This is the discussion page for the AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) project. It is also the place to discuss using the AWB program (for help, questions, or general inquiries about AWB). Specific guidelines on where to make particular reports or requests are provided in the § Before you post section below. Before asking a question, please refer to the read the § Frequently asked questions below.
Try to report bugs in the current version of the software. Update to the most recent version and check to make sure your bug has not already been reported on Phabricator. See How to Report Bugs Effectively for advice on how to write bug reports.
Before posting anything related to non-Wikimedia Foundation wikis, verify that the site is running a recent version of MediaWiki with enabled Bot API. Older versions of MediaWiki or without the Bot API are not supported. Be sure to mention the exact URL of your wiki.
Request a feature details
Please use the feature request button to submit new feature requests. This format helps the developers track and manage requests efficiently. Before submitting, take a moment to search the archives—both on-wiki and on Phabricator—to see if a similar request has already been discussed.
When I start it up I get one of the following errors:
"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application.", or
"To run this application, you must first install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework..."
This error means your computer does not have the .NET framework version 2 installed properly. You can choose from various versions for download here, or you can run Windows Update and select version 2 of the .Net framework from the "Optional Updates" section, if you want the choice made for you.
When I start editing with BotPassword, it says "Restarting in...":
When using BotPassword, you need to grant the bot permission to "Read my notifications". See also: Wikipedia:Using AWB with 2FA.
Many Wikimedia projects and languages are supported, see the "User and project preferences" option in the general menu. Other languages will be added on request, though at the moment the interface is always in English. You are also able to use AWB with third-party wikis: Options > Preferences > Site, you can change the wiki there. The wiki must support the Bot API required by AWB. This means that it should have latest HEAD version of MediaWiki or something close to that. The wmf-deployment branch is also recommended, as this is what is currently live on WMF sites.
Under Windows Vista (and newer), AWB is using wrong font size, which results in clipped text and lost buttons and options, (see example here). How to fix it?
Solution #1: Go to "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display" and switch resizing of the fonts to 100%.
Solution #2: Right click on AutoWikiBrowser.exe --> Properties -> Compatibility (tab) --> enable the "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" option or for Windows 10, if available, select System (Enhanced).
AWB puts stubs after categories, though categories are always rendered the last by MediaWiki?
According to WP:STUB#Categorizing stubs, by convention they are placed at the end of the article, after the External links section, any navigation templates, and the category tags, so that the stub category will appear last. If your wiki uses another order, please let us know here.
I don't like or use Internet Explorer; please use Firefox instead.
AWB does not use Internet Explorer per se. It does, however, use the same web browser control (MSHTML) as Internet Explorer; the equivalent Firefox component does not provide the needed functionality.
How do I open the page in another browser if I can't use the one in AWB?
Right click on the edit box in the bottom right side of your screen. Select "Open page in browser".
How do I edit a page that doesn't exist?
Uncheck "Ignore non existing pages" in the "Skip articles" box.
How do I skip certain articles?
Use the "Skip if contains" and "Skip if doesn't contain" on the "Skip" tab
Can't you leave up a "stable" version, so I don't have to download new versions?
It is important to keep people up to date with the latest versions, because their use of the software doesn't just affect them, but the whole of Wikipedia. As any bugs that remain will be trivial, hopefully releases won't be too frequent.
How can I stop AWB clicking when it changes pages?
This is a Windows sound theme setting. This page explains how to turn off the clicking sound.
Alternatively, delete the following key from the Windows registry:
AWB randomly crashes upon page load on my system, and I always use a browser other than Internet Explorer when using Wikipedia.
You may have installed custom scripts incompatible with IE. Wrap the contents of your monobook.js into conditional:
//Detect IE5.5+
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE")==-1)
{
// Previous contents go here
....
}
I get Just In Time Debugger Messages when loading AWB/loading pages.
In Internet Explorer, go to Tools → Options → Advanced. Make sure 'Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)' and 'Disable Script Debugging (Other)' Are both checked. Press apply and close.
Why does AWB run very, very slowly if I try to make changes in the edit window on larger pages, especially pages with long lists or tables?
If running on Windows, exit the Speech Recognition software that is built into some versions of Windows; don't just turn it 'Off', you must 'Exit' the software if you have started up Speech Recognition.
When I do a clean install of AutoWikiBrowser the application seems to find old setting data somewhere. I'd like to do a really clean install. Any ideas?
Clean up your registry and remove the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Local Settings\Application Data\AutoWikiBrowser" (Windows XP) or "C:\Users\user name\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\" (Windows 7). Note that the application data folder may be hidden.
AWB prompts that there is a newer version but won't update
Check the version number of your AWBUpdater.exe. The current version is 2.4.0.0. If you have an older version, you have to download the latest AWB version and make a clean install.
Which .NET Framework version do I have?
You can find your .NET Framework version in Help → About box.
Where are the default settings stored?
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\AutoWikiBrowser
Windows Vista onwards: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\AutoWikiBrowser\Default.xml
I cannot copy text from the diff window using the Control+C keyboard shortcut.
You must have Microsoft.mshtml.dll available for AWB to use for this functionality to work. You can try downloading the file (there are a number of third-party websites offering DLL file downloads) and putting it in the same folder as AutoWikiBrowser.exe. This is reported not to work for all users, presumably due to .NET Framework problems.
Is there any way to set AWB to not use https? (GFW blocks port 443)
In preferences, set project to "custom". Set the left box to http. In the webpage box, type en.wikipedia.org/w/ (English Wikipedia) or zh.wikipedia.org/w/ (Chinese Wikipedia). Note that leaving off the /w/ will result in a "root element missing" error.
How do I login to AWB with accounts enabled with two-factor authentication?
Latest comment: 27 days ago6 comments2 people in discussion
Per title, is there any way to do this with find and replace, without setting up a new rule for each article? Can magic words be used for this? One use case would be wrapping instances of the title in {{lang}} templates in articles about foreign words (e.g. those in subcategories of Category:Words and phrases by language), per MOS:LANG. Thanks! Helpful Cat🐈02:04, 5 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Do you know if there's a way to respect the original case when using these magic strings? Let's say I'm finding %%title%% and replacing it with {{lang|af|%%title%%}} (for Afrikaans text). Is there a way for lowercase instances of the title to remain lowercase? I know there's a case-sensitive setting, but I would like to find all occurrences of the title regardless of case. Thanks! Helpful Cat🐈12:55, 5 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@Helpful Cat: Try finding (%%title%%), replacing with {{lang|af|$1}}, with "case sensitive" turned off and "regex" turned on. The round brackets tell the find+replace code to remember what it matched and the $1 prints it out again. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:59, 5 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 27 days ago2 comments1 person in discussion
Is there a way to have AWB prepend text unless that text is already present? I know there's the option to skip pages that contain certain text, but I don't necessarily want to skip those pages entirely, because there are also other changes I'm making. Thanks! Helpful Cat🐈10:22, 5 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 22 days ago9 comments3 people in discussion
Is there a way to find and replace within the edit box, without making it a rule? Let's say I'm finding (%%title%%) and replacing it with {{lang|af|$1}} (to tag it as Afrikaans text as I described above). By default, this also italicises the text. Let's say in one specific article, the text should not be italicised because it's a proper name, so I need to add |italic=no to the lang template. However, I don't want to make it a rule that (%%title%%) should always be replaced with {{lang|af|$1|italic=no}}, because the text should be italicised in most articles. Is there a way to find instances of the template in the edit box and replace them with the italic=no version? I see there is a find function for the edit box, but I don't see a replace function. Thanks! Helpful Cat🐈11:04, 7 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@Helpful Cat: No, I don't there's a direct way to do this. One workaround would be to grab the text from the edit box and paste it into an external editor such as Notepad++, use that editor's find and replace, and paste it all back into AWB. Or, if I thought that "one-time" might well turn into "ten or a dozen times", I'd set up a second find and replace rule, and use the "Enabled" column to switch on whichever was appropriate for the current article. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:10, 7 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
You might be able to get it done with a greedy ([\s\S]+) after the search term so that it pulls everything after the match, and then make sure a $2 is included in the replace. The first match would catch everything on the page, but if you have it set to only find once it won't iterate to later text. Primefac (talk) 23:07, 9 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Thanks! Sorry, I'm not familiar with regex and don't think I understand you. Where should I put the ([\s\S]+) and the $2, in the same rule or a new one? How would that help me replace the lang templates with the italic=no version? Thanks again for your help. Helpful Cat🐈08:44, 10 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
It would be (%%title%%)([\s\S]+) replacing with {{lang|af|$1}}$2. \s is a whitespace character, and \S is a non-whitespace character, so the [\s\S]+ check is basically "any/all characters after this". Primefac (talk) 15:17, 10 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Thanks. Sorry, I'm still missing something - how would that help me replace the lang templates with the italic=no version? Wouldn't that just replace the page's content after the first instance of the title with itself? Helpful Cat🐈15:34, 10 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
I think I might have misread your initial query. Are you looking to replace all instances of the page title with the {{lang}} variant, and only on some articles you want to add the |italic=no? Assuming you're not using a bot, just have two rules set up, one with the italic and one without. If it's a page that needs the no italics, enable that rule, otherwise keep it disabled. Primefac (talk) 16:37, 10 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Are you looking to replace all instances of the page title with the {{lang}} variant, and only on some articles you want to add the |italic=no? Yes, that's it. My initial query was whether there is a one-time find and replace function for the edit box so that after the (%%title%%) to {{lang|af|$1}} rule runs, I can replace {{lang|af|$1}} with {{lang|af|$1|italic=no}}. I see that creating two rules is the best solution to this. Thanks again! Helpful Cat🐈01:09, 11 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
"Bot password" is a misleading misnomer. In other contexts it's an "application password", intended for use with a high-complexity password in contexts where a regular username/password won't work. If you're logging in with a username that has an "@" prefix it gets you a little extra privilege (like evading the IP check on login). David Brooks (talk) 11:34, 12 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
...to stop the general fixes adding incorrect birth categories? In four of these cases the actual birth is BC, but AWB is adding an AD category; in the final case the birth year in the lead sentence is marked "SH", Solar Hijri calendar. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:18, 14 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 12 days ago2 comments1 person in discussion
If you use the "Database scanner", read on.
The Mediawiki team has started providing database dumps as a sequence of compressed XML files alongside the previous single, unwieldy file. Starting in January 2027 they will stop producing the single file.. You can still scan each file in sequence, but I have made a change that automates it for you; once you select a single XML file, AWB will offer to stream all the XML files in the same directory in one pass. Feel free to give it a go and let me know what you think. There are a couple of error conditions that need to be handled better, and some potential UI changes.
Thanks David for addressing the sub-reference issue (T434983). That alone is sufficient reason for users to install the latest version of 6501 (October, 2026). Neils51 (talk) 00:16, 29 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
I think it alone is reason to ask the official owners for a mandatory update! I expect there are a number of users running with general fixes on, and may not notice the damage that is guaranteed to happen as more enwiki editors discover subrefs. I'll put up a bat-signal. David Brooks (talk) 03:37, 29 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 4 days ago5 comments4 people in discussion
The new subref feature has been rolled out to enwiki (it's been on other wikis for a while); please note that genfixes will damage them. For now, take extra care and check the initial diffs for something like <ref name="Moser 2010" details="p. 791"/> becoming <ref name="Moser 2010 details=p. 791"/>. Undo such changes.
Latest comment: 2 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion
AWB can create lists using Links on page (only bluelinks) and Links on page (only redlinks). Is there a way using AWB or otherwise to create lists of links on a page which go to redirects or disambiguation pages? In my common.css page, or somewhere, I've set redirects to be colored green and links to disambiguation pages to be colored orange, so I know the destination of those links can be communicated back to the page. Thanks,SchreiberBike|⌨01:52, 31 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 1 day ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Is it possible to search for articles with empty section headings, in order to either tag or remove them? In particular, I'd like to remove empty external links sections. Thanks! Helpful Cat🐈10:08, 31 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
@Helpful Cat: This is tricky, as it is hard to classify an External Links heading followed by a template call. If the template is a random navbox, the heading may be redundant, but if it is a template that generates an external link, the heading is needed. My regular expression for this task recognises just a few templates that don't generate external links:
\n== *External\s+[Ll]inks *==((\n<!-- Use the format: \*?\[http://www\.example\.com/ example\.com\] -->)|(\n<!-- Per \[\[WP:ELMINOFFICIAL\]\], choose one official website only -->)|\n\*\s*)*(?=(?:\s|<!--(?:(?!-->).)*--\>|\{\{DEFAULTSORT:[^\}]*\}\}|\[\[[Cc]ategory:[^\]]+\]\]|\{\{[Aa]uthority\s+control\}\}|\{\{[Cc]oord\|(?!\b[^\}]{1,99}inline\b)[^\}]{1,99}\}\}|\{\{[Cc]oord\s*missing\|[^\}]{1,99}\}\}|\{\{[Pp]ortal\s*bar\|[^\}]{1,99}\}\}|\{\{[Tt]axon\s*bar\|[^\}]{1,99}\}\}|\{\{[Uu]se\s+\w+\s+dates\|date\s*=\s*\w+\s+\d+\}\}|\{\{[Uu]se\s+\w+\s+English\|date\s*=\s*\w+\s+\d+\}\}|\{\{[A-Za-z0-9-]+-stub\}})*$)
The idea is to parse everything from the heading downwards, skipping "safe" templates, the DEFAULTSORT, the categories, and so on, and if it gets to the end of the article, the $, then the heading is not needed. Of course this is too complicated for the usual search tools, and I use the AWB database scanner. I've actually run this on the October 2026 dump, so most of the matches for that regex have been fixed. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:38, 31 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
