A 303 See Other message is an HTTP response status code indicating that the requested resource can be found at another URI (address) by using the GET HTTP method. The 303 See Other code is typically provided in response to a POST, PUT, or DELETE HTTP method request, which indicates to the client that the server successfully received the data associated with the request, and the client should send a new GET request to the new URI it was provided by the server.
There are dozens of possible HTTP status codes used to represent the complex relationship between the client, a web application, a web server, and the multitude of third-party web services that may be in use, so determining the cause of a particular HTTP response status code can be challenging. Since there are so many different codes, each of which represents a completely different status or event, it can be difficult to differentiate between many of them and determine the exact cause of such errors, like the 303 See Other response code.
Throughout this article we'll explore the 303 See Other code by looking at a handful of troubleshooting tips. We'll also examine a few potential, easy to implement fixes for common problems that could be causing 303 codes to appear in your own web application. Let the games begin!
The Problem is Server-Side
All HTTP response status codes within the 3xx category are considered redirection messages. These codes indicate to the user agent (i.e. your web browser) that an additional action is required in order to complete the request and access the desired resource. The 3xx response code category is distinctly different from the 5xx codes category, which encompasses server error messages. For example, the 504 Gateway Timeout error we looked at in a recent article indicates that the server is experiencing issues (in this case, a server acting as a gateway is down or failed to respond in time). Thus, while a 5xx category code indicates an actual problem has occurred on the server, a 3xx category code, such as 303 See Other, is rarely indicative of an actual problem -- it merely occurs due to the server's behavior or configuration, but is not exhibitive of an error or bug on the server.
That said, the appearance of a 303 See Other is usually not something that requires much user intervention. All modern browsers will automatically detect the 303 See Other response code and process the redirection action to the new URI automatically. The server sending a 303 code will also include a special Location header as part of the response it sends to the client. This Location header indicates the new URI where the requested resource can be found. For example, if an HTTP POST method request is sent by the client as an attempt to logic at the URL https://airbrake.io, the web server may be configured to redirect this POST request to a different URI, such as https://airbrake.io/login. In this scenario the server may respond with a 303 See Other code and include the Location: https://airbrake.io/login header in the response. This informs the user agent (browser) that the POST request data (login info) was received by the server, but the server does not believe the requested resource (https://airbrake.io) is representative of what the client is requesting. Instead, the server is indicating -- via the 303 response -- that a more representative resource can be found at the Location header URI of https://airbrake.io/login.
As put explicitly by the RFC7231 specification document, which details HTTP/1.1 semantics and content rules: "A 303 response to a GET request indicates that the origin server does not have a representation of the target resource that can be transferred by the server over HTTP. However, the Location field value refers to a resource that is descriptive of the target resource, such that making a retrieval request on that other resource might result in a representation that is useful to recipients without implying that it represents the original target resource." In the example above, the server believes that https://airbrake.io/login would likely provide a resource that the user agent truly wants to receive, so it issues a 303 See Other response code with that information.
Another common use of the 303 See Other code is as a means of identifying real-world objects. For example, imagine the URI https://library.org/book/paperback/the-grapes-of-wrath represents a physical paperback copy of The Grapes of Wrath book by John Steinbeck. Since the server is merely transferring digital bits, it cannot literally respond with a physical paperback copy of The Grapes of Wrath. Thus, using the Semantic Web framework we're illustrating here it would be incorrect for the server to respond to a GET request to the URI above with a typical 200 OK response code. Instead, the server would opt to respond with a 303 See Other code, with a redirect Location header of a more appropriate URI, such as https://library.org/book/digital/the-grapes-of-wrath, which would provide a digital representation of the book to the client.
It's also important to distinguish the purpose and use-cases of the 303 See Other response code from many seemingly similar 3xx codes, such as the 302 Found code we looked at a few weeks ago. Specifically, the 303 Found code informs the client that the passed Location URI is only a temporary resource, and that all future requests should continue to access the originally requested URI. On the other hand, the 303 See Other message is not temporary, and indicates that passed Location URI should be used for future (identical) requests.
Additionally, since the 303 See Other indicates that something has gone wrong within the server of your application, we can largely disregard the client side of things. If you're trying to diagnose an issue with your own application, you can immediately ignore most client-side code and components, such as HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), client-side JavaScript, and so forth. This doesn't apply solely to web sites, either. Many smart phone apps that have a modern looking user interface are actually powered by a normal web application behind the scenes; one that is simply hidden from the user. If you're using such an application and a 303 See Other occurs, the issue isn't going to be related to the app installed on your phone or local testing device. Instead, it will be something on the server-side, which is performing most of the logic and processing behind the scenes, outside the purview of the local interface presented to the user.
If your application is generating unexpected 303 See Other response codes there are a number of steps you can take to diagnose the problem.
Start With a Thorough Application Backup
As with anything, it's better to have played it safe at the start than to screw something up and come to regret it later on down the road. As such, it is critical that you perform a full backup of your application, database, and so forth, before attempting any fixes or changes to the system. Even better, if you have the capability, create a complete copy of the application onto a secondary staging server that isn't "live," or isn't otherwise active and available to the public. This will give you a clean testing ground with which to test all potential fixes to resolve the issue, without threatening the security or sanctity of your live application.
Diagnosing a 303 See Other Response Code
A 303 See Other response code indicates that the requested resource can better be accessed via the newly-provided URI. However, it's entirely possible that the server is misconfigured, which could cause it to improperly respond with 303 See Other codes, instead of the standard and expected 200 OK code of a normal, functional request. Thus, a large part of diagnosing the issue will be going through the process of double-checking what resources/URLs are generating 303 See Other response codes and determining if these codes are appropriate or not.
If your application is responding with 303 See Other codes that it should not be issuing, this is an issue that many other visitors may be experiencing as well, dramatically hindering your application's ability to service users. We'll go over some troubleshooting tips and tricks to help you try to resolve this issue. If nothing here works, don't forget that Google is your friend. Try searching for specific terms related to your issue, such as the name of your application's CMS or web server software, along with 303 See Other. Chances are you'll find others who have experienced this issue and have found a solution.
Troubleshooting on the Server-Side
Here are some additional tips to help you troubleshoot what might be causing the 303 See Other to appear on the server-side of things:
Confirm Your Server Configuration
Your application is likely running on a server that is using one of the two most popular web server softwares, Apache or nginx. At the time of publication, both of these web servers make up over 84% of the world's web server software! Thus, one of the first steps you can take to determine what might be causing these 303 See Other response codes is to check the configuration files for your web server software for unintentional redirect instructions.
To determine which web server your application is using you'll want to look for a key file. If your web server is Apache then look for an .htaccess file within the root directory of your website file system. For example, if your application is on a shared host you'll likely have a username associated with the hosting account. In such a case, the application root directory is typically found at the path of /home/<username>/public_html/, so the .htaccess file would be at /home/<username>/public_html/.htaccess.
If you located the .htaccess file then open it in a text editor and look for lines that use RewriteXXX directives, which are part of the mod_rewrite module in Apache. Covering exactly how these rules work is well beyond the scope of this article, however, the basic concept is that a RewriteCond directive defines a text-based pattern that will be matched against entered URLs. If a matching URL is requested by a visitor to the site, the RewriteRule directive that follows one or more RewriteCond directives is used to perform the actual redirection of the request to the appropriate URL.
For example, here is a simple RewriteCond and RewriteRule combination that matches all incoming requests to airbrake.io using the HTTP POST method, and redirecting them to https://airbrake.io/login via a 303 See Other response:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^airbrake.io$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://airbrake.io/login$1 [R=303]
Notice the extra flag at the end of the RewriteRule, which explicitly states that the response code should be 303, indicating to user agents that this redirect is a better representation of the request resource. Thus, if you find any strange RewriteCond or RewriteRule directives in the .htaccess file that don't seem to belong, try temporarily commenting them out (using the # character prefix) and restarting your web server to see if this resolves the issue.
On the other hand, if your server is running on nginx, you'll need to look for a completely different configuration file. By default this file is named nginx.conf and is located in one of a few common directories: /usr/local/nginx/conf, /etc/nginx, or /usr/local/etc/nginx. Once located, open nginx.conf in a text editor and look for return or rewrite directives that are using the 303 response code flag. For example, here is a simple block directive (i.e. a named set of directives) that configures a virtual server by creating a redirection from airbrake.io to airbrake.io/login for HTTP POST method requests:
server {
listen 80;
listen 443 ssl;
server_name airbrake.io;
if ($request_method = POST) {
return 303 https://airbrake.io/login$request_uri;
}
if ($request_method = GET) {
return 307 https://airbrake.io/login$request_uri;
}
}
Return directives in nginx are similar to the RewriteCond and RewriteRule directives found in Apache, as they tend to contain more complex text-based patterns for searching. Either way, look through your nginx.conf file for any abnormal return or rewrite directives that include the 303 flag. Comment out any abnormalities before restarting the server to see if the issue was resolved.
Scour the Logs
Nearly every web application will keep some form of server-side logs. Application logs are typically the history of what the application did, such as which pages were requested, which servers it connected to, which database results it provides, and so forth. Server logs are related to the actual hardware that is running the application, and will often provide details about the health and status of all connected services, or even just the server itself. Google "logs [PLATFORM_NAME]" if you're using a CMS, or "logs [PROGRAMMING_LANGUAGE]" and "logs [OPERATING_SYSTEM]" if you're running a custom application, to get more information on finding the logs in question.
Debug Your Application Code
If all else fails, it may be that a problem in some custom code within your application is causing the issue. Try to diagnose where the issue may be coming from through manually debugging your application, along with parsing through application and server logs. Ideally, make a copy of the entire application to a local development machine and perform a step-by-step debug process, which will allow you to recreate the exact scenario in which the 303 See Other occurred and view the application code at the moment something goes wrong.
No matter what the cause, the appearance of a 303 See Other within your own web application is a strong indication that you may need an error management tool to help you automatically detect such errors in the future. The best of these tools can even alert you and your team immediately when an error occurs. Airbrake's error monitoring software provides real-time error monitoring and automatic exception reporting for all your development projects. Airbrake's state of the art web dashboard ensures you receive round-the-clock status updates on your application's health and error rates. No matter what you're working on, Airbrake easily integrates with all the most popular languages and frameworks. Plus, Airbrake makes it easy to customize exception parameters, while giving you complete control of the active error filter system, so you only gather the errors that matter most.
Check out Airbrake's error monitoring software today and see for yourself why so many of the world's best engineering teams use Airbrake to revolutionize their exception handling practices!