When I tried to set a custom URL, say “xyz”, for my notebook, I got an error “A notebook already exists at that URL.” even though I am not using that URL actually. In fact, I accessed the URL observablehq.com/@myrootpage/xyz and see the error “You either don’t have permission to view this notebook, …

Are you making the notebook inside a team? If so, someone else could’ve made a notebook with that URL that you’re not able to access, and you’d see that error page at the URL. Is it possible that you previously trashed a notebook with that URL? When you delete a notebook, it doesn’t release its URL…

Thank you so much, @tophtucker , for your quick and kind comment. My notebook is private; I believe the URL is only available for me. As for the deletion of the notebook with a custom URL, your comment is very informative to me. But honestly speaking, I’m not perfectly sure whether I deleted the n…

[image] tophtucker: When you delete a notebook, it doesn’t release its URL back into the pool of available URLs, and if it’s been more than 30 days since you deleted it, you’d see that error page at the URL. To me, that’s a bug. Once the notebook is permanently gone, what’s the purpose of wit…

[image] kentr: Once the notebook is permanently gone, what’s the purpose of withholding the URL from the available pool? According to Mike , “the intent of this design is prevent links and imports from unexpectedly changing from one notebook to another”.

[image] mcmcclur: According to Mike , “the intent of this design is prevent links and imports from unexpectedly changing from one notebook to another”. @mcmcclur Thanks. Though, to me it appears to increase the potential for that outcome instead of preventing it.

[image] kentr: to me it appears to increase the potential for that outcome instead of preventing it. Then, rather than @mcmcclur , I guess you mean @mbostock . :slight_smile:

[image] kentr: Though, to me it appears to increase the potential for that outcome instead of preventing it. Implicitly we are saying that it’s better for the link to be broken because that notebook no longer exists (because it was trashed), rather than to point to a new notebook which may or…

I understand and support that philosophy, @mbostock , as well as @kentr ’s feelings. However, my situation seems a bit irregular; I thoughtlessly deleted my named (published) notebook before the custom-URL feature was implemented and ended up losing its URL permanently. I hadn’t realized the necessit…

Error "A notebook already exists at that URL" while not existing.

Help

mcmcclur August 14, 2022, 8:51pm 5

According to Mike, “the intent of this design is prevent links and imports from unexpectedly changing from one notebook to another”.

Topic		Replies	Views
Re-use the custom URL of a deleted notebook Help	2	347	July 29, 2022
What is the long term permalink strategy for published notebook? Feedback	3	957	April 2, 2018
Better Organization with Custom URLs Announcements	3	709	October 31, 2020
An old notebook that cannot be un-published? Feedback	6	749	July 13, 2019
button name choice when renaming conflicting URL Feedback	5	911	November 6, 2020

Error "A notebook already exists at that URL" while not existing.

Related topics