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🔮 Pages and the prophecy of the TLS – [Pages Mini Check-in – September]

This month in Pages felt a bit like deciphering an ancient prophecy: certificates that never seem to arrive, domains locked in strange limbo, and static sites hiding secrets in plain sight. ✨🔐

But just like every prophecy, the clues were there all along - and the community stepped up as wise guides: decoding error messages, sharing fixes, and turning confusion into clarity.

👉 Missed last month’s check-in? Catch up here!

🛠️ Pros in Pages: Highlights from the community

This month brought plenty of head-scratchers - and equally sharp solutions from community members who jumped in to help.

• GitHub images not showing - @apamanes was building their first site when images stubbornly refused to load. Enter @cu-sanjay, who spotted that the images folder wasn’t in the repo and explained how to fix paths with a step-by-step example. A classic “first site” roadblock, solved!

• GitHub Pages not displaying charsets correctly – how to set by repo? - @AnitaYCheng ran into broken characters when using Traditional Chinese (Big5) encoding. @omercikan explained why Pages defaults to UTF-8 and laid out options - from converting files to using alternative hosting - giving a clear roadmap for anyone handling multilingual sites.

• Custom domain 'organiccomfrey.com' marked as taken but not linked to any repo - @poetsacre couldn’t connect their domain because Pages said it was already taken. @alexus404-creator explained the lingering DNS TXT record issue and shared GitHub’s official process for verifying ownership and releasing the domain. Problem untangled!

• Error when deploying a minimal, static index.html file - @notfed faced repeated workflow failures while trying to deploy a simple index.html. @0xviny pointed out that Pages hadn’t been enabled in the repo settings and shared the exact steps to fix it, plus an optional Actions tip. Sometimes the simplest setting makes all the difference.

✨ Big thanks to everyone who asked, answered, and documented their steps - your fixes turn roadblocks into future references for the whole community.

🆘 Discussions that could use a helping hand

Not every mystery in Pages is solved right away - and that’s where your insight can make all the difference. These open threads are still looking for answers, and even a quick pointer might save someone hours of trial and error:

• Certificate not being issued – @SamhithPola2025 is waiting over 48h for their TLS certificate, despite checking DNS and pointing correctly. Any tips on what else to try?

• 404 for github.io/subfolder broken after unpublishing repo – @alex-jitbit moved content into a subfolder but now faces persistent 404s. Has anyone wrestled with this before?

• I can't find a Pages repository– @vporton has a site served from GitHub Pages but can’t locate the repo it’s tied to. Any sleuths with ideas on how to trace it back?

• When I put my personal domain my website appears completely white blank – @violetamoore finds that everything works with the default GitHub domain, but their custom one only shows a blank page. Could it be DNS, config, or something else?

• Custom Domain SSL Issues and Connection Errors with www and Non-www Versions (Vite) – @MarleaM is facing SSL hiccups and inconsistent connectivity when using www vs non-www. If you’ve configured Vite or custom redirects before, your experience could help.

• Cannot click "Deploy from a branch" in GitHub Pages settings – @lula-doula sees the deploy button disabled despite multiple commits and troubleshooting. Any clues why Pages isn’t giving the option?

Even a small pointer - a docs link, a past workaround, or a configuration screenshot - could make a huge difference.

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