Possible Solution to Blank Screen When Trying to Track Packages and Certified Letters on USPS.com

Notice: We accept no responsibility for the use (or misuse) or accuracy or effectiveness of the following information. We also do not accept any responsibility for any complications you may experience by following this advice. Online information like this is no substitute for professional technical help. We are providing this information only as a free suggestion of something to try if you have started encountering a blank screen at the U.S. Postal Service website when trying to track a package. Also, other services which use the postal service tracking (possibly even ShipStation) may be encountering the same issues-- at least for certain users.

It is obvious to us that we are not the only ones having these types of recent tracking problems on the USPS postal service website. A recent search on the Bing search engine for "recent problems tracking on USPS.com" or "recent problems tracking USPS" has brought up the Bing AI (artificial intelligence) result indicating that this has become a fairly prevalent problem recently. Unfortunately that search result doesn't appear to have any explanation of what the problem is or what to do about it.

Note: We have been selling old computer software and parts and accessories for old computers for over 40 years. During this time we have had numerous situations where we have needed to ship or mail items through the U.S. Postal Service. Around late April of 2024 we started having significant difficulty tracking packages and certified letters and bills using the U.S. Postal Service website. When we track packages here we almost always use our computer to do the tracking. What usually happens lately when we enter the tracking # is that we just get a blank screen. We even opened a case in early May of 2024 with the U.S. Postal Service website seeking help. From what we recall the postal service is supposed to reply to our technical inquiry about this matter within 3 or 4 days. It has now been over 4 days and we haven't heard back from them. We tried using different browsers (Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge) and different computers to no avail. Then, based on some past experiences we have had we discovered what might be a possible solution.

At the location where we do most of our postal tracking with our computer we have Google Fiber. We love Google Fiber for many many reasons. However, we have noticed that in certain situations we have issues where we can only have success when temporarily signing off from our Google Fiber network hot spot or connection and then tethering to our smart phone's mobile hotspot while using cellular data. After trying everything else we decided to try tracking our packages (which were just getting blank screens) using tethering after temporarily disconnecting from our Google Fiber hot spot or connection. By doing this we have been able to track our packages and certified items successfully again using our cellular data. Our theory is that either Google Fiber (and possibly other providers) have increased their security so much (recently) that package and certified tracking information can't be reached (or is being blocked) from reaching our computer AND/OR multiple browsers have problems with USPS tracking for some reason with Google Fiber that they don't have with tethering. It is possible that you may not encounter this type of problem if you are trying to track packages or certified letters on your smart phone rather than a computer.

Therefore, if you are having such problems (especially when using a computer to do the tracking with) try temporarily disconnecting from your Google Fiber or other problematic provider's network connection and try tracking your packages by tethering temporarily to a smart phone of some kind. We can't guarantee that this will solve your particular problem with tracking on the U.S. Postal Service website (USPS.com) like it apparently seems to have done for us. Others may be having different issues than we seem to have been having. However, it might be worth a try!

Hopefully this will help at least some others until these problems can be resolved. Perhaps by changing a certain setting with Google Fiber (or whichever provider you use) this problem may be eradicated. We don't recommend randomly changing settings with your router or internet provider's settings while experimenting to try to correct these tracking problems unless you know what you are doing and how to restore your original settings if necessary. We have not changed any of our Google Fiber settings on our router or on our Google setup recently that may have caused this problem. It is apparently something which has changed on USPS.com or with Google Fiber-- unrelated to anything we have done ourselves. However, if you are experiencing such problems you may want to try tethering temporarily while you are trying to figure out what the underlying cause of the problem might be. See if that will help you. Then when you are finished tracking your package(s) and/or letter(s) make sure to switch back to your normal internet provider to avoid using potentially limited and/or more expensive cellular data. Hopefully this information will help at least some of you to avoid some of the headaches we have experienced while trying to track our USPS items lately.

Best wishes
OldSoftware.com