Web Viewers may not load correctly due to several reasons:
Insufficient network connectivity
Firewall restrictions
Adblock limitations on the site you're visiting
WebGL limitations on the site you're visiting
To identify your issue and resolve it, please follow the guidance below depending on the issue you're facing:
1. Error: "We could not connect to our servers"
This likely means that you have a local network issue or there may be a local firewall restriction. To resolve this, follow the steps below:
Verify you are connected to the internet on your device. You can do this visiting our automated techcheck and running Step 3: "Network Check".
If your network quality is sufficient, you'll see a screen similar to the one below.
If you do not see this screen, we recommend switching to another network and trying again. If you have a large number of students / devices on the same router, splitting students across multiple classrooms may solve this problem as well.
If your network strength is excellent but issues still persist, try refreshing the app by clicking the '...' and then "Refresh".
If the Web Viewer still does not reload, or you're not able to navigate to any other page, the issue is likely caused by local firewall settings - either on your device (if managed by the school) or on your network.
To test this, try to load the same Web Viewer in a Space on a personal (e.g., non-school managed) device and on a personal (e.g., non-school managed) network. If this works, then please contact your IT admins to check if firewall permissions can be granted for Web Viewers.
Feel free to contact Pencil Spaces Support - we will gladly assist with helping you resolve firewall issues with your IT admins.
2. The screen appears blank or unresponsive
Firstly, determine if this is an issue to due to the website you're visiting or if the issue is related to the Web Viewer itself.
You can check this by closing and reloading the application or by trying another app from the App Library.
If another website loads correctly, follow the steps in "3. Certain websites do not load correctly". If all sites still do not work, follow the steps in 1. "We could not connect to our servers"
3. Certain websites do not load correctly
To ensure students have a distraction-free browsing experience, we use an adblock to minimise distracting advertisements. On rare occasions, adblockers can interfere with the normal functionality of pages and cause them to not load correctly.
If you notice a site is not working while another site (e.g., google.com) loads well in your Web Viewer, please follow the steps below:
Click the red button at the top right of your screen, if available, and toggle the Adblock off
Once toggled off, refresh the page to try load the website again. If the website loads fine, you're all set!
If you continue to face issues, or if you don't see the adblock settings, please contact Pencil Spaces Support and we will assist you as best as we can.
4. "This website requires WebGL"
Certain websites require advanced graphics capabilities that are not available in basic Web Viewers.
If you see an error related to "missing WebGL support", please contact Pencil Spaces Support and we will assist.
5. Error: "This feature is not available on your current plan"
Web Viewers are only available on certain plans in Pencil Spaces. If you see this error, please contact Pencil Spaces Support and we will assist.