Web Widget (Classic) error: There was an error processing your request. Please try again later

Issue symptoms

When my customers try to submit a ticket through the Web Widget (Classic), they receive the below message: There was an error processing your request. Please try again later

Resolution steps

This can be caused by one of two issues:

The error may be due to a 401 (Unauthorized) error in the console. This means that the feature Anybody can submit tickets was disabled. When this feature is disabled, the Web Widget (Classic) cannot be used to submit a ticket. For more information, see the article: Enabling anyone to submit tickets.

This can be caused by attempting to submit a ticket from the Web Widget (Classic) using the support address. If this is the issue, then you will see a 422 error in the Network tab with the below message:
{"error":"RecordInvalid","description":"Record validation errors","details":{"requester":[{"description":"Requester: Email: support@subdomain.zendesk.com cannot be used; it is in use as a support address"}]}}{email address} cannot be used; it is in use as a support address.

To fix the issue, the end user should stop using a support address in the requestor field.