Pinterest Not Working? Pinterest’s Own Fixes

Quick answer: When Pinterest won’t load, Pinterest’s own help says to try seven things in this order. Check your internet connection, log out and back in, and restart your device. Then turn off browser extensions or ad blockers and any VPN or proxy, update the app or your browser, and clear your cache. If it still fails, open Pinterest’s status page (status.pinterest.com). It shows whether login, the home feed, search or saving Pins is down for everyone. The tool above gives Pinterest’s fix for what you see on your device.

Pinterest’s first steps, in its order

From General troubleshooting steps: If you're experiencing an issue with Pinterest, try these steps first: your connection, logging out and back in, restarting, extensions and ad blockers, a VPN or proxy, updating, and clearing the cache. These seven are the only general list Pinterest publishes. It has no separate article for “won’t load”, images that don’t show, or search that doesn’t work, so these are the steps for all of them.

Is Pinterest down?

Pinterest runs a public status page. Its own address, status.pinterest.com, opens it (at www.pintereststatus.com). It lists each part of Pinterest, including Sign up and login, Home feed, Search, Pin save and Push notifications, with whether it’s working now. If a part is down there, nothing on your phone will fix it. Pinterest’s help has no article on outages, so the status page is the one place Pinterest says it. This page only links to it and never checks Pinterest for you.

The app won’t open or is out of date

From Upgrade the Pinterest app: If you're using a version of the iOS app prior to 14.0 or a version of the Android app prior to 7.0, you'll need to upgrade to the most recent version or use mobile-web to keep using Pinterest. An old phone may not be able to: If you're using an Android device on an OS prior or equal to 7.0 or an iOS device on an OS prior to 14.0, you won't be able to update the Pinterest app. Then If you're using an Android device on an OS prior or equal to 7.0 or an iOS device on an OS prior to 14.0, and can't upgrade, you can use Pinterest on the web. On Android there is also a smaller app: Pinterest Lite is a lightweight Pinterest app that has faster download times and saves space on your device.

Pinterest keeps sending you to the App Store

From Directed to App store, Play store or Amazon: If you want to use Pinterest in a mobile browser but you keep being redirected to the App Store or Google Play, you should clear the cache and cookies in your mobile browser. And if the app is installed: If you have the app installed, some links on Pinterest will still try to open with the app. Uninstalling the app from this device will allow you to view those links in your mobile browser instead.

“Your login was blocked” or you can’t save a Pin

From Can't log in to Pinterest: We set limits to keep spam out, but sometimes these may impact people on Pinterest unintentionally. If you get an error message that your login was blocked or you can't save a Pin because of suspicious activity, we may have blocked activity from your IP address or your area. Wait thirty minutes before trying to log in or save Pins again. Most limits are removed automatically. For a forgotten password or a lost email, the Can’t Log In to Pinterest? tool has Pinterest’s steps. For a suspended account or anything else, the How to Contact Pinterest tool has its forms.

You can’t add photos or use the camera

The app needs your phone’s permission. On an iPhone or iPad: You can control what Pinterest has access to in your device's settings, and then scroll down to select Pinterest to open the app settings. Photos lets you upload from your library, and Camera lets you take a picture or use Lens. On Android the permissions are Camera and Storage. Pinterest’s Android article lists what each is for but gives no settings path.

FAQ