Reference
Troubleshooting
Common problems, what usually causes them and how to fix them.
- Everyone
Each entry gives what you see, the usual cause and the fix. If a card looks clinically unsafe, don’t troubleshoot: take it out of use first (see Clinical governance).
Signing in and access
“Invalid email or password” when signing in
Cause: the email or password is wrong, or the account hasn’t been set up.
Fix: check the email address you were given. There’s no forgotten-password link: ask your practice admin to reset your password, or the Signposting Toolkit team if you work at more than one practice.
Signed out unexpectedly
Cause: your password was changed or reset, which signs the account out everywhere.
Fix: sign in with the new password. If you didn’t expect a reset, tell your practice admin.
“Access Denied” page
Cause: you’ve opened a page for a practice you don’t belong to, or an admin page without the Practice admin role there. A role change or removal also takes effect on your next page.
Fix: choose Return to Homepage. If you think you should have access, ask your practice admin to check your role in Users & access.
“You do not have access to a surgery”
Cause: your account isn’t linked to any practice yet.
Fix: ask your practice admin to add you in ☰ MenuPractice settingsUsers & access
You land on the wrong practice after signing in
Cause: your default practice is set to another practice.
Fix: ask an admin at the right practice to choose Set as default surgery on your member panel. If your account belongs to a practice they don’t administer, the Signposting Toolkit team can change it. See Roles and permissions.
An admin can’t reset someone’s password or change their name
Cause: the account also belongs to a practice that admin doesn’t run, or it’s a system administrator’s account. The message says which.
Fix: the person changes their own password from ☰ MenuPreferencesChange password… or the Signposting Toolkit team does it. See Managing accounts across practices.
Can’t see a feature
Practice Handbook or Workflow Guidance is greyed out and says “Not enabled”
Cause: the module isn’t switched on for your practice.
Fix: the Signposting Toolkit team switches modules on. Practice admins can check in ☰ MenuPractice settingsModule access
No Get Questions to Ask or Suggest improved wording (AI) button
Cause: the tool is off for your practice, or a practice admin has switched it off for you.
Fix: ask your practice admin to check Module access. See Optional features.
The AI buttons show, but using them gives an access error
Cause: the AI tools check the feature at your default practice, not the one you’re viewing.
Fix: ask for the feature to be switched on at your default practice, or for your default practice to be changed. See Staff at several practices.
Signposting settings or Practice settings isn’t in the menu
Cause: these are for practice admins.
Fix: ask a practice admin, or ask them to change your role if you need it.
Staff can’t see a workflow
Cause: the workflow is still a Draft, or it’s switched off in its settings.
Fix: open the workflow and choose Publish at the top of the page. If Manage workflows shows it as Hidden, choose Settings, tick List on the Workflow Guidance page, save, then publish it again. See Workflows.
Staff are still seeing the old version of a workflow
Cause: changes to a published workflow wait in a working copy until they’re published, so staff keep the published version.
Fix: open the workflow and choose Publish changes at the top of the page. See what staff see shows the version they have now. See Workflows.
Publishing a workflow says your latest changes couldn’t be saved
Cause: a change you made didn’t save, usually because the connection dropped. Publishing stops rather than leave it out of what staff see.
Fix: wait for Saved next to the workflow’s name, or choose Try again, then publish. See Saving and undoing changes.
A workflow says it has been changed somewhere else
Cause: someone else saved changes to it while you had it open, or you changed it in another tab. Your copy isn’t saved over theirs.
Fix: choose Reload, check the workflow, then make your latest change again.
Steps move around when I add or rename one
Cause: the workflow is laid out for you, so the layout follows each change.
Fix: nothing to fix. To place steps by hand instead, drag one where you want it; Tidy up lays them out for you again. See Laying out the steps.
Someone can’t see a handbook page
Cause: the page is in a category restricted to certain roles or people. Everyone at your practice can read the rest of the handbook; there’s no switch for each person.
Fix: a practice admin checks the category’s visibility in Manage handbook, on the Categories tab. Their panel in Users & access names the categories they can’t see. See Practice Handbook.
A standard user can’t edit a handbook item
Cause: handbook editing is set per item: only practice admins can edit every item.
Fix: open the item’s editor (Edit on the page), type their name under Who can edit and choose them, or tick All standard users can edit. See Letting staff edit a page.
Cards and review
A card shows a “Pending clinical review” warning
Cause: its current wording hasn’t been approved yet, often because it was edited, customised with AI or given a smart visual.
Fix: staff can keep using it. A clinical reviewer checks and approves it in Clinical Review. See Working through the queue.
Staff can’t see a card an admin has just added
Cause: new cards start switched off.
Fix: switch it on once it’s ready, ideally after approval. See Cards.
A card is missing from the library
Cause: it has been hidden or switched off for your practice.
Fix: a practice admin finds it in the Symptom Library’s Available or Disabled folder and switches it back on (Enable at this surgery for a hidden shared card).
Staff can still see a card after changes were requested
Cause: requesting changes doesn’t hide a card.
Fix: if it must come out of use, choose Request changes and disable, then check it shows as disabled.
The setup page says clinical review isn’t complete, but my list is empty
Cause: a search, age filter or Hide disabled is narrowing the list, or cards are waiting under Changes requested. Review is complete only with at least one approved card and none pending or with changes requested.
Fix: clear the search and filters and check both Pending and Changes requested, including All (including disabled). See Review your cards.
Next on a card page skips my review group
Cause: the card was opened from a different view of the list. Previous and Next follow the list you opened the card from: its status view, search, age group, Hide disabled setting and order.
Fix: choose Clinical Review at the top of the card, set the list up as you want, and open the card from there. The review panel shows where you are, for example Pending · 3 of 10.
Every card has gone back to Pending, with me as the last reviewer
Cause: someone chose Request re-review, which resets every reviewed card and clears review notes.
Fix: the cards need approving again. Next time, edit individual cards instead.
AI results
AI customisation routes everything to GPs
Cause: the questionnaire doesn’t describe what other clinicians can see. The AI can’t work out local scope from a role name alone.
Fix: in Your appointments, describe each clinician’s agreed scope, restrictions and age limits, then try a sample preview before regenerating cards. Don’t widen a clinician’s scope just to change the output.
Appointment names in the output don’t match our system
Cause: the names in Your appointments differ from what staff see in the appointment book.
Fix: use the exact names from your appointment book, then preview again. Changing answers or previewing doesn’t rewrite saved cards; only a confirmed generation run does.
The AI added a routing step that wasn’t in the original
Cause: AI can misread or over-interpret.
Fix: check it against the original and your agreed rules, and edit the wording before approving. Requesting changes doesn’t restore the old text; to go back, edit the card.
Many cards were skipped
Cause: cards left out on purpose (already reviewed, or outside your chosen scope) aren’t failures. Others are skipped if there was nothing to customise, or if someone changed the card or its review during the run.
Fix: read the reasons in the results, then use Retry these cards for the ones that failed. Don’t include reviewed cards just to clear the list.
AI customisation stopped part-way
Cause: the tab was closed or you moved away. Cards are saved one at a time while the tab is open.
Fix: check how many were saved, then run the remaining cards again. Keep the tab open until the results appear.
A smart visual has disappeared
Cause: the card or handbook page was edited after the visual was made, so it’s hidden to avoid showing out-of-date content.
Fix: an admin (or a handbook editor, for handbook pages) generates it again. A regenerated symptom visual needs approval before staff see it.
Staff can’t see a symptom smart visual an admin has saved
Cause: the card is waiting for clinical review.
Fix: the clinical reviewer approves the card. Until then staff see the standard instructions.
Suggested questions are different each time
Cause: they are created fresh for each request and aren’t saved.
Fix: nothing to fix. If a question conflicts with the card, follow the card and tell your practice admin.
Highlights and buttons
A highlight colour is hard to read
Cause: rules added in Highlight Config aren’t checked for contrast.
Fix: edit the rule and choose strongly contrasting text and background colours.
“Rule already exists” when adding a highlight rule
Cause: each phrase can only have one rule at your practice; case and extra spaces are ignored.
Fix: edit the existing rule, which Highlight Config points you to, instead.
Colour-slot words are highlighted when we don’t want them to be
Cause: the built-in highlights are on.
Fix: switch off Built-in Highlights in ☰ MenuSignposting settingsHighlight Config
Five high-risk buttons show even though we switched them all off
Cause: with no defaults on and no custom buttons, the toolkit shows a built-in set of five.
Fix: leave the defaults you want switched on, or add custom buttons. See Highlights and buttons.
A high-risk button opens a page that could not be found
Cause: the card it links to has been hidden at your practice, or deleted.
Fix: bring the card back (see Take a card out of use), or delete the button in ☰ MenuSignposting settingsHigh-Risk Buttons and add one for a card your practice uses.
Quick access buttons don’t appear for staff
Cause: Show quick access buttons on the staff home screen was unticked and saved, no symptoms are chosen, or the chosen cards have been hidden or switched off.
Fix: in ☰ MenuSignposting settingsQuick Access tick it, choose up to six symptoms and select Save.
Pictures appear or don’t appear on cards unexpectedly
Cause: image icons show when a card’s brief instruction contains a trigger phrase.
Fix: practice admins can switch all image icons off or on with Image Icons in Highlight Config. The icons themselves are managed by the Signposting Toolkit team.
Analytics figures
Active users is lower than the number of staff using the toolkit
Cause: views from a shared login can’t be linked to a person. The tile shows how many views were signed in.
Fix: give each person their own account.
A card we created doesn’t appear in the usage figures
Cause: views are recorded for library cards only, so practice-created cards aren’t counted.
Fix: nothing to fix; bear it in mind when reading Least Viewed Symptoms.
Our views dropped while we were doing clinical review
Cause: opening a card from Clinical Review is content checking, so it isn’t counted as a view.
Fix: nothing to fix.
The last 7 days doesn’t match what I expected
Cause: ranges are whole days in UK time and include today, which isn’t over yet.
Fix: compare like with like, for example this week against last week. See Analytics and engagement.
Contacting support
The same details are in the Get support section at the bottom of the Help panel (the ? button at the top right of any page).
- Something looks broken: choose Suggest a feature in the menu, then The Signposting Toolkit team and Bug report. Say what you were doing and what you saw. The page you were on is included automatically, and you can follow the reply in My suggestions.
- Something is urgent, or about safety or data: email contact@signpostingtool.co.uk.
- A card at your practice needs changing: use Suggest an improvement on the card, which goes to your practice’s admins.
Don’t include patient details in any message.
Related: FAQs · Roles and permissions