Server errors for websites you visit frequently are an issue. Most of the time they are temporary problems that the respective websites fix on their side after a few minutes. But there is also a problem that requires your attention and concerns cookies.
Have you ever received an error message: “400 Bad Request. Request Header or Cookie Too Large?” on one of your favorite websites?
It is an annoying problem that is usually caused by the Nginx web server and it usually happens for one of two reasons. Sometimes, the website that uses this software does not allow browser cookies above a certain size or else the cookies stored in your browser may be corrupted. The easiest way to solve this problem is by deleting the cookies for that website.
The quickest and most “wrong” way is to delete all your cache cookies, but that would also mean losing saved data for other websites, including logins. It’s a big hassle, if you ask me.
Instead, we will see how we can get rid of these problematic cookies for a specific website. Let's examine it for the most common browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge.
Chrome
Open a new tab, then type chrome://settings/cookies in the address bar and press Enter.
A small window will appear called Cookies and Site Data. Type the name of the website you want to find in the search bar in this window. In our case, it is “blogs.microsoft.com.“
Once the site appears in the main part of the window, select it and press the «X» on the right side of the row. Now try to re-enter the problematic site.
If it continues not to work, go back to the cookies tab and delete all entries related to the website's parent (in this case microsoft.com). Now go back again one last time and everything should always work fine.
Firefox
To delete specific cookies in Firefox, type about:preferences#privacy in the address bar and press Enter. Now, from the privacy tab that opens, click the Show Cookies.
Similar to Chrome, search for the website whose cookies you want to delete in the text input bar at the top of the small window titled Cookies. Select the ones you want to delete and click Remove selected.
Go back and try to log into your site. Everything should work fine. If not, follow the final steps we mentioned earlier in the Chrome section.
Internet Explorer
Click the Settings in the upper-right corner of the browser window and select Internet Options from the drop-down menu. In the small window that opens, go to General –> Browsing History –> Settings –> View Files.
This little trick will open a File Explorer window to the location where IE stores its cookies. Now browse to the folder you just opened in File Explorer for that location. Then, delete the cookies you need to get rid of just like you would any other file: Click and drag the files to the Recycle Bin , or right-click the files and select Delete.
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft 's newest browser doesn't have the same options as any other browser. In this case, you'll need to delete all your cookies and saved website data to get rid of the problem.
To do this, click on the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner of your window. Then click on Choose what to clear under the Clear browsing data heading . Uncheck everything except the option for Cookies and saved website data. Now click on the Clear button and you are done. If this still allows you to access your favorite site , go back and clear the Cached data and files option as well .
