Tweet Limit Exceeded

Do you think it's possible that there's some other automated service that is regularly accessing your account via the API, perhaps something that you've signed up for a while back?

One easy way to check this would be to change your password and see if the API limit problem still recurs.

If the problem gets fixed by the password change, then you'll know it's some other service that's regularly connecting to your account that's making you go over the limit. If not, then at least we've eliminated one possibility and can continue troubleshooting.

Yeah I thought that might have been the case as well so I changed my password. Unfortunately it did not work.

It seems that you're using Twhirl (at least based on the error message that was reported), which uses the Twitter API to communicate with Twitter.

I was hoping I could download a copy of Twhirl to see if I could replicate the problem you're experiencing, but their site seems to be temporarily down. 8-(

I use TwitBin, which is a different Twitter app (it's a Firefox extension that creates a sidebar in the web browser) and have not encountered the API limit problem that you mention. I'm able to check for new updates from friends, check for direct messages, check for replies, etc with Twitbin.

Anyway, for what it's worth, Twitter's API limit has a max number of requests per hour per user. It's usually 70 per hour although when there's heavy volume, they will lower the limit to 50 per hour, sometimes lower.

So the 5-min wait isn't something that's imposed by Twitter, it's actually a feature of Twhirl. A review of the Twhirl blog explains why Twhirl chose five (5) minutes as its timeframe for pausing, when in fact Twitter's limit is hourly:

If twhirl tries to access the API, but the limit is exceeded, Twitter returns an error. Twhirl understands this, informs you about it and pauses automatic requests for five minutes. Why five minutes? Under normal conditions, the limit will be exceeded to the end of the 60 minutes. Waiting five minutes might get you out of the period and you have 70 fresh requests. Twhirl will issue one request after the five minute wait to see if you are unlocked again, and pause another five minutes if not (and so on). If Twitter has unlocked your account, it will resume normal automatic requests.

Therefore, it' s not automatic that after five minutes, you'll be able to send a request again. It's Twhirl's way of reducing the number of times it hits Twitter to check if it's been an hour and you can make requests again.

It's my understanding (based on the Twitter API documentation) that the following activities are counted against the rate limit of the API:
- checking for new updates from your friends (the usual culprit)
- checking your own earlier updates
- deleting an update
- fav'ing an update
- following a new user
- unfollowing a new user
- blocking a user
- checking for direct messages
- deleting a direct message

In contrast, these updates are NOT counted against the rate limit:
- updating your own status
- sending a direct message

I'm getting the same error no matter what external application I use. Twitterific, Twhirl, Spaz, etc. all do the same thing. Rate limit exceeded.

But I've been able to use the web interface without any problems. No idea what's causing this, but it's getting to be very frustrating.

I've not tried Twitterfic, Twhirl, or Spaz. But I've got Twitbin open and working fine right now.

If you feel up to experimenting a bit, it would be great if you could try using Twitbin (it's a Firefox extension) and see if it works. If it still doesn't work, then at least we can conclude that the problem is with your account and not with the other third-party apps.

P.S. Yes, there's no limit with the standard web interface (http://twitter.com/home), or the mobile web interface (http://m.twitter.com). There's also no limit if you set up an IM device.

Alright, gave it a shot (even had to redownload Firefox2 - I've been using the 3beta and the nightles). Same result.

Account is the same as my username on here.

Hi Ryan... I also just saw that the Twhirl website is back up, so I finally was able to download the app and and try it out. Twhirl also works fine with my account... so it does seem like the problem is with your account.

I *did* notice, though, that when Twhirl refreshes, it makes several requests each time you refresh -- it gets updates, direct messages, and @replies. So each time you refresh, you're actually hitting the API thrice (because those are three separate requests).

Anyway, given the results of our experiments, there are two possibilities that come to mind:

a) your account is actually okay but you've currently exceeded the max number of API requests per user per hour (which is usually 70/hour). In which case we need to wait for an hour before trying again. OR

b) your account really has a problem because it doesn't give you your new allocation of requests per hour after the hour has elapsed.

In either case, the situation implies we'd need to wait an hour and try connecting again later.

Twhirl's working now, but its really odd because I've had several occurrences of this bug over the last two weeks trying these different apps. But it's working right this minute, so I'll assume something got fixed either on my end or Twitter's end. Either way, I'm happy.

Thanks for the replies, mate.

Still getting the error with Spaz and Twhirl. Computer was off for the last 12 hours so no chance of them being working behind the scenes on my end.

Twitbin is garnering the same response. Different wording, but still the same result

Same problem with me. Limit exceeded all the time.

I have been receiving this same error for the past few days using Spaz. I come home from work and open Spaz, error. Close Spaz and check via website. I have been using a 5 minute refresh in Spaz ever since the slowdown during MacWorld, and have now even gone to 7 minutes, and it still is getting the 400 error.

My username is thedogman and starting yesterday I too have been
getting this error no matter what program I try when I never had before. It has to be a Twitter problem as nothing has changed on my end.

Just think for every one of us that struggled to find this board thru the Twitter help/faq there are probably 10-20+ others for each one of us that just never bothered reporting this error. I know I almost didnt.

The fact that this problem seems to be cross client for most people is what really worries me. However, I was able to get Spaz working again just by rebooting my machine. This is not something that I normally do, instead keeping it running 24/7 so that the internet and other programs are always available and I do not have to wait for the boot cycle.

But yeah, I did a reboot, fixed dinner, ate dinner and came back 2 hours after the reboot and Spaz was working. Was it the reboot? Was it something else? Only time will tell (as in the next time it happens).

Knock me down with a feather but I ate breakfast, saw your reply, rebooted and everything is fine. I leave my laptop on all the time or in sleep mode almost never shutting it down or rebooting.

You may be on to something.

Glad to hear it is working for you guys. Still not for me even leaving my machine off all night long.

This is definitely a shot in the dark, but here goes... Is there a chance that you have another machine (perhaps at work?) which has a third-party app installed and which hasn't been shut down lately?

Sadly nope. I have a laptop for work, but it is sitting right here powered off and has not been plugged in for three days so no chance of a hidden charge keeping it running.

If it was not for having changed my password I would think it was some hidden service or web ap causing it

About ten days ago I noticed my Twitterific wouldn't connect upon launch, not even once. I wasn't using the Twitter site, it was the first thing I launched when I dialed up that morning. The error log says I've connected too many times.

I'm wondering if my website badge is to blame (http://hoshichan.com/), as the badge loads on every page? I never had a problem with Twitterific before this, but suddenly I can't get it to load no matter what.

Any ideas?

I think that you may be correct in the idea that your website badge is interfacing and with enough website traffic it could use up your alottment. I don't really know how the badges work, but you would think that since they actually come from Twitter they would not me held to the same limitations as the clients that use the API.

You would think so -- otherwise what's the point of having a badge on your website, if it makes it so you can't even view your own feed....

If the badge is doing it, that's pretty stupid. If not, then what on earth is responsible? I don't access Twitter from anything else, Twitterific is/was IT.

I do not know what is going on. After my previous posting I also received the error on Spaz, so I changed my frequency to 10 minutes instead of 5. Rebooted my computer and then like 3 hours later I just started Spaz again, and received the error. I do not have a badge on any website, although I did visit the badge page on Twitter, and with 3 badges being shown attached to my account....who knows.

It's been suggested (but not confirmed) in the Twitter Development Google Group that the Twitter Facebook box that sits on Facebook profiles (not the Twitter-Facebook Status App itself ) may be making requests through the API.

I'm therefore curious -- do any of you have that installed on your Facebook profile pages?

I had it installed once upon a time , but removed it. I just went ahead and blocked it so we shall see.

Ugh! YES!! Going to remove it right now, that's infuriating.

Yep, that did the trick. Suddenly Twitterific works like a champ. (Stupid Facebook!)

DOH! I have one there as well. Those darn Rats. I stopped visiting there mostly, so never even thought of that. I guess my Facebook page is more popular than I thought.

And... now it's not working again. [sigh] I've exceeded my requests for the hour and I hadn't been online during that hour.

One of the folks in the Twitter Development Google Group says it's unlikely the Twitter badge makes API requests since we don't need to specify a password for the badge to work.

Only authenticated (with password) requests count against the API limit.

Earlier I was using Spaz when I encountered this problem even when its refresh rate was set to once every 3 minutes. Then I un-installed it & switched to Twhirl which ran ok for 2 days with refresh rate set at 60/hour. Now I logged on today after being away from Twitter for 12 hours and I get the message that my request limit has been exceeded!! How is that possible? I'm not even using anything else that requires API calls.

This is the third time I've got the rate limit error on startup. Waiting hours doesn't clear it. I have no other app or web widget using authenticated requests to the API.

Yeah still catching the error even after attempting to block it on Facebook. no ideas

Sounds like we think it may be website badges? I'll have to go find all of my badges. I'm going to change my password on twitter also so any app looking for my info shouldn't be able to get in. That should clean it up pretty quickly...

I have this problem too. I've also changed my password, which prompted Twhirl to ask me for a new password the next time I launched it but didn't unblock my API limit. There really needs to be a feature on the Twitter site (like there is on Flickr and Facebook, etc.) where I can view the apps which are logging in as me and control their access.

I've had this problem for over a week now.
Reset password, tried every client I can find, all return the same damn error.
I can use the web and sms posting with no problems.

Oh, dang. Well, at least after reading this thread I sort of know *why* I have this problem. I have twitter on my netvibes page and today for the first time it started displaying the "twitter limit exceeded" message, although I can still post from the twitter web page and SMS, which I don't understand. I removed twitter from facebook long ago.

This never happened before, and I used to run twitterific and netvibes and the twitter web page all at one by accident all the time.

Why is this suddenly a problem now?

How do I fix it?

just chiming in with another 'me too'. as far as i have been able to determine, i do not have any other twitter clients running, yet i have been getting the rate limit exceeded error consistently for the last 12 hours. i do not have any twitter facebook app nor netvibes widget etc installed anywhere.

i'll try changing my password and trying again...

changed my password... waitied... tried again. same rate limit error :( i'll try again after a few hours.

For what it's worth, this issue has also been raised by third party app developers in the Twitter Development Google Group and is being looked into.

so after hours of not working, my account seems to be fine now, magically. no rate limit errors, from any client. how odd.

I've had this problem for months now. I downloaded twitterific last fall and it stopped working after a day - rate limit exceeded. I downloaded twhirl a couple weeks ago and it worked or a day, then the rate limit exceeded error popped up every time. I installed TwitterFox yesterday and it hasn't worked at all, giving me rate limit exceeded errors from the start. I've changed my password, removed twitter applications from Facebook, and everything else I could think of - nothing has worked. I really hope this can be fixed soon.

I started getting rate limit hits about a week ago. I disabled everything that was using API hits except for Twhirl, and then changed my password to lock out anything I forgot about. No good. I get "limit exceeded" the instant I start up Twhirl, and Twhirl is the only app that knows the new password.

I had this problem. Then it mysteriously starts working. Then I ended up with the same problem. I was using Spaz while all this was happened. I didn't change my password while this happened.

so i thought it went away, but it's still happening to me intermittently. i've got exactly one client running (spaz), set to update once only every 5 minutes. about once or twice a day i start getting the rate limit exceeded error. then it goes away.

I created a brand new account because of this after 3 days, i'm getting the error AGAIN.
This account has not been used with anything other than Spaz.

This is really taking the piss now.

+1 from me for the twitteriffic problem ... a couple of days ago I started getting the "bad request error". I wondered whether it's related to the badge on my blog and some of these comments seem to bear this out. (I agree with the comments that that would be a crazy oversight by the Twitter people).

The disappointing thing is that I was just starting to enjoy twitter/twitteriffic. Hope this problem is resolved soon.

I've been getting bad requests for a couple of weeks now with Twitterrific. Twhirl doesn't work either.

It mysteriously started working a few days ago... several days after I'd changed my Twitter password. Too far after for me to establish cause and effect.

I've set the refresh rate to "Every 15 minutes" in Twitterrific and moments later, my tweets came through!

To chime in, over a week ago I downloaded and began using twhirl without issue. A few days later, without any change in my Twittering habits, the good old "limit exceeded" issue was thrown up and hasn't gone away since. twitbin also reported the same API response.

In the interim, I've shut off the Twitter app in Facebook, pulled the widget off my blog, and eventually, 48 hours ago, changed my password.

I've just fired up my system after being shut down for 11 hours, logged immediately into twhirl, and yet again I'm receiving the same "limit exceeded" problem.

How, in the name of all that is holy, can the Twitter API be receiving too many API requests for my account when I changed the password 48 hours ago, and only twhirl has the proper password?

I'm utterly mystified.

I've have had the same problem for about two weeks now. It doesn't work no matter what I've done. So there must be something wrong somewhere :(

Me too. Tried changing password to no avail. Can't think of any mysterious other clients that could be running with my creds anyway.

Twitter needs to offer a way of accessing API log info, methinks.

I have this problem too.

And changed the password two times, removed any webapps (even the ones that doesnt have the pass after the changes).

Trying to use Twhirl and Snitter...

After many DAYS Twitter is saying the same f***ing error message...

I'm going to move to another system because of the lack of support for this..

is there anything i can do to help twitter staff diagnose this issue? like recording times/dates of when it happens? i really hope someone there is looking into this, and i'd be willing to help with that process as much as i can, as a user...

After posting my previous message, I test to access my tweets just right now using Twhirl and NOT changing anything from my latest message...

But, surprise!, now I can work with Twhirl...

Someone is watching from the dark?? :P

I changed my auto-refresh setting to every 15 minutes and the problem is gone.

Working now!

I'm having this problem now. My computer can be off for hours at a time, which means nothing could be logged in and making connection requests, but when I load Twhirl and Netvibes both immediately say that updates are paused because my connection limit has been exceeded. That's not really possible, but it's been that way for days.

I've removed the Facebook application (which I had hidden anyway). If that doesn't work, I'll change my password. If that doesn't work, I'll be back. :D

Im using a php script that updates using the update XML file here http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml when i launch this, wack in my username and password i get the 70 limit error too...... baffled......

Add me to it. I've remove Twitter from FriendFeed and deleted the FaceBook app. I changed my password, and waited 10 hours. Still no joy. Spaz gets the error as soon as I run it.

I changed my password at Twitter, and that seemed to fix the problem. I only put the password into Twhirl and Netvibes (which I don't use much). That only lasted a few days--I'm locked out again (and I think I saw a note saying there would be maintenance again, not long before it happened). I'm using Twitter less and less because of this. I hate going to the website to use it.

I can use my beloved Twhirl again! For me, the key was the TwitterSync application for Facebook. Researching the Limit Exceeded problem, I read that a) Twitter only counts your API calls when a service uses both your Twitter user name and password, and that b) TwitterSync's developers bend over backwards so that you needn't to enter your password. I checked TwitterSync's settings, and saw that I'd put in both my Twitter user name and password. So I removed the password. Knock wood, but Twhirl's been working fine now for at least a day.

Just a me too here. But I am going to disable things like the Facebook app and maybe FriendFeed and see if that makes a difference.

I got "limited" for over 1/2 hour today

Yeah, I just reviewed Twhirl's logs and noticed that rate lowering too. Would have been nice to know what the limit was changed to so that I could tweak my request settings in Twhirl...grrr.

I use Twhirl, and this has gotten particularly bad in the past few days. Has Twitter changed something about the limit? Twhirl is now starting up over the limit, and at each 5 minute interval, saying it's still over the limit, repeatedly. Does the Facebook Twitter extension count towards API accesses? I also use Friendfeed. Might this be causing the issue? Halp!

I'll chime in with a "me too". I have ONLY Twhirl accessing the API at this time and nothing I've done keeps it from timing out. I even have it turned down to 30 requests an hour as I heard thats what they turned the API down to. It will open up, run for a bit ok, then time right back out again.

I think it will just be a matter of time before the various 3rd-party apps add a feature where you can see what's left of your rate limit because that just became available via the API.

You can try it for yourselves by going to this link:
http://twitter.com/account/rate_limit...

Doesn't look like that feature is functioning yet. I restarted Twhirl, it ran for two rounds of updates ( 12 minutes = 6 API hits) and says I've exceded the limit AGAIN. Checked and this says I still have 30 requests remaining.

D'oh! Mea culpa! I misunderstood when I read the thread about the rate_limit.

That API call actually returns the current API limit for Twitter. It's usually 70 per hour, but for various reasons, Twitter may lower the limit temporarily. That API call lets the third-party app developers check if the API limit has changed.

Again, sorry for contributing to the confusion.

Actually @mdy, that page is helpful to at least have a reference for what they current limit is. I switched to 30 per hour on Twhirl, FF still gets my tweets, and all is fine. This post lays it out very clearly for those needing to adjust to this changed API req limit: http://willfjohnston.com/2008/05/26/t...

That's still not good enough for me. I deleted mt Friendfeed entry and my Facebook app. I had the Spaz frequency down to every6 minutes and fr the first time in 3 days brought up spaz and immediately got the rror. I changed my password, and only Spaz has it.

It still doesn't work. Something has gotta be broken here.

I don't think Friendfeed counts against the API limit if you have a public Twitter account. Unless things have changed since I last looked at Friendfeed, you can import tweets from a public Twitter account into Friendfeed by just providing a user name, no password.

The Twitter API documentation says that only "authenticated requests" (which I understand to mean that we have to login successfully with our password) are counted against the API limit.

Since Friendfeed doesn't ask us for our password, I believe it doesn't eat up our rate limit.

Well I, for one, am done trying to figure this out. NOTHING has my password except Twhirl. I start Twhirl about once a day, and it starts up saying that the limit has been exceeded, even though no attempt has been made for at least 24 hours. This is a problem on Twitter's end.

@phlegon did you change your network settings on Twhirl? Changing them to 30 for me has gone from having the exact same problem you're mentioning, to none. Depending on your Twitter use, you can easilly tweak how often you get @s DMs, and Tweets each within that 30 per hour limit. Since DMs go to your email, you could make those the least frequent, and get the others quite frequently.

@phlegon hmm, not sure what to tell you. You've changed it and restarted, or just changed it? Perhaps restarting Twhirl would help...What level did you set it at? Lower then 30?

I've been having this problem with any twitter client I've tried for the last couple of weeks now. I've throttled the requests down to the very lowest level to no avail. I was offline the whole weekend, and still came in yesterday and was immediately given the limit exceeded message. I tried changing my password, and that made no difference at all.

UPDATE: As completely odd as this is, after changing my password yet again to no avail, I finally did lower the number of requests per hour and just left Twhirl on . . . and it eventually worked! I don't know why one request per day was being denied, and then lowering the limit allowed 30 per hour, but that's what happened. I haven't tried Netvibes again yet, partially because I don't really use Netvibes much anymore for anything. :D

I turned all clients off and removed the Twitter app from Facebook - then waited until the rate limit for my account reset to 20. I launced Tweetdeck and it successfully retrieved my Tweets...once. Upon checking the rate limit again, I've found it to be "-1" and it keeps counting into the negatives each time Tweetdeck tries to retrieve! - This only happens one of my accounts. The other account I have works just fine. So frustrating.

Hello. The negative API rate limit behavior is currently logged as an open bug in the Twitter API bug tracking system.

Fwiw, the person who logged the bug says that when they change their user password, the problem gets fixed. I don't know if the fix is temporary or permanent, though.

Is it just me or has the API rate limit been raised to 70?!

It still says 20 in the Twitter Status blog but I'm seeing 70 on the rate_limit_status API call

Seems fixed to me.

Absolute crap. I have the same problem. I open Twhirl, it runs for a bit, then without doing anything, I get the limit exceeded message. I have Twhirl set at the default settings of 60 req/hour.

Twitter *cough* "support" directed me here instead of trying to resolve the issue.

My account never gets reset. I've reset my password. Numerous times.

Twitter support just doesnt want to address the issue and rather tell me why API limits are reached after I've mentioned numerous times that I havent done anything to come close to the limit.

From this morning...

<hash>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228415397</reset-time-in-seconds>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-04T18:29:57+00:00</reset-time>
<remaining-hits type="integer">-10</remaining-hits>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
</hash>

From 15 minutes ago....

<hash>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-04T22:53:44+00:00</reset-time>
<remaining-hits type="integer">-11</remaining-hits>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228431224</reset-time-in-seconds>
</hash>

Incredibly frustrated with all this.

As I already stated, I'd changed my password.

There are no 3rd party services accessing my account.

I've already logged a support ticket with Twitter. Their script reading responses were a waste of time and didnt resolve anything.

Yes.

I checked the limit_rate_status limit at 8:31am CST. This was showing...

<hash>
<remaining-hits type="integer">100</remaining-hits>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-10T15:30:48+00:00</reset-time>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228923048</reset-time-in-seconds>
</hash>

I opened Twirl at 8:33am CST and after the first refresh, it showed this...

<hash>
<remaining-hits type="integer">97</remaining-hits>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228923048</reset-time-in-seconds>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-10T15:30:48+00:00</reset-time>
</hash>

Now, at 9:16am CST, the limit_rate_status shows this...

<hash>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228923048</reset-time-in-seconds>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-10T15:30:48+00:00</reset-time>
<remaining-hits type="integer">43</remaining-hits>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
</hash>

I havent posted anything nor have I hit the refresh button on Twhirl. The network settings in Twhirl are set at 80 req/hour.

What has happened in the past is that it will eventually hit the limit, I'll close Twhirl wait at least an hour and the reset time wont get reset and the numbers go into the negatives.

I'll post again the results once I get the limit exceeded message.

Just checked the rate limit.

<hash>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228926650</reset-time-in-seconds>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-10T16:30:50+00:00</reset-time>
<remaining-hits type="integer">49</remaining-hits>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
</hash>

The limit did appear to reset correctly. In the past, this has not always been the case though. I'll continue to check throughout the day.

Thanks for looking into this. I appreciate it.

There we go. Limit Exceeded and I havent done anything other than have Twhirl open today.

<hash>
<remaining-hits type="integer">-3</remaining-hits>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228953481</reset-time-in-seconds>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-10T23:58:01+00:00</reset-time>
</hash>

At one point, about an hour or so before this happened, I lost my internet connection. I had shut down Twhirl for that time.

Other than that, I had Twhirl open. I havent reopened Twhirl since I received the Limit Exceeded message and only used the Twitter website.

I just check the Rate Limit Status and it gave me the following...

<hash>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1228963933</reset-time-in-seconds>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-11T02:52:13+00:00</reset-time>
<remaining-hits type="integer">-4</remaining-hits>
</hash>

It looks like it's not resetting.

It's still happening.

<hash>
<remaining-hits type="integer">-6</remaining-hits>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-13T00:03:54+00:00</reset-time>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1229126634</reset-time-in-seconds>
</hash>

Got the Limit Exceeded message earlier today. Havent used Twhirl since. Just tried opening Twhirl and...well, I'm sure you can guess.

Here we are. 4 hours later. Havent used Twhirl and only the Twitter website occasionally since the Limit Exceeded message...

<hash>
<remaining-hits type="integer">-7</remaining-hits>
<reset-time type="datetime">2008-12-13T04:06:43+00:00</reset-time>
<hourly-limit type="integer">100</hourly-limit>
<reset-time-in-seconds type="integer">1229141203</reset-time-in-seconds>
</hash>

Yeah...some function of Twitter is broken. I wonder how many other users are experiencing this problem and just give up on the service rather than pursue it. Or....am I the only one out of all other users that are experiencing this issue?

Regardless, it's infuriating.