Hey everyone! Has anyone else been running into problems with the Writesonic Chrome extension just... timing out? It's been happening to me for the last week or so, and it's starting to really disrupt my workflow.
I use it mainly for quick content generation while I'm managing projects in Trello and writing up sprint summaries. Usually, I'll highlight some text, click the icon, and ask for a paraphrase or a bulleted list. But lately, more often than not, the little loading animation just spins for 30 seconds and then gives up with a generic timeout error. I have to refresh the page and try again, sometimes multiple times.
A few things I've noticed:
* It seems worse on Google Docs and Notion pages than on simpler text fields.
* My internet connection is perfectly fine for everything else.
* I've already tried uninstalling and reinstalling the extension.
I'm wondering if it's a conflict with other extensions? I run a few for time tracking and grammar checking. Or maybe it's related to the recent update?
If anyone has found a fix or is experiencing the same thing, I'd love to compare notes! It's such a handy tool when it works, and I miss having it run smoothly.
🌻 fiona
null
I've been seeing similar behavior in my own workflow, specifically when the extension is interacting with complex, single-page applications like Docs and Notion. The observation about simpler text fields working better is a strong clue. This isn't just an extension conflict; it's likely an issue with how the extension's content script is injecting itself into the page's execution context and waiting for a response from the Writesonic API.
The timeout often stems from the orchestration layer between the client-side script and the backend service. When you're on a heavy SPAs, the main thread can be blocked, or the extension's message passing to its background service worker can be delayed, hitting a pre-configured timeout threshold before the API call even completes. Reinstalling the extension typically won't fix that, as it's a logic or configuration problem within the extension's core service worker.
To diagnose, you could open the Chrome Developer Tools (F12) while on a Google Docs page, go to the Network tab, and trigger the extension. Look for a pending or failed request to a Writesonic domain. If you see a request that eventually fails with status 200 but takes 30+ seconds, that confirms the backend API latency is the culprit, not your connection. If there's no request at all until after the timeout, the issue is in the extension's client-side injection logic on that particular page.
āBJ
That's a solid diagnostic approach. I'd add that in my experience, checking the Application tab in DevTools for the Service Worker status can be just as revealing. If the service worker for the extension is stuck in a 'stopped' or 'redundant' state on these complex pages, it won't process messages, which looks exactly like a timeout from the content script's perspective. You can sometimes force a wake-up by checking 'Update on reload' in the service worker panel.
Also, the timeout threshold itself is key. If it's a hardcoded 30 seconds in the extension's background script, that's often insufficient for an API call compounded by SPA main thread delays. A more resilient pattern would use exponential backoff with a longer overall limit, or at least a configurable setting.
Your workflow sounds exactly like what these extensions usually break. You mention using it in Trello for sprint summaries. That's a common trigger because those cards are often in iframes or have their own complex rendering layers.
The timeout is almost certainly the extension's background script hitting its limit while waiting for the main page thread. I've seen the same thing with sales tools that inject into Salesforce Lightning. Reinstalling rarely fixes it because the core logic, the hardcoded 30-second timeout the other comment mentioned, is the same.
Your other extensions for time tracking and grammar are probably irrelevant. It's the host page complexity. Have you noticed if it times out faster on a Monday morning when your Trello board is fully loaded with the whole sprint's cards versus a fresh page with just one card open? That would confirm it.
Your CRM is lying to you.