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This is the discussion page for the AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) project. It is also the place to discuss using the AWB program (for help, questions, or general inquiries about AWB). Specific guidelines on where to make particular reports or requests are provided in the § Before you post section below. Before asking a question, please refer to the read the § Frequently asked questions below.

Archives

Index 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
31, 32, 33, 34, 35

This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be auto-archived by .

Before you post

Do you want to ...

Please use

Report a bug or request a feature in AWB?

Check reported bugs on Phabricator before filing a new bug report. You do not need to create another account there; just log in with your global Wikimedia account. See this MediaWiki wiki page on how to report bugs and request features on Phabricator.

Report a bug

Try to report bugs in the current version of the software. Update to the most recent version and check to make sure your bug has not already been reported on Phabricator. See How to Report Bugs Effectively for advice on how to write bug reports.

Before posting anything related to non-Wikimedia Foundation wikis, verify that the site is running a recent version of MediaWiki with enabled Bot API. Older versions of MediaWiki or without the Bot API are not supported. Be sure to mention the exact URL of your wiki.

Request a feature details

Please use the feature request button to submit new feature requests. This format helps the developers track and manage requests efficiently. Before submitting, take a moment to search the archives—both on-wiki and on Phabricator—to see if a similar request has already been discussed.

Report an incorrectly fixed typo?

Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Typos

Request approval to use AWB?

Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/AutoWikiBrowser

Ask a question about AWB or ask for help?

This page

Frequently asked questions

When I start it up I get one of the following errors:
"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application.", or

"To run this application, you must first install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework..."

This error means your computer does not have the .NET framework version 2 installed properly. You can choose from various versions for download here, or you can run Windows Update and select version 2 of the .Net framework from the "Optional Updates" section, if you want the choice made for you.
Does AWB run on Linux or Mac?
- AWB runs reasonably under Wine. See details here
  AWB might also run under Mono.
- AWB (Windows) with Unix scripts can be done with Cygwin or Virtualbox
- On the Mac, AWB is not natively available, but an option is to use virtualisation with Parallels Desktop for Mac (subject to meeting supported operating systems requirements) and then run Microsoft Windows virtually with AWB as the Windows instructions above. Note this option is not free, as a license is required for both Parallels Desktop for Mac and Microsoft Windows. An alternative visualization method is to use the free VirtualBox, see also Comparison of platform virtual machines.
- You can use the JavaScript Wiki Browser instead.
Does AWB work on other projects and languages?
Many Wikimedia projects and languages are supported, see the "User and project preferences" option in the general menu. Other languages will be added on request, though at the moment the interface is always in English. You are also able to use AWB with third-party wikis: Options > Preferences > Site, you can change the wiki there. The wiki must support the Bot API required by AWB. This means that it should have latest HEAD version of MediaWiki or something close to that. The wmf-deployment branch is also recommended, as this is what is currently live on WMF sites.
Under Windows Vista (and newer), AWB is using wrong font size, which results in clipped text and lost buttons and options, (see example here). How to fix it?
Tracked in Phabricator
Task T103506
- Solution #1: Go to "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display" and switch resizing of the fonts to 100%.
- Solution #2: Right click on AutoWikiBrowser.exe --> Properties -> Compatibility (tab) --> enable the "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" option or for Windows 10, if available, select System (Enhanced).
AWB puts stubs after categories, though categories are always rendered the last by MediaWiki?
According to WP:STUB#Categorizing stubs, by convention they are placed at the end of the article, after the External links section, any navigation templates, and the category tags, so that the stub category will appear last. If your wiki uses another order, please let us know here.
I don't like or use Internet Explorer; please use Firefox instead.
AWB does not use Internet Explorer per se. It does, however, use the same web browser control (MSHTML) as Internet Explorer; the equivalent Firefox component does not provide the needed functionality.
How do I open the page in another browser if I can't use the one in AWB?
Right click on the edit box in the bottom right side of your screen. Select "Open page in browser".
How do I edit a page that doesn't exist?
Uncheck "Ignore non existing pages" in the "Skip articles" box.
How do I skip certain articles?
Use the "Skip if contains" and "Skip if doesn't contain" on the "Skip" tab
Can't you leave up a "stable" version, so I don't have to download new versions?
It is important to keep people up to date with the latest versions, because their use of the software doesn't just affect them, but the whole of Wikipedia. As any bugs that remain will be trivial, hopefully releases won't be too frequent.
How can I stop AWB clicking when it changes pages?
This is a Windows sound theme setting. This page explains how to turn off the clicking sound.

Alternatively, delete the following key from the Windows registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Explorer\Navigating\.Current
AWB randomly crashes upon page load on my system, and I always use a browser other than Internet Explorer when using Wikipedia.
You may have installed custom scripts incompatible with IE. Wrap the contents of your monobook.js into conditional:

               //Detect IE5.5+
               if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE")==-1)
               {
                   // Previous contents go here
                   ....
               }

I get Just In Time Debugger Messages when loading AWB/loading pages.
In Internet Explorer, go to Tools → Options → Advanced. Make sure 'Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)' and 'Disable Script Debugging (Other)' Are both checked. Press apply and close.
Why does AWB run very, very slowly if I try to make changes in the edit window on larger pages, especially pages with long lists or tables?
If running on Windows, exit the Speech Recognition software that is built into some versions of Windows; don't just turn it 'Off', you must 'Exit' the software if you have started up Speech Recognition.
When I do a clean install of AutoWikiBrowser the application seems to find old setting data somewhere. I'd like to do a really clean install. Any ideas?
Clean up your registry and remove the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Application Data\AutoWikiBrowser" (Windows XP) or "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\" (Windows 7). Note that the application data folder may be hidden.
AWB prompts that there is a newer version but won't update
Check the version number of your AWBUpdater.exe. The current version is 2.4.0.0. If you have an older version, you have to download the latest AWB version and make a clean install.
Which .NET Framework version do I have?
You can find your .NET Framework version in Help → About box.
Where are the default settings stored?
- Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\AutoWikiBrowser
- Windows Vista onwards: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\Default.xml
I cannot copy text from the diff window using the Control+C keyboard shortcut.
You must have Microsoft.mshtml.dll available for AWB to use for this functionality to work. You can try downloading the file (there are a number of third-party websites offering DLL file downloads) and putting it in the same folder as AutoWikiBrowser.exe. This is reported not to work for all users, presumably due to .NET Framework problems.
Is there any way to set AWB to not use https? (GFW blocks 443 port)
In preferences, set project to "custom". Set the left box to http. In the webpage box, type en.wikipedia.org/w/ (English Wikipedia) or zh.wikipedia.org/w/ (Chinese Wikipedia). Note that leaving off the /w/ will result in a "root element missing" error.
How do I login to AWB with accounts enabled with two-factor authentication?
You should use a bot password. Despite the name, they aren't just for bots. See Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA.

Discussion

Should I use a bot account instead?

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)[reply]

@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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Regex help

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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

@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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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

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)[reply]

Re-up email verification fix

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)[reply]

Requesting permission to AWB access

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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

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