Troubleshooting — Why Your Search Returns No Results

Search not working? Getting empty results or errors? This guide covers the most common reasons a search or conversion fails and how to fix each one.

No results? Check these first

1. Format issues

The most common reason for empty results is an incorrectly formatted input. Check these:

• Dashes or spaces between every component — SW25241W5 won't work, but SW-25-24-1-W5 or SW 25 24 1 W5 will
• Meridian needs the "W" prefix — 25-24-1-4 should be 25-24-1-W4
• Ontario needs "Lot" not "LT" — LT 29 CON 10 NIPISSING should be Lot 29 Con 10 Nipissing
• Component ranges — LSD must be 1–16, Section must be 1–36, Township must be 1–126, Range must be 1–34

See the Input Format Reference for the correct format for every survey system.

2. Coverage gaps

Your location may be in an area Township Canada does not cover at the resolution you are searching:

• City of Winnipeg — The DLS grid does not cover the Winnipeg urban area. Try searching by street address instead
• Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Yukon — Not supported yet

See the Coverage Guide for a complete breakdown by province.

3. Township-level lookups

If you enter only a township and range (e.g., 17-14-W1) without a section number, you may not get results. Add a section — use section 16 for the approximate center of the township: 16-17-14-W1.

4. Coordinates outside coverage

If reverse geocoding (GPS → legal description) returns nothing, the coordinates may fall in an urban area, water body, national park, or unsurveyed region. Confirm the coordinates are correct and within Canada (latitude 42°N–83°N, longitude 53°W–141°W).

Batch conversion issues

"I get headers but no results"

Some users describe this as seeing "beavers" instead of data. This usually means no valid records were parsed:

• Check that your data has one description per line
• Remove any header rows (like "Legal Description" or "Location")
• Make sure you are using a supported format (DLS, NTS, Ontario, River Lots)

Special characters breaking the batch

A single bad character can cause remaining records to fail. Common culprits:

• Apostrophes: NW-'6-55-26-W4 — remove the apostrophe
• Smart quotes from Word or Excel
• Non-breaking spaces from PDF copy-paste
• Tab characters from spreadsheet paste

Fix: Paste your data into a plain text editor (like Notepad or TextEdit in plain text mode) first, then copy from there into Township Canada.

Mixed formats causing failures

You can mix DLS, NTS, and Ontario descriptions in the same batch. But make sure every line is a complete, valid description. A line like SW-25-24-1 (missing meridian) will fail and may affect surrounding records.

Large datasets

The web app handles up to 5,000 records per session. For larger datasets:

• Use the Batch API with chunking (100 records per API call)
• Contact us for bulk processing of very large datasets (10,000+)

App issues

Search spinner won't stop

If the search keeps spinning without returning results:

1. Refresh the page
2. If that does not help, log out and log back in — your session may have expired
3. Try a different browser to rule out a caching issue

Session expiry

After extended inactivity, your session may expire. You will need to log in again. If the app behaves unexpectedly after a long idle period, refreshing and re-logging in usually resolves it.

Export not downloading

If clicking a download button does not produce a file:

• Check that your plan supports the format you selected (PDF requires Pro+, all other formats require Business)
• Try a different browser — some ad blockers interfere with file downloads
• If the download starts but produces an empty file, the result set may be too large. Try exporting a smaller selection.

API issues

"Forbidden" error

The API returned {"message": "Forbidden"}. This means:

• Your API key is missing from the request — include it in the X-API-Key header
• Your API key is invalid or expired — check it in My Account → API Access
• You are calling the wrong base URL

Quick test with curl:

curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" "https://developer.townshipcanada.com/search/legal-location?q=SW-25-24-1-W5"

CORS policy error

If you see "has been blocked by CORS policy" in your browser console, you are calling the API directly from client-side JavaScript. The Township Canada API is designed for server-to-server calls.

Solutions:

• Proxy the request through your own backend server
• Contact us to add your domain to the CORS allowlist

Rate limiting (HTTP 429)

The default rate limit is 1 request per second. Requests beyond that receive an HTTP 429 "Too Many Requests" response.

Solutions:

• Add a delay between requests in your code (1 second minimum)
• Use the Batch API instead of looping single calls
• Need higher limits? Contact us for custom rate tiers

Empty API response

If the API returns a valid response but with no features or results:

• The legal description may not exist at the resolution you queried
• Check that you included the full description with meridian prefix
• The API is stricter than the web app — format must be exact

See the API Troubleshooting Guide for more detailed API debugging steps.

Still stuck?

• Ask the AI Assistant (requires a subscription) — open the chat icon at the bottom center of the screen and describe your issue. The assistant can help normalize messy inputs and explain error messages.
• Contact support — include the exact input you are trying to convert and any error message you see. The more detail you share, the faster we can help.