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Discord Link Preview Not Working? 7 Fixes to Try (2026)

By Wredack, SEO Specialist at Proovd

1+ year of experience fixing Open Graph issues and link preview optimization for SaaS brands.

Discord not showing your link preview? Here's how to fix it.

Discord link preview not working?

Test your link preview free with Proovd — paste a URL and see exactly how it looks on Discord, Twitter, Slack, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Reddit.

Quick Fixes (Try These First)

  1. Enable embeds in server settings — this fixes 60% of cases
  2. Check channel settings — right-click channel → Edit → ensure "Embeds" is ON
  3. Re-share the link — delete old message and re-post to force refresh
  4. Check OG tags with Proovd before trying other fixes

Why Discord Ignores Your Link Preview

There are several reasons why Discord might not show a preview for your link. Here are the most common ones, ranked by frequency:

1. Server or Channel Embeds Are Disabled

Discord hides all link previews if:

💡 Pro Tip: If no links show previews in a server, embeds are disabled at the server level.

2. Missing or Broken Open Graph Tags

Discord requires these tags to generate a preview:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Your description" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yoursite.com/page" />

Common mistakes:

Test your tags with Proovd — paste any URL and get an instant preview across all platforms.

3. Image Doesn't Meet Discord's Requirements

Requirement Discord's Rule Fix
Minimum size 300×300 pixels Resize to 1200×630 (covers all platforms)
Max file size 10MB Compress with online tools
Format JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF Convert if needed
URL protocol HTTPS only Migrate from HTTP to HTTPS
🎨 How to Create a Discord-Optimized OG Image: Use any design tool with a 1200×630px template. Export as PNG under 10MB.

4. Discord's Cache Is Stale

Discord caches link previews for days. Even after fixing your tags, it may show the old (broken) version.

How to force a refresh:

  1. Delete the old message and re-post the URL
  2. Add a cache-buster: ?nocache=1 (e.g., https://yoursite.com/page?nocache=1)
  3. Wait 24 hours (last resort)

5. HTTPS vs. HTTP Issues

⚠️ Discord blocks previews for HTTP sites. If your link preview works on HTTP but not HTTPS, you likely have mixed content warnings or Cloudflare settings blocking Discord's crawler.

Fixes:

6. Bot Permissions Are Missing

If a bot isn't generating previews:

  1. Server-level: Ensure the bot's role has "Embed Links" permission
  2. Bot token: Verify the bot has the embed_links scope
  3. Test manually: Have a human user post the link to rule out bot issues

7. Discord's Crawler Is Blocked

Discord's crawler (Discordbot/2.0) needs to fetch your page and image.

Check if you're blocking it:

Step-by-Step Fix Guide

Step 1: Enable Embeds in Discord

  1. Server Admin? Go to: Server Name → Settings → Enabled Text Affordances → Toggle "Embeds" ON
  2. Channel Admin? Right-click the channel → Edit Channel → Toggle "Embeds" ON
  3. User? Ask a server admin to check settings.

Step 2: Validate Your Open Graph Tags

Use Proovd to check your tags:

  1. Paste your URL
  2. Check for: og:title, og:description, og:image present
  3. Verify all URLs are absolute (https://...)
  4. Ensure image is HTTPS (not HTTP)

Step 3: Fix Your Image

  1. Resize to 1200×630px
  2. Compress under 10MB
  3. Host on HTTPS (e.g., AWS S3, Cloudflare, Imgur)

Step 4: Clear Discord's Cache

  1. Delete the old message with the broken preview
  2. Re-post the URL (or use ?nocache=1)
  3. Wait 5–10 minutes for Discord to re-fetch

Step 5: Check for HTTPS Issues

  1. Test your URL in SSL Labs
  2. Fix mixed content (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages)
  3. Cloudflare users: Disable Scrape Shield temporarily

Bot-Specific Fixes

Issue Fix
Bot role lacks permissions Edit role → Enable "Embed Links"
Bot token missing scope Re-invite bot with embed_links scope
Bot is rate-limited Wait 1 hour and retry
Bot is in a restricted channel Check channel permissions

Platform-Specific Notes

Platform Min Image Size Uses OG Tags? Cache Duration Unique Quirks
Discord 300×300 ✅ Yes Days HTTPS required, ?nocache=1 works
Slack None ✅ Yes Hours Workspace-level settings
Twitter/X 800×418 ✅ Yes Minutes Falls back to twitter:card
LinkedIn 1200×627 ✅ Yes Days Strictest (no HTTP)

Quick Fix Checklist

  1. Server/channel embeds are enabled
  2. og:title, og:description, og:image tags are present
  3. Image is ≥300×300px (1200×630 recommended)
  4. Image URL is HTTPS (not HTTP)
  5. All URLs are absolute (https://...)
  6. Re-posted the link (or added ?nocache=1)
  7. robots.txt doesn't block Discordbot
  8. Bot has "Embed Links" permission (if applicable)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my link not showing a preview on Discord?

The #1 reason is disabled embeds in server/channel settings. Other causes: missing og:image or og:title, image is <300×300px or HTTP, Discord's cache hasn't refreshed (re-post the link).

How to make link preview on Discord?

  1. Enable embeds in server/channel settings
  2. Add OG tags to your webpage
  3. Use an HTTPS image (≥300×300px)
  4. Re-share the link

Why can't I see stream preview on Discord?

Stream previews require: Go Live permissions in the channel, embeds enabled in server settings, and no regional restrictions (e.g., age-restricted streams).

How to make a link NOT show preview on Discord?

Add <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"> without an og:image tag, or: Disable embeds in the channel, or Use a URL shortener (e.g., bit.ly/yourlink to bypass auto-embeds).

Related Articles

Test your link preview before sharing

Check your Open Graph tags free with Proovd — paste a URL and see the preview on Discord, Twitter, Slack, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Reddit before you share.