How to report a bug on a website (no technical skills needed)

A couple of minutes of checking saves a lot of back and forth. These checks tell you, and the person fixing it, whether the problem is in the website or only on your machine.

1. Reload without the cache. Press Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Linux or ChromeOS, or Cmd+Shift+R on Mac. Old cached files after a website update are a common cause of odd behavior.
2. Try an Incognito window. Press Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd+Shift+N on Mac) and repeat what you did. Incognito runs without your cookies and, by default, without most extensions. If the bug disappears, mention that in your report.
3. Try another browser or device. Edge, Firefox, Safari or your phone. "Only happens in Chrome" is a very useful clue.
4. Check your Chrome version. Open the three-dot menu, then Help > About Google Chrome. Install any pending update, relaunch and test again. Note the version number for your report.
5. Check for known outages. Many services have a status page (often status.companyname.com) or post updates on social media. If the whole site is down, a report is not needed.

If the problem is still there after these checks, it is almost certainly worth reporting. Write down what you tried, because "same problem in Incognito and Edge" saves the developer from asking.

Developers need to see the bug happen before they can fix it. Everything below helps them do that without coming back to you with questions.

Two extras make a report much stronger: how often it happens ("every time" or "2 out of 5 tries") and when it happened, with your time zone. The time lets developers find matching entries in their server logs.

Need a screenshot of a long page? See how to take a full page screenshot in Chrome. If the bug involves movement, like a menu that flickers or a form that resets, a short video is clearer, and how to screen record in Chrome shows the built-in options on every computer.

1. Make it happen again. Go back to the page and repeat what you did, slowly. Notice exactly which click or entry triggers the problem.
2. Capture it. Take a screenshot at the moment it goes wrong and draw a circle or arrow on the problem. For anything that moves or takes several steps, record a 10 to 30 second video instead.
3. Copy the URL. Click the address bar, select everything and copy it. "The checkout page" could mean several different pages.
4. Write what you did as numbered steps. Use the words you see on screen: "Clicked Pay now", not "clicked the button".
5. Write expected and actual results on separate lines. If an error message appeared, copy the text exactly or include it in the screenshot.
6. Add your browser, device and the time. Plus anything you already tried, such as Incognito or another browser.
7. Give it a clear subject line. Say where and what: "Pay now button does nothing on checkout", not "Website broken!!".
8. Send it to the right place (see below) and keep one problem per message.

Copy this into an email, a support form, Slack or a project tool. It works for clients reporting to an agency, staff reporting to an internal team, and customers reporting to a company.

Subject: [Bug] "Pay now" button does nothing on the checkout page

Where: https://shop.example.com/checkout
When: Today, 14:32 (UK time)

What I did:
1. Added the blue hoodie (size M) to the cart.
2. Went to Checkout and filled in the delivery form.
3. Clicked "Pay now".

What I expected:
The payment page to open.

What happened instead:
The button greyed out for a second, then nothing happened.
No error message was shown. I tried 3 times with the same result.

How often: Every time (3 of 3)
My setup: Chrome 156 on Windows 11, laptop screen, logged in as jane@example.com
Also tried: Incognito window (same problem), Edge (same problem)

Attached: screenshot with the button circled, 20-second screen recording

If you are reporting into a developer tool such as GitHub, Jira or Linear, use the fuller bug report template, which adds fields like severity and console errors. For tricky bugs, our steps to reproduce template shows how to write steps anyone can follow.

• One problem per report. Five issues in one email turn into one ticket that never closes. Separate reports can be fixed and confirmed one at a time.
• Separate bugs from change requests. "The button does nothing" is a bug. "Make the button green" is a change. Label them so the team can prioritize.
• Say how much it matters. "Customers cannot pay" and "a typo on the About page" need very different urgency. Describe the impact rather than writing "URGENT".
• Name the device for layout problems. Something that looks broken on your phone may be fine on a laptop. Mention the phone model or window size.
• Leave out passwords. Write "logged in as my admin account" instead of sharing credentials, and blur personal or payment details in screenshots.
• Reply when it is fixed. A quick "confirmed fixed" or "still happening" closes the loop and keeps the tracker accurate.

Collecting feedback from several reviewers on a whole site? Our website feedback tool page covers that workflow.

The manual method works, but non-technical reporters rarely remember every detail, and developers usually need more than a screenshot. Bugmark is a Chrome extension that gathers the details automatically when you capture a bug.

• Annotated screenshot or recording: arrows, boxes, numbered pins, text and a redact tool, or a tab recording with voice narration up to 5 minutes.
• Steps to reproduce, recorded automatically: the last 30 actions in the tab (clicks with element labels, which fields were typed in but never the text). You can edit them before saving.
• The technical part, handled for you: the last 150 console messages and the last 150 network requests are attached, with passwords, tokens and cookies masked as [redacted].
• Environment: URL, page title, browser, OS, viewport, pixel ratio and scroll position.
• Easy to send: export a self-contained HTML report that opens in any browser, PDF, CSV or Markdown, or create a GitHub issue directly.

Bugmark is free to try with every feature unlocked: the free version keeps up to 2 saved reports at a time, and a one-time $15 payment removes the limit. No subscription and no account, and captures stay in your browser. Add Bugmark to Chrome