If a monitored site has moved, use urlwatch --change-location OLD_URL NEW_URL to update the job while retaining its history. Editing the URL directly in urls.yaml creates a new job with no history. First confirm the destination really changed; connection and HTTP errors can have other causes.
Confirm the URL is the problem
- Find the affected job in
urls.yaml, or open the file withurlwatch --edit. For a URL job, check itsurlfield. The urlwatch 2.29 handbook documents the job configuration. - Check the exact destination address and whether it returns the content you intend to monitor. A site may redirect, return an error, or serve different content at the new address; do not assume the correct replacement URL from an error message alone.
- Distinguish a moved page from a temporary connection failure or an HTTP error. urlwatch reports errors by default, and its documentation describes options for ignoring connection errors or selected HTTP status codes. Those options suppress reporting; they do not repair a moved destination. See the error-handling documentation.
Change the job location and keep its history
When the destination has changed and you want to preserve the existing job history, run:
urlwatch --change-location https://example.org/old https://example.org/new
Replace both example addresses with the exact old and new job locations. The command updates the location while retaining history. The handbook explains that history is keyed to the URL: changing the URL directly in urls.yaml makes urlwatch create a new job with no history. The option also works for Browser and Shell jobs, changing their navigate and command locations respectively. See Updating a URL and keeping past history.
If you do not need the old history
You can edit the affected URL in urls.yaml instead. Save the file with the corrected address; urlwatch will treat it as a new job, so prior history will not carry over.
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If the updated job still fails
Connection or HTTP errors
Check whether the destination is reachable and whether the response is an HTTP error before changing error-reporting settings. Ignoring an error can reduce notifications, but it can also hide a continuing failure; it is not evidence that the site moved successfully.
The page needs JavaScript
If the URL job no longer retrieves the content you need because the destination depends on JavaScript rendering, consider a Browser job. The urlwatch handbook recommends Browser jobs only when a URL job does not return suitable results: they use more resources and require Playwright. See the Browser job documentation.
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Use the exact prior and replacement locations for the job you intend to change. For Browser and Shell jobs, the location corresponds to navigate and command, respectively; check the configured job before retrying.
Version context
The cited documentation identifies itself as the urlwatch 2.29 handbook. The project changelog dates release 2.26 to 2023-04-11 and lists --change-location among its additions. The reviewed documentation does not establish which release is latest, so check your installed version and its help output if the option is unavailable. The changelog is at urlwatch changes.
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curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.org/new -o shot.webp
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