Mobile App: Troubleshooting

From WHMCS Documentation

Revision as of 18:32, 17 December 2021 by SarahK (talk | contribs) (Access Denied)

Connection and Access

You must configure an API Access Key to use WHMCS Mobile

This error indicates that you didn't add the API Access Key to the configuration.php file successfully. Please ensure you've added the API Access Key to your configuration.php file and then enter that value in the Access Key field into the WHMCS Mobile app.

Step-by-step instructions are located at Mobile_App:_Connecting_to_WHMCS

Invalid special character in Access Key

Don't use the following special characters in your access key & " ' < > (ampersand, double quotes, single quotes, less than or greater than). Acceptable special characters are:



! @ # $ % . ( ) * [ ] - _


For more details refer to Troubleshooting Invalid Special Character Error.

Access Denied

Our mobile app uses the API to communicate with your WHMCS installation. The Administrator Roles of staff using the app will require the "API Access" permission.

To grant this permission:

  1. Navigate to Setup > Staff Management > Administrator Roles.
  2. Edit the desired role.
  3. Check API Access.
  4. Click Save Changes.

Unable to connect. Please check the installation and device are online and try again

Please ensure that you are entering the URL as "https://whmcs.yourdomain.com/" or "https://yourdomain.com/whmcs/ with the trailing slash at the end.

The WHMCS URL should be the URL to the frontend (client area) also the same as the System URL found in Setup > General Settings > General within the admin area.

Authentication Failed

Authentication Failed indicates that the admin user name or password supplied in the profile are being rejected. Type your username and password again to make sure that they are correct.

Viewing and Managing Clients

Error generating JSON encoded response

This error has two typical causes; an invalid (non-utf-8) character in the client's profile/service data, or the WHMCS installation is using a non-utf-8 character set. The following sections show how to identify the cause and the corresponding solutions:

Invalid Character in Profile/Service Data

If the "Error generating JSON encoded response" error is encountered only when accessing certain clients:

  1. Navigate to Clients > View/Search Clients
  2. Select the client in question
  3. Click on their Profile tab
  4. Examine all the fields and ensure all the fields contain valid letters, numbers and symbols
  5. Next click on the Products/Services tab
  6. Examine each of the client's service records and ensure all the fields contain valid letters, numbers and symbols
Service Password with Invalid Characters

The most common cause of this error is a non-decryptable service password, as illustrated in this screenshot:

To resolve:

  1. Re-enter the service password (or clear out the field if a password is no longer required)
  2. Click the Save Changes button.
  3. Repeat the process for any other clients experiencing the same error to ensure they all contain a valid service password.

The client's details should now load successfully in the WHMCS Mobile App.

Non UTF-8 Character Set

If the "Error generating JSON encoded response" error is encountered immediately upon accessing the Clients tab in the Mobile App or when accessing all clients:

  1. Navigate to Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Localisation tab
  2. Assert the System Charset value is utf-8. Change the value if necessary.
  3. Click Save Changes
  4. Open the the WHMCS configuration.php file and assert the following line is present:
    $mysql_charset = 'utf8';
  5. Add the line if it is absent and save the configuration.php file to the server

The client's details should now load successfully in the WHMCS Mobile App.