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

Did you recently change your location, or did your IP address change, and is there a message in your email with a 6-digit code?

If so, use this build: https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest. It is built from the latest source tree. I'm planning to make it an official update soon. David Brooks (talk) 19:58, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

No, not my IP address change. Pessimist (talk) 05:59, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

OK, but did you try my temp build? There have been significant server-side changes since the 6.4.0.0 release that have tripped up many users. David Brooks (talk) 14:47, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

https://prnt.sc/49mJoavqyCCt Pessimist (talk) 19:17, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

That does suggest to me you aren't using the latest (interim) 6.4.0.1 build, or else you didn't enter the 6-digit code from your email correctly. In the latter case, the handling is crude; it just implies "try again". There could be other exception cases that cause that dialog, but I haven't seen them. But just to check - are you using a bot password? David Brooks (talk) 20:41, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

version

login

I'm not have bot, only normal account. Pessimist (talk) 17:15, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

@Pessimist2006: Another question: does your email address (the address registered under your ru wikipedia account) include a "@" character? David Brooks (talk) 15:56, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes. I regularly receive emails via Wikimail. Pessimist (talk) 17:10, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

I can't figure out the flow. Can you download a debug build from here, place it in the folder with your regular exe and run it up to the error. I'm interested in the contents of Log.txt in the same folder, but it may contain private information. If you can share the last five or six log entries, it might help. David Brooks (talk) 20:37, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Greetings,

I requested for permission to edit the Ganda Wikipedia using AWB here but my request was declined that the page I used was only meant for English Wikipedia.

I tried searching on Ganda Wikpedia and I did not find a page on which I can submit my request.

Which page can I request for permissions to edit Ganda Wikipedia using AWB. Thank you B722N (talk) 06:49, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Hello B722N.

Usually, not all Wikis require permissions to use AWB.

The page that AWB checks on enwiki is Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON, but it doesn't exist on lgwiki: lg:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON (the page name doesn't depend on the language, for example, I am on fr:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON as well as my bot).

In short, you don't need permission to use AWB on lgwiki (until lgwiki admins decide to implement one).

I sent you a message on lg:User talk:B722N to show you even I could edit lgwiki with AWB.

Good luck,  Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 09:51, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

@SyntaxTerror Thanks a lot for the clarification. I truly appreciate your help. B722N (talk) 11:05, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

I am doing a fairly simple find/replace, removing artistid *= *[0-9]* from {{single chart}} use (and setting that regex as a subrule of "in template rule". However (for example), in Art vs. Science (EP) there is {{singlechart|Australia|32|artist=Art vs. Science|song=Art vs. Science|artistid=1308564|accessdate=27 January 2011}} which it will only match if I don't have my rule nested inside the "in template rule". I don't seem to recall this being a problem in the past (and I have a ton of past tasks that have used this option), so am I missing something obvious? Primefac (talk) 11:15, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, it's broken in 6.4.0.1. Try 6.4.0.0, and if you also have a broken window frame for regulars in this version, then try 6.3.1.1. Solidest (talk) 11:21, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

Good to know, thanks. Primefac (talk) 11:47, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

This edit request to Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Given the discussion at this ANI and Ira Leviton's claim in this post that they will cease use of WP:JWB, please remove them from this JSON list by deleting line 709. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 21:58, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

Not done for now: the thread in question is barely a day old and there's no rush (especially if they really are planning on not using it). There is always the possibility that the outcome will be different than how it starts out looking to be headed. Primefac (talk) 18:53, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Primefac can I please get you to comment on the ANI thread? I will note that this is the second time this user has gone to ANI for the exact same issue. While they have claimed they will stop using the tool, they have made this claim before. I would also note their claims at the first ANI that they would do better in the future. Neither of these claims have proved to be true. At what point is enough, enough? Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 18:57, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

I'll keep an eye on it. Primefac (talk) 19:04, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for clarifying and resolving this issue. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 03:46, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Today, AWB is giving me another error and not working. And this time, I have absolutely no idea why. Thái Nhi (talk) 14:47, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

I just re-downloaded and logged on successfully. SarekOfVulcan (talk) 14:52, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

It looks like you're not on Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON. You might need to re?request permissions, since it looks like you haven't used AWB in a while.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:11, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

I ran a WikiBlame for your name on Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPageJSON and didn't find and matches.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  15:14, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

Your screenshot shows that you aren't trying to log in to the English Wikipedia. Which project is it? Has AWB ever worked for you on that project? -- John of Reading (talk) 15:47, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

Actually in the status bar it says vi.wikipedia, and your username is registered in the vi.wikipedia.org CheckPage. That error dialog happens not because of not being registered, but an exception of some sort while checking. The most likely source is the failure to load one of the config files. I think it may be Project:AutoWikiBrowser/Config, which doesn't seem to exist on vi.wikipedia. If it were, it would probably be redirected to Wikipedia/AutoWikiBrowser/Config (or something in Vietnamese). David Brooks (talk) 18:35, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

vi:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Config exists though. Isn't that the page that's needed? Shabe (talk) 18:51, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

Ah, yes, you are right. Typo on my part, and thanks for correcting that, because it is a copy of an out-of-date (December 2019) VersionJSON. It should look something like en:Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Config. David Brooks (talk) 20:11, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

So how do I fix this error? Thái Nhi (talk) 08:36, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

It looks like you did. Did that work? David Brooks (talk) 14:53, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

Yeap! But it didn't work. Thái Nhi (talk) 15:02, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

Same error dialog? It indicates some exception in the JSON file lookup; unfortunately the code expects the syntax to be as expected. I'll look at it tomorrow and try to force a repro. David Brooks (talk) 01:04, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

David Brooks, Thái Nhi, the files look different, the bracketing is different. Copy and paste? Neils51 (talk) 13:22, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

@Thái Nhi and Neils51: I meant this version, before it was reverted to the bad version. The syntax is good, although I can't speak to the context. David Brooks (talk) 16:44, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

I tried copying and pasting from en.wiki to vi.wiki, but the error persisted, so I reverted to the old version. Thái Nhi (talk) 16:49, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

Here is a debug version of the exe. Can you drop it in the same folder as your exe, restore the newer version, run the debug exe to the error, and share (e.g. on a personal subpage) the contents of Log.txt in the same folder? David Brooks (talk) 22:30, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

I tried running debug and restarting AWB. The following messages appeared:

1. AWB started normally without any errors. However, in Site > Language, it displayed "en". I tried changing "en" to "vi", and AWB immediately reported the error "The remote server..."

2. I tried ignoring this error and tried changing "en" to "vi" again. Surprisingly, this time AWB did not report an error.

3. I tried loading a list into AWB and tried clicking Start to log in to the bot account. This time AWB reported the error "Check page failed to load" and, of course, I could not log in.

4. Suspecting that the bot account might have an incorrect password, I tried opening "Open in browser". Surprisingly, the Wikipedia website reported the error "Please respect our robot policy". I tried refreshing the page and, surprisingly, everything returned to normal. My bot account is still logged in with its own password.

5. However, I still can't log in using AWB. It keeps giving me the error "Check page failed to load". Thái Nhi (talk) 09:35, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

There are too many moving parts here. I didn't know you were using a bot password and the latest sources address some issues with that (although I don't think they would result in your symptoms). Still, can you try this, which should be equivalent to the next official release. In addition, did you find that debug logfile? You should also delete the two very old messages from your new Config file. David Brooks (talk) 17:37, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

I have just noticed: your CheckPageJSON only contains entries for bots. If your username is in that list, your session will be classified as a bot. Did you intend that? If not, you should either (a) put your registered users in the enabledusers list, or (b) set allusersenabled to true in your CONFIG file. You can remove the messages at the same time. David Brooks (talk) 16:45, 11 May 2026 (UTC)

A member of vi.wiki also informed me about a 403 error when using AWB. He suggested that the AWB server had inadvertently blocked IP addresses belonging to Vietnamese internet service providers. Could you please check this issue for me? Thái Nhi (talk) 16:16, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

AWB itself pays no attention to the IP. The 403 must come from the wikipedia servers. They do perform some IP-level blocking, but usually not at the API level that AWB uses.

I can think of two possibilities. The first two calls AWB makes are to en.wikipedia.org; make sure that is not blocked. Or you could be using a proxy server that the Wikipedia server has blocked, although in my experience the block is on the web interface, not the API.

If you can use a web debugger (such as Fiddler) you may be able to see additional information as part of the 403. David Brooks (talk) 00:39, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

I'm almost certain that the AWB server accidentally blocked my ISP, VNPT. I tried switching to another provider, Viettel, and AWB worked normally. Does this mean I have to move house (just kidding)? Thái Nhi (talk) 08:56, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Moving house is entirely your choice :-)

I can't offer much. At what point did the 403 happen - during startup, login, or article processing? I haven't encountered AWB getting an IP exclusion when the normal browser interface does not.

You might try using a US IP from an open proxy (I use Surfshark) although it may be blocked somewhere else in the communication links. If you do, be prepared for the email-based authentication. David Brooks (talk) 20:48, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

There is a backlog of unanswered WP:AWBREQ actions. I have one about Yugoslavia-related categories that hasn't been acted on since April 25, and is about to be archived without any action. –LaundryPizza03 (dc̄) 05:11, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Hello.

Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Plugins#Making a plugin appears to be out of date and should be updated.

It mentions IAWBPlugin, which seems to have been replaced by IPlugin in AWB 6.4.0.0. The DLLs to be used as references also seem to have changed.

I have no knowledge of C# or Visual Basic and only a limited understanding of AWB, so I am unable to do this myself.

Best regards,  Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 18:34, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

IAWBPlugin has been a C# interface since forever. It is defined in WikiFunctions.dll, which is in the same folder as the AutoWikiBrowser.exe file, and should be listed in the References section of the plugin's Project (to use the Visual Studio term). Make sure you have downloaded and installed AWB 6.4.0.0.

Without prior C# knowledge there will be a fair amount to learn before you can make much progress. You may find a module meets your need; the C# requirement is less demanding. But, yes, the instructions are out of date as step 9 should refer you to .NET Framework 4.8.1. David Brooks (talk) 02:22, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

@DavidBrooks : I'm using version 6.4.0.0, and I asked qwen.ai to design a plugin for me, but it's not working properly because the only tutorial I could provide was this outdated page.

In any case, my skills aren't the issue here but this outdated information, and it even causes difficulties for those trying to learn from it.  Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 09:04, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Well, for a start, your AI has hallucinated the IPlugin interface, which appears nowhere in the official source. If you really want to try this way of coding, I suggest you start with Visual Studio Community, follow the instructions by hand up to step 5 and then see what your agent does.

But remember, you are personally responsible for any changes made. And your agent will have access to not only the ProcessArticle() method, but also the entire MW API. By which I mean dangers lurk. David Brooks (talk) 13:56, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Well, for a start, how am I supposed to know? The tutorial is out of date.

But thanks for lecturing me, it's really helpful.  Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 14:24, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

I have edited the C# instructions for clarity, but I don't think it was out of date in any significant way, except for the name of a References tab. Can you be more specific on what you think was wrong? David Brooks (talk) 15:33, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you, but if I could tell what is wrong or not, I would have edited the tutorial myself.  Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 18:57, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

You yourself said "I have no knowledge of C# or Visual Basic". It would be helpful if you spent some time learning it to some extent the old-fashioned way. AI is helpful in augmenting what we already know to some extent to get things done faster, but due to the mistakes it can oftentimes make, using it to replace our capabilities fully is not tenable. If you don't know how the instructions can be improved, there's nothing anyone here can do for you. the Stefen 𝕋ower 19:10, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

There's a lot of web-based material to get started however I found Programming in the Key of C# by Charles Petzold, an excellent reference. Over 20 years old now and there have been many .NET updates, however a great start. Neils51 (talk) 23:28, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Locpac gave me a python script for Pywikibot on frwiki to remove named refs and their related self-closing refs .

I'll try to use it, and also to convert it to an AWB plugin if I can.  Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 10:06, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

This is old news, I know, but I thought I'd ask the desktop Copilot app to build an AWB Plugin. It started out OK, but halfway through it switched to implementing a Module instead (and with incorrect syntax) perhaps because it was confused by the same-named ProcessArticle method.

Then I told it to read the Plugin tutorial, and it fixed the previous attempt and worked first time. It was a very simple edit though. BTW my laptop has an NPU, but its usage stayed at 0%. Not that I use Copilot routinely, but it was worth a try. David Brooks (talk) 17:00, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Version 6.5.0.0 is now available. It is essentially the same as the most recent 6.4.0.1 that I've been distributing to a few people. You can update a running AWB using Help/Check for updates, or download it from the usual place.

On recent versions of Windows a downloaded exe may need to be unblocked because it comes from "another computer". That may apply to your existing copy of AWBUpdater.exe as well as the new AutoWikiBrowser.exe and AWBUpdater.exe after extracting them from the zipfiles. To unblock, check the file properties (right click/Properties) and if there is an "Unblock" checkbox, check it and press OK. See also Note below.

Thanks to Rjwilmsi for help with the upload process. David Brooks (talk) 15:52, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for your efforts. Is this 64-bit like the version you sent me at a previous time? the Stefen 𝕋ower 18:37, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

No, it's the usual x86 build. I haven't had time to think through how to offer both versions. Given the restrictions implied by the runtime, the choices are:

• x86 build, will run efficiently on an x86-only processor or an x86-64 (most modern processors), and under emulation on ARM64. The emulation is a little slow and takes up much more memory.
• 64-bit unified build, which will run efficiently on ARM64. It will also run natively on x86-64 (the JIT compiler detects the architecture at runtime), but use up more memory than the x86 build. It won't run at all on an x86 processor, if there are any still out there.

Because of the greater memory use on x86-64, which is still the majority of processors out there, I decided to keep x86 as the default. If you want better performance on an ARM64 box, I can provide an alternative build somewhere. David Brooks (talk) 22:30, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. Does the new x86 build resolve the "out of memory" issue I reported before? I still have to work on large sets of articles from time to time. If not, I will need a similar 64-bit build of the new version before I can upgrade. the Stefen 𝕋ower 23:10, 14 May 2026 (UTC)

Ah, yes, I remember now. I've uploaded the 64-bit build to https://github.com/DavidWBrooks/UnofficialAWB/releases/latest. You'll need the -arm64 version; I chose that name to be less confusing :-) David Brooks (talk) 03:41, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you kindly! Much appreciated. the Stefen 𝕋ower 05:24, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

Note: Before running the Help/About updater, you may also need to first unblock AWBUpdater.exe in the same folder as your AutoWikiBrowser.exe, using the Properties dialog as above. David Brooks (talk) 14:59, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, this version works properly with bot passwords and there's not longer the problems I had with 6.4.0.1, perhaps the update via the update app was decisive.

Do you plan to also implement the OAuth authentication (that I already have for the bot on Toolforge) in the future? IndyJr (talk) 19:30, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

I wasn't planning to. From what I read, it's too much of a lift. I only took on these tasks because I understood the basic structure of AWB and was successively annoyed by the new-IP challenge, the new rate limits, and then the "notifications disallowed" default on bot passwords. You are welcome to try of course; the current flow is in WikiFunctions\API\APIEdit.cs, methods Login() and ClientLogin() (the comment on line 630 is wrong, I just noticed). David Brooks (talk) 17:15, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

I'm encountering an issue where AWB is not applying general fixes, including replacing template redirects, to mainspace redirect pages. I don't believe this was always the case, and I'm not sure what the reasoning behind it would be. There are options to skip or follow redirects – I don't have those selected, so if I want to include redirects, it means I want to apply fixes to them. Is this intentional behaviour or a known issue? Is there an option to change this? Mclay1 (talk) 13:22, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Can you provide a specific example, including page, etc, and I could attempt to dupe using current and -2 versions. Neils51 (talk) 21:01, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

@Neils51: As an example, "Wierd Al" Yankovic uses {{Rcat shell}}, which should be replaced by {{Redirect category shell}} per WP:AWB/TR, but it isn't. And if I add text such as "January 1 1959" and re-parse, it doesn't correct it to "January 1, 1959" like it does when doing exactly the same thing in an article, so the behaviour is clearly different. (Obviously a change like that isn't likely to be needed for a redirect, but I can't find a real example right now.) Mclay1 (talk) 06:35, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

I've seen editors manually cleanup bot mistakes with special syntax like {{Cbignore}} to prevent the bot from "fixing" something that is, in fact, not broken. Is there an equivalent for AWB?

Not that it matters, but the specific issue I'm currently facing is AWB wanting to change "USD 203" to "US$203" at Piper High School (Kansas). In the context of that article, "USD" stands for "unified school district", so I'm looking for a way to make AWB ignore that snippet forever and for always. Thanks! — voidxor 19:12, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Try {{Not a typo}}. Using this would look like {{Not a typo|USD 203}}. AWB will skip it. the Stefen 𝕋ower 19:28, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

The issue of 'School District' and 'USD' has been raised before and I don't think satisfactorily resolved. I think that 'editors should be aware' was more or less the result. There are a little over 2000 pages that use both these terms. Should we turn the specific currency rule off when the term "School District" is within the page, adjacent, or is that excessive? Neils51 (talk) 06:35, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Is there a way to test if something is within the page? I only know of looking at text directly around the would-be typo, using a lookahead or lookbehind. And in this specific case, the usual approach might only help us in two of the three instances (lookbehind for "school in" or "student population of"). I imagine we can trim down but not eliminate the false positives. the Stefen 𝕋ower 06:51, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Most likely just use a negative lookbehind. It is feasible to model a possible result. I would expect at least an 80-90% hit, possibly better. A search for School District+USD gives 2081 entries, subtract 'School' or 'District' and that goes to zero. I just gave Gemini some rather specific search criteria and the handful of exceptions it gave me used lower case 'school district' (I wasn't quite specific enough!), so I would expect few false positives. I'll have a look at it. Neils51 (talk) 07:47, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

I assume you mean look near the text in question. Scanning for text that isn't immediate to the "USD nnn" sounds draggy on performance. the Stefen 𝕋ower 08:08, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Shouldn't be different to performance for any other string search. Neils51 (talk) 09:05, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

But what I'm trying to say is... we don't do this. We don't look for out-of-context text in the rest of the article. That would be new, and not necessarily a workable approach. You can't guarantee that a mention of "school district" somewhere else in the article means that USD doesn't mean US dollars. We write regexes contextually. the Stefen 𝕋ower 09:13, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks I'll have a look. Neils51 (talk) 07:52, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

@StefenTower and Neils51: Thank you both for investigating the root of the issue. Since searches or look-behinds for "school district" would be expensive and unreliable, I have three alternate ideas:

• Is it possible for the rule to deactivate on articles in Category:Schools, or any subcategory thereof?
• Is it possible for the rule to deactivate on articles with {{Infobox school}}?
• Can we simply change the regular expression to not make changes on any string like "USD 123", where there is neither a dollar sign nor an intervening period? "USD$123" will never refer to a school district, and neither will "USD 123.45".

— voidxor 14:13, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

All good suggestions. I'll do some investigation. Neils51 (talk) 07:52, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

On the first two, I've investigated this broadly before, and there is no way to deactivate a typo rule with AWB. On the last one, that is what I meant about looking at these contextually. There should be approaches to eliminate probably most of the false positives. In the final analysis, though, we rely on AWB users to use their judgment in approving changes to articles, and the tool makes it somewhat easy to skip suggested changes. the Stefen 𝕋ower 17:37, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

While AWB's proposed changes can be skipped or undone in the diff, I think it's better not to have a regex "fixing" something that is correct half the time, like "USD 123". I've never personally seen "USD 123" (with no dollar sign nor comma nor decimal) refer to a dollar value, so I'm not convinced that the unified school district sense is a rare false positive. I was leaning toward my third suggestion anyway. I feel strongly that AWB should not be assuming that "USD 123" refers to the dollar value. Edge cases like this can be fixed manually. In a large AWB edit, it's going to be missed, so I feel it's safer to take no action than to assume. — voidxor 18:14, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

Of course. That's why a typo rule can be modified to do contextual exclusions with regex lookbehinds and lookaheads and likely significantly reduce the false positives. Also, I have done extensive typo fixing with AWB, and way more often than not, this rule gets it right as it is. It can be improved, though. the Stefen 𝕋ower 19:07, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

Perhaps I misread your previous comment. If you are able to tweak the regex to reduce the false positives that brought me here, that would be great! Thanks for all that you do for AWB. — voidxor 19:11, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

I would normally work on something like this, but Neils51 said he's working on it, so, no need for two to work on it. :) the Stefen 𝕋ower 19:12, 28 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes, just to confirm, working on this. FYI, "I've never personally seen "USD 123" (with no dollar sign nor comma nor decimal) refer to a dollar value", there are close to 500 and if you feel like fixing them you will find them here. Neils51 (talk) 08:12, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

I assume this is a reply to voidxor as you are quoting him. AT any rate, I don't do ad hoc typo fix runs these days, with all the other things I'm working on, on and off wiki. I only do those if I'm actively testing a new rule or change to an existing one. the Stefen 𝕋ower 19:26, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

It was no doubt a reply to my comment. Regardless, I'm grateful to Neils51 for compiling a list, and I'm actively working on fixing those instances. — voidxor 19:34, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

As a Bureaucrat on several Wikimedia projects, I am now required to have two-factor authentication. However, enabling this has made me unable to log in to AWB. I understand that this can be worked around using a bot account, but I would prefer to be able to log in under my own name, particularly when making tweaks and non-botlike edits in the course of using the tool. Can AWB be fixed to enable logins from a 2FA account? BD2412 T 20:54, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

As long as you've upgraded to the latest version 6.5.0.0 in the last two weeks (T421991: Don't request notifications if you don't have the right), you can set up a bot password for AWB (note this is not the same as a bot account) - Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA. Edits with the bot password will appear under your main username (as an admin with MFA, you can see my contributions in the last little while are mainly AWB edits). The bot password also allows you to only allow certain grants to the bot password (i.e. to restrict AWB to only general editor access and prevent bureaucrat/admin-specific access). Harryboyles 23:08, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

@Harryboyles: Thanks, I will check out this option! BD2412 T 00:01, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Worked like a charm. The AWB machine is back in business! BD2412 T 00:09, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Awesome! Harryboyles 08:50, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Oh good. I myself was about to create a separate AWB account just to get around the API issues 6.4 was having... Thanks! Primefac (talk) 21:16, 4 June 2026 (UTC)

On the Mikoy Morales article, I tried using AWB after copyediting and expanding the lead section. I used AWB to clean up the final outcome, but it seems it didn't detect the curly apostrophe. The article had a curly apostrophe (”) instead of a straight apostrophe ('). Normally AWB detects and fixes those in other articles, but in this case it didn't catch it, even though it was in the lead section. I ended up replacing it manually. - Arcrev1 (talk) 19:42, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

I recently started a project to reduce (in my opinion) page bloat via text redundancy on language and phonology articles, replacing [[X consonant|X]] and [[Y vowel|Y]] with {{lcons|X}} and {{lvow|Y}}; these templates produce the same content on output rendering, and if substituted would likewise produce the same results as what they are replacing. In some cases this results in a notable page byte decrease, e.g. [[alveolo-palatal consonant|alveolo-palatal]] > {{lcons|alveolo-palatal}}, while in others it is more minor but still redundancy reductive, e.g. [[mid vowel|mid]] > {{lvow|mid}}.

I had been using JWB to assist with regex replacement of these links with their equivalent template calls. @Mathglot left a message on my talk page objecting both to the change and to my usage of JWB for doing so, citing wikitext readability for editors on the former and WP:AWBRULES #4 on the latter. They asked for me to seek consensus before going any further; I understand their concerns and agreed to seek such consensus. I also suggested that I would revert my replacements if consensus was not in my favor (or, as mentioned, these could be turned into subst templates, so that cleanup is taken care of by an actual bot).

There are therefore three questions that I ask out of this:

1. Is this change viewed as:
   A. a productive one? (go forward with the change, use wherever possible)
   B. an insignificant one? (does not matter or no opinion, use at discretion)
   C. or a harmful one? (roll back the change, use only for new content/do not alter existing content)
2. Does using the templates over wikilinks result in any performance impact (technical burden) on page rendering?
3. Is my usage of JWB for this a violation of semi-automated edit policies?

~ oklopfer (💬) 17:22, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

Notified: Wikipedia:Village pump (technical), Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Templates, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Linguistics and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Languages. ~ oklopfer (💬) 17:27, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

That's a good and neutral synopsis of the issues. Details here. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 17:29, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

Addendum: re #2, it could conceivably cause a problem in page rendering by hitting a WP:PEIS threshold on a page where there was a large table where the template was used regularly in several table columns. Mathglot (talk) 17:36, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

"Link" templates (things that just link) are routinely deleted in fact as they are insufficiently complex to merit being a template. VisualEditor gets sad when a template is inside another template. PEIS is also a consideration, which should answer #2. Izno (talk) 17:51, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

It also requires two rows in the database (template link and the link itself), instead of one (just the link itself) for each page it is used on. So a bit of a waste. Whether that is a good use of resources depends on the functionality provided. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:36, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

To +1 even more to Izno’s point, these templates are not actually substitutable in the current form, as that would create a bunch of #if markup in the article, and they don’t support TemplateData, so editing those templates in the visual editor is pretty bad. These sorts of templates should exist as substitution-only. And they should definitely not be inserted into articles en masse (especially by AWB/JWB). stjn 22:19, 10 June 2026 (UTC)

Others above have mentioned technical issues but my concern is more social. The example in the {{lvow}} documentation is {{lvow|close}} is shorthand for [[close vowel|close]]. That makes sense for someone who has spent weeks examining vowels and their templates, but it is a mental hurdle for everyone else. The spelled-out wikilink is much better for editors. Johnuniq (talk) 00:22, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

@Mathglot, Izno, TheDJ, Stjn, and Johnuniq: thanks for all of your replies. It is rather clear from them that the prevailing opinion is that the usefulness of these templates is outweighed by the technical burden and editor-friendly readability.

Stjn correctly pointed out that the templates are actually currently not properly substitutable; I have made corrections for this at {{lcons/sandbox}} and {{lvow/sandbox}}, and confirmed that AnomieBOT can properly substitute them in my sandbox: Special:Diff/1358808862. Would implementing this change be the preferred path forward? It would both undo my replacements and future-proof usage of these templates. ~ oklopfer (💬) 03:39, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

This hasn't been open for long, and I, for one, am willing to wait for more opinions if you wish to; these things can swing sometimes. Whatever path you choose, I'm not the best person to answer your question, so I'll let others weigh in on that. Mathglot (talk) 05:29, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

Phabricator ticket created.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:53, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

I was working to clean up Category:Pages using infobox television with deprecated parameters and there I saw that even without using Find and Replace that it was replacing the depreciated parameter with its non depreciated parameter. When I went to do the same thing with Infobox Noble, it didn't. Does that require an X replaced with Y in the definition of the infobox or did I somehow turn something off in AWB? Naraht (talk) 12:34, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

@Naraht: If you have the general fixes turned on, then AWB will change parameters in {{Infobox television}} according to the instructions at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Rename template parameters#Infobox television. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:01, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

John of ReadingI have "Apply general fixes" turned on.Naraht (talk) 13:25, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

@Naraht: So if you add a section for {{Infobox noble}} to Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Rename template parameters, your replacements will then happen by magic. The syntax on that page isn't too complicated. You'll need to restart AWB, or choose File>Refresh status, to get it to reload the configuration page. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:56, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

John of Reading Looks cool. I'll get to that when I can.Naraht (talk) 17:14, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

For what it's worth I'm glad you had this issue/question, because this will make my life so much easier when I'm doing huge bot runs for parameter changes. Primefac (talk) 16:32, 14 June 2026 (UTC)

Is there an option that would make AWB substitute in Pipe Trick entries? Right now apparently by default, it will take [[Sandal|Sandals]] and turn it into [[Sandal]]s. Is there an option currently that would cause [[Glas (book)|Glas]] to become [[Glas (book)|]] ?Naraht (talk) 12:01, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

There is an important distinction between those two examples. [[Sandal|Sandals]] and [[Sandal]]s are two alternative ways to produce the same result, and AWB is preferring the latter. [[Glas (book)|]] is not stored as wikitext: the standard page editors convert it to [[Glas (book)|Glas]] when the user clicks Publish. If you then edit the page again, you see [[Glas (book)|Glas]] in the wikitext. If you do manage to store [[Glas (book)|]] as wikitext, perhaps by wrapping it in a <ref> tag where the pipe trick isn't applied, it will literally display the text [[Glas (book)|]] rather than a link. In other words, the pipe trick is applied when saving a page, not when displaying it. Certes (talk) 13:21, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

The only preparsing criteria I'm using is whether or not human category changes were made, so only general fixes are being applied, and no other skip condition/regex rules/module/external processing. There are a few needles in a haystack of ~20,000 pages, and logging is off, yet the process continues to consume memory and eventually throws an out of memory error at ~1.5 GB, which usually results in lost work. I have plenty of free memory at the time of OOM. I've processed larger lists in the past with no problems, so I'm wondering if this was introduced in the last few versions (I'm using 6.5.0.0 SVN 13019), or if this is 'normal' for sparse lists. (for me, the most common culprit for being OOM is a regex rule with extensive unbounded nested quantifiers that runs forever, not a list being emptied)   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  16:14, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

This seems strange, but first suggestion: did you try one of the 64-bit 6.4.0.1 versions I've built? Or I can produce a 64-bit 6.5.0.0 if you really need it. If it "only" takes 1.5GB that may not be the problem, but let's eliminate it first. A classic memory leak is unlikely in code of this age, but perhaps the app is keeping references to old copies of the list objects for some reason. David Brooks (talk) 18:23, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

I have 3 slightly different 6.4.0.1 versions from when you were helping me with the GetHTML authentication issue, zips dated April 2, 4, and 6. I'll try to reproduce the OOM on the April 6 version, since I think that's the one I was using until 6.5.0.0.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  19:18, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

OOM with 6.4.0.1 at ~1.5 GB & ~10k pages. I'll try again with 6.3.1.1, which is the oldest enabledversions, from 2024-08-09.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  21:09, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

I lost track of all the versions I put out - trying to be too helpful! Anyway, can you confirm that you used the 64-bit 6.4.0.1? You can tell using Task Manager (on Win11 it's Details tab, Architecture column).

By the way, because I'm not sure everyone realizes: every snapshot build after the 6.4.0.0 release was tagged 6.4.0.1. Updating the minor rev after each checkin gets too cumbersome and has rarely been done. David Brooks (talk) 22:22, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

All of the AWB versions I'm using are running as 32-bit.

There's no leak in 6.3.1.1 after 30k pages while the process stayed steady at ~100 MB. What's more is that pages processed more quickly & consistently (250~300 pages/min steady from start to finish) than the OOM versions. The OOM versions process pages inversely proportional to the total # of remaining pages: slower with more pages remaining (80~90 pages/min @ 20k), and faster with fewer pages remaining (~225 pages/min with < 1k pages), so I think the leak & the page processing rate are related.

I'll try different versions to narrow down when the OOM first manifests.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  23:19, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

I can already tell that 6.4.0.0 is going to have problems, so the change happened between 6.3.1.1 (SVN 12633, 2024-08-09) & 6.4.0.0 (SVN 12927, 2025-02-19).   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  23:31, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

The only change to large lists that I could find is 12716 "ListBox: removal of large number of articles: previous logic using SelectedIndex doesn't work when selecting a large list bottom to top rather than top to bottom. So use faster bulk methods when > 500 items rather than based on index."

If there are >500 items it uses set operations to intern the article list, clears the listbox and reloads it. That does sound expensive but the lists should be garbage collected if there is memory pressure. David Brooks (talk) 03:54, 30 May 2026 (UTC) ETA: a thought - if you have "Remove Duplicates" selected in the List menu, and in fact you have no duplicates, unselect it. That forces a different (maybe slower) algorithm. David Brooks (talk) 04:28, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

My test list is obtained by getting the entire contents of Category:Year of birth missing (20,118) (~20k) and never manipulating it, so I never pressed Remove Duplicates or any other list manipulation features. I'll make a steps to reproduce list & file a proper bug report while I'm at it soon.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  10:12, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

@Tom.Reding I meant the checkbox in the List menu. It determines the algorithm to use regardless of whether there are in fact duplicates. I'll look at the rest of the context later. David Brooks (talk) 18:11, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

OK, assuming that change was responsible for the regression I can see some optimizations available. The easiest one would be if there is only one article deleted at a time, which is usually the case. There are some other unnecessary large allocations. But I would want to understand why the change was made in the first place, and why the garbage collector was unable to prevent the OOM - I don't see any persistent references to temporary objects. David Brooks (talk) 23:22, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

°

Continued at User talk:Tom.Reding § OOM errors

I've tracked down the cause and given Tom.Reding a patch to verify. @StefenTower: this may also fix your OOM without resorting to 64-bit, so worth a try. David Brooks (talk) 01:37, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

OK, I will try it out. Thanks! the Stefen 𝕋ower 02:34, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

Using the test AWB (32-bit), I was able to pre-parse a list of 38,000+ with no issue. So it appears the OOM issue is resolved. the Stefen 𝕋ower 15:35, 13 June 2026 (UTC)

Leak is fixed!   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  14:31, 13 June 2026 (UTC)