Troubleshooting errors in Flint

If you’re experiencing issues using Flint, the first step is to confirm whether the problem is specific to your account or part of a larger outage.

You can always check Flint’s Status Center to see the real-time health of our platform. The status center shows the operational status for all of our services, including:

You can also subscribe to updates by clicking the "Subscribe to Updates" button.

If the Status Center shows “All Systems Operational” and you’re still having trouble, the issue is most likely specific to your account, device, or network. In that case, follow the next troubleshooting steps in this guide 👇

Check to make sure you have access to the class, tutor, or session they are trying to access using a link. Not having permission will lead to a 404 error. Reach out to an owner of the class, tutor, or session to be granted access.

A common example of a permission error is a tutor, class, or session being set to private and not all users being invited to it individually. We suggest changing the sharing setting to unlisted. See more on access permissions in Flint.

Typos in URLs can lead to 404 errors. An example can be adding or removing a character from the domain name. If a school's domain is a-b.flintk12.com but you try to access ab.flintk12.com, you will encounter a 404 error.

Also make sure that the entire URL is copied. If the last few characters are missing from the URL, you will likely face a 404 error.

Sometimes, browsers cache a 404 web page for a certain URL, even after the permission issues mentioned above have been fixed. If this is the case, clearing the cache should help with seeing the web page.

If there was a permission or URL issue before, to confirm that there isn't an issue still now, try using a different web browser. A different web browser usually will not have anything cached, which can help with confirming whether things are fixed.

Our recommended browser for Flint is Chrome for MacOS or Windows.

The most common cause of unexpected errors, particularly on iPad, is an outdated web browser. Try upgrading your Safari or Chrome to the latest version if possible.

This message means Flint is mid-deployment or undergoing a brief maintenance window. Unlike a full outage, the Status Center at status.flintk12.com may still show "All Systems Operational" while this is happening — so do not be alarmed if the two don't match.

What to do:

Sparky is powered by Anthropic, an external AI provider. If Sparky stops responding — returning errors or giving no reply at all — even though status.flintk12.com shows everything is operational, the cause may be an outage at Anthropic that has not yet been reflected on Flint's status page.

What to do:

Large files may take several minutes to process. You can still send your message while the file is being read — Sparky will access the content once processing completes.

If a file has been processing for more than 10 minutes, try:

If you see an error message on your uploaded content, it usually means:

If your session data, uploaded files, or activity work isn't visible, here is what to check:

When using Flint's speaking feature for the first time, your browser may ask if the app.flintk12.com site can use your microphone. Make sure to allow use of your microphone every time you visit the Flint website.

If the pop-up doesn't appear automatically, you should check that the microphone access is allowed for your specific browser.

For some Safari users, you may need to enable speech recognition. On your Apple device, go to your Settings, then Privacy and Security, and then Speech Recognition.

Make sure the speech recognition for Safari is enabled.

If you open the delete dialog, type the full activity name, and the "Yes" button remains dimmed and unclickable, the activity name may contain a special character (such as an em-dash or other punctuation symbol) that prevents the input from validating — even if what you have typed looks identical to the name shown on screen.

Workaround: