Gravatar verification bug – “It is not a valid URL” on self-hosted site

  • Unknown's avatar
    kozmali · Member ·

    Hi WordPress Support Team,

    I am trying to verify my self-hosted WordPress site on Gravatar via the Gutenberg block method, but I am completely stuck due to a frontend validation bug in your form.

    No matter what I type into the “WordPress URL” field, the form instantly triggers a red error: “It is not a valid URL.”

    Here is what I have already tried and checked:

    1. URL Variations: I tried every possible format: https://www.kozmali.sk, https://kozmali.sk, https://www.kozmali.sk/gravatar/, https://kozmali.sk/gravatar etc. etc. etc. with and without trailing slashes, and with/without www. The error appears instantly before any network request is even made.
    2. Code Implementation: The Gutenberg social link block is correctly embedded and publicly visible on my site (e.g., on my homepage https://www.kozmali.sk under the “Podakovania” section, as well as on a dedicated test page https://www.kozmali.sk/gravatar/).
    3. Account Connections: My self-hosted site’s URL https://www.kozmali.sk/ is already correctly filled out in my WordPress.com public profile settings under “Public web address”.
    4. Troubleshooting: I tried clearing my browser cache, testing it on both mobile and desktop (Chrome/Vivaldi), and even checked the Inspect Element console. The <input> field lacks a proper type="url" attribute, and your internal JS regex is completely blocking my domain string for some reason.

    I found a similar unresolved forum thread where other users faced the exact same issue: https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/cant-verify-my-wordpress-url-with-gravatar/ but the lady didn’t write there how she solved it..

    Since the block is live on my website and the form validation script is broken on your end, could you please look into this bug or manually verify the connection for my domain (kozmali.sk) on the backend? Now the html on this site: https://www.kozmali.sk/gravatar/

    Thank you for your help.

    Best regards
    Dominik Kozmáli

  • Unknown's avatar
    james3265166 · Member ·

    You’ve hit the nail on the head, and your excellent troubleshooting confirms it: this is a frontend client-side validation bug where the JavaScript RegEx on the Gravatar form is being too restrictive and rejecting valid TLD strings (like .sk) before a network request can even fire.Because this is a strict code regression on the verification form itself, we cannot bypass the validation block directly from the front end. I have marked this thread and flagged it directly for the WordPress.com / Gravatar Staff so an engineer can manually verify your domain (kozmali.sk) on the backend or deploy a fix for the broken validation regex script. Hang tight, and a staff member will update you here as soon as they’ve forced the connection through for you!

  • Unknown's avatar
    dominikkozmali · Member ·

    Hi James,

    Thanks for the quick reply and for confirming the bug! I’m glad the troubleshooting helped isolate the issue with the .sk TLD validation.

    I will hang tight and wait for the staff/engineers to manually force the connection on the backend :).

    Appreciate your big help :)
    Dominik

  • Unknown's avatar
    kozmali · Member ·

    Hi @james3265166,

    checking in on this issue as it has been 11 days since the bug was confirmed by James. Is there any update on the manual backend verification or a fix for the TLD validation regex? My site (kozmali.sk) is still waiting to be verified :).

    Thank you so much :)

  • staff-jeev · Staff ·

    Hi @kozmali,

    Thanks for checking back on this and I appreciate your continued patience.

    The bug has been logged and is with the Gravatar team for review. I don’t have a specific timeline to share just yet, but I want you to know this hasn’t fallen off our radar. We’ll follow up right here on this thread as soon as there’s a concrete update or a fix has been deployed.

    Thank you for your patience and I appreciate you sticking with us on this.

  • Unknown's avatar
    kozmali · Member ·

    Hello @staff-jeev,

    Okay, I’ll wait.

    Although, looking at it, I should probably prepare for a period of weeks, if not months, right?


    Thank you, sincerely
    Dominik Kozmáli

  • robertghetau · Staff ·

    Hey Dominik,

    I’m afraid we can’t confirm a specific date or duration for a fix, but we’ll follow up with you once we hear back from our team.

    Should you need any more details or have more questions, we’re available and happy to assist!

    Best,

  • Unknown's avatar
    nancyb6a4cbfcac · Member ·

    I’m having the exact same issue. I am trying to verify my self-hosted website domain (https://theaiadvantage.ca)

    Your frontend verification form keeps instantly giving me a red “It is not a valid URL” error and won’t let me submit. I have already successfully added the clean HTML verification code with the rel="me" tag to my website’s footer. Could a support team member please manually verify and link my domain from the backend? Thank you!

  • staff-bonhopkin · Staff ·

    Hi there! Thanks for letting us know that you’re experiencing the same issue. I’ve added your site to our existing investigation as well. At this time, we’re not able to manually verify domains as a workaround, so we’ll need to wait for the underlying issue to be resolved by the Gravatar team.

    We’ll follow up as soon as there’s an update, workaround, or a fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience!

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