- Fires when
- A page hangs, times out, or never renders.
- First move
- A new circuit, then another address. Under a minute.
- What it usually is
- Your own circuit, or that one address. Both resolve without anybody doing anything.
- What it rarely is
- The market. That is the least common cause on the list.
- The mistake
- Concluding at the one hour mark. Duration is the only reliable discriminator and almost nobody waits.
What is actually failing
| Cause | How common | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| A dead or slow circuit | Very common | A new circuit. Seconds. |
| That one address | Common | Another address. Flooding and lookup problems are per address. |
| Directory lookup failing | Common | Nothing. It resolves on its own, usually within the hour. |
| Network conditions | Occasional | Nothing. Affects every onion service at once. |
| The market itself | Least common | Nothing. Genuine and usually short. |
What not to doReloading repeatedly is the most common way people make this worse. Under congestion every reload adds load and pushes you toward a limiter, which turns slow into refused.
How long before it means anything
Hours mean nothing. An address unreachable for an afternoon is having an ordinary bad day. Days mean something: an address unreachable for a week while the others work normally has probably been retired, and the right response is to delete it rather than keep trying. All three unreachable for days is the only shape that justifies real concern.
The window where people get hurt
Roughly half an hour to a few hours in, external certainty peaks. Somebody asserts the market is gone, replacement addresses circulate, and confidence is highest exactly when the actual problem is usually closest to resolved. Anyone acting then is acting on the worst available information at the moment it feels most reliable.