My users get a 401 when they log in
The
You shared your app with people and they say they get an error — a 401 or can't log in
— when they try to get in.
Almost every time, the cause is the same: they're trying to log in before they've signed up.
Why it happens
Your app authenticates people against accounts that exist in your app. When you hand someone the link and they tap Log In without ever having created an account, there's nothing to log into — so they get a 401. It looks like a broken login, but it's really this person doesn't have an account yet.
The fix (tell your users this)
When you send the app to someone for the first time:
- Send them the app link.
- On their first visit, tell them to tap Sign Up — not Log In. They create an account with email + password (or Google / Apple if you added social login).
- After that one-time signup, they log in normally from then on.
If someone is sure they already made an account but still gets a 401, have them use Forgot password to reset it — sometimes people forget they signed up with a different email.
Check who's actually signed up
Open the editor sidebar → Users. You'll see every account that has signed up to your app, when they joined, and when they last visited. If the people reporting problems aren't in that list, they simply haven't completed signup yet.
When it's NOT this
A few other things can cause sign-in trouble:
- Custom domain just changed. If you recently pointed a custom domain at your app, sign-in can briefly break while DNS propagates — wait 5–10 minutes. Check the editor sidebar → Domains for anything amber or red.
- Everyone was working, then suddenly nobody can get in. That's a different signal than
new users can't sign up.
Open a ticket and we'll investigate directly.
What to read next
- How your app's users sign up — the full sign-up flow and how to customize it
- Adding social login — let people sign in with Google or Apple
- When things go wrong — the short list of fixes for common issues