End user facing error messages
Occasionally things don’t go to plan and your patrons and end users may encounter errors. Some of them may be from us, whilst others come from resources or even your own systems if you use a local connector.
The first step is always to consider where the message is by looking at the URL in the address bar of the browser. If the message is from us, it will have a URL that is on the openathens.net domain.
Hopefully you’ll be able to look at the error message yourself, but sometimes all you have to go on is what the end user remembers.
Here are some of the more common OpenAthens error messages that might be encountered:
Sorry, access to this resource has been restricted
This is caused by restrictive mode and the resource being accessed not being in any permission set attached to the user’s account
This account has been temporarily locked
Too many incorrect password attempts. Wait a few minutes and try again - or reset the password.
This account has been temporarily suspended
The user is appearing at the authentication point too many times in a minute. This can sometimes be a sign of a shared account, but can also be a user opening a lot of bookmarks at once
Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again in 10 minutes
The user is appearing at the authentication point too many times in a few seconds. This is usually a sign of a technical problem with the resource. First check https://resource.status.openathens.net/ and if it’s not listed there try a test account. If that also fails, contact our service desk.
Sorry, this page could not be found
This is usually just a very old link that needs updating
Sorry, something went wrong trying to sign you in
There are a few additional details that can be given:
Additional: Account disabled
You or a colleague have manually disabled the user’s account in the admin area
Additional: Account suspended
The account matches a suspend rule on your local connector
Additional: Invalid authentication request / Invalid resource configuration
The resource being accessed is not configured correctly
Sorry, there was a problem with your account
There are a few additional details that can be given:
Additional: Account is banned
The user’s account has signed in from an unlikely number of different countries in the same day
Additional: Account is not mapped / Organisation mapping failed
You have enabled organisation mapping on your local connector but this user’s account doesn’t match any mapping rule
Additional: Mandatory attributes missing
Unlikely to come up once you’re live, your directory has not returned data for either the unique identifier, or the display name (or both)
Sorry, something went wrong
There are a few additional details that can be given:
Additional: Invalid SSO address / Malformed syntax / Missing return URL / Missing SAML request
The resource being accessed is not configured correctly. This is usually only seen with 1:1 direct connections during the initial setup.
Sorry, something went wrong trying to sign you in
There are a few additional details that can be given:
Additional: Unable to decode SAML request
The resource being accessed is not configured correctly
Additional: Unknown service provider
The resource is not in the federation. If it’s a newly set-up 1:1 connection, it can sometimes take a few minutes for the authentication point to know about it.
Sorry, something went wrong trying you sign you in to {resource name}
Your organisation is not in our federation
Sorry, this resource isn’t available to your organisation at the moment
A proxy resource exists but hasn’t been assigned to your organisation yet. Check with your support provider that they know about it.
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