Question 1

Does a feed have to be valid to work?

Accepted Answer

No. Inoreader repairs many broken feeds before reading them, and the report lists every repair it made. Other readers may not repair them, which is why the report counts a repair as a warning.

Question 2

Why does a feed work in one reader and not in another?

Accepted Answer

Readers differ in what they repair, how long they wait for an answer and which addresses they fetch from. The report marks the checks where readers behave differently, so the feed can be made to work in all of them.

Question 3

Why do old posts show up as new?

Accepted Answer

The item ids changed, or every item carries the same id. The Items section of the report shows the ids and what readers do with them. Give every item its own guid or id and keep it when the post is edited.

Question 4

What does "works, with repairs" mean?

Accepted Answer

The document is not well-formed XML as published, and Inoreader fixed it before reading it. Readers that do not repair feeds reject it, so the repairs are worth making at the source. An RSS feed example, explained shows what a feed that needs no repair looks like.

Question 5

Can I check a feed that is not online yet?

Accepted Answer

Not yet. The validator fetches the feed from the address you give it, because the delivery checks are half the report.

Question 6

Is the feed validator free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It is free and needs no account. If you want to follow the feed, an Inoreader account is free too and holds up to 150 feeds.

RSS feed validator