You open web.telegram.org on a work machine or someone else's computer, because the app isn't there or won't start, and you get a blank page. Or it goes the other way: your chats are there, but "Waiting for network..." hangs above them and nothing new arrives, while your phone next to you is receiving messages without any trouble.
Then comes the search, and the results all say the same thing: clear the cache, try another browser, check the date and time. You clear it, and Telegram Web greets you with a login screen. Now nothing makes sense. Did your chats disappear? Did you break something in the browser? Or is it just Telegram again?
Let me calm that part down right away: your account and cloud chats don't vanish when you clear browser data. You only get logged out of the web version in that one browser, and getting back in is easy. There will be a short word about us at the end. The labels of Telegram Web that I quote below I checked against its open source code, and the browser tips come from Chrome's help pages.
How to tell whether the browser or the network is to blame
Telegram Web has no program of its own, so it reaches Telegram only through the browser, and only at its own addresses on web.telegram.org. Anything that gets in the browser's way gets in its way too, and so does anything that blocks those particular addresses, even when other sites open fine.
There are two official web versions, Web K and Web A, and they report the connection in different places. In Web K the message appears in the search bar above your chats, in place of the word "Search". "Waiting for network..." means there was no connection yet, while "Reconnecting..." or "Reconnect in" followed by a number of seconds means the connection existed and dropped. "Updating..." is usually harmless: the connection is there and the web version is catching up on what it missed. In Web A you will see "Waiting for network..." over the chat list or in the header of an open chat, and it shows up when the browser itself thinks there is no network, or while a connection is being made. You can tell which version you have from the address: web.telegram.org/k/ or web.telegram.org/a/.
If the message stays for a long time, the help pages of the browsers themselves are the next step. Chrome's help offers Incognito mode as a fork in the road, and Yandex Browser's help starts its checks with it too.
- Open web.telegram.org in an Incognito window (in Chrome that is Ctrl+Shift+N on Windows and Linux, or ⌘+Shift+N on a Mac). Extensions are usually off there unless you allowed them yourself, and there is no saved site data, so you will have to log in again.
- If the web version comes alive in Incognito, something in your normal window is in the way: an extension or saved site data. It is better to start with the extensions; the saved data comes below.
- If the same "Waiting for network..." hangs in Incognito too, take another browser, any one you have on this computer.
- If the other browser behaves the same, and other sites open, I would leave the last word to a different network: share the internet from your phone or connect to another Wi-Fi.
When the web version doesn't come alive in Incognito or in another browser, there is no point in cleaning the browser any further. What is left is a proxy set in the system, or the network itself, and if another network made it work, it is most likely the network. For the general order of checks in that case, I went through it in the article on what to do when Telegram isn't working, which also covers the phone app.
On how common this is: OONI publishes open measurements, and its Telegram test checks the web version too. If an HTTPS request to web.telegram.org gets no answer, OONI counts the web version as blocked. The measurements come from volunteers, so they are signs rather than confirmed blocks, and they say nothing about causes. But the takeaway for you is simple: in some networks Telegram Web opens and in others it doesn't, and clearing the cache won't change that.
About the date and time. Checking the clock is worth it only if the browser itself says your clock is ahead or behind, and then the browser complains like that about any site. I found no confirmation that a wrong time breaks Telegram Web specifically.
When an extension or a proxy in the browser is in the way
Yandex Browser's help says it plainly: some extensions, VPN and ad blockers among them, can change network settings. Chrome's help also mentions extensions that change network access at a lower level through VPN or proxy settings. I don't name any, because I don't know what you have installed, and you can usually recognise them by type.
Yandex Browser's help suggests this order: turn off all extensions, restart the browser, then turn them on one by one until the web version hangs again. That finds the one extension at fault and leaves the rest in place. In Chrome the list is under the three-dot menu, then Extensions, then Manage Extensions. The same steps in Yandex's help also include clearing the cache, but that is better saved for the next section.
A proxy is a similar story, only less visible. Chrome takes proxy settings from several places, including the system and extensions, and the web version's connection to Telegram goes through the same proxy as ordinary pages. If that proxy is down or doesn't let you through to web.telegram.org, the web version may hang on "Waiting for network...", while sites through it may still open. I can't say this as confidently about other browsers, but I assume it is similar there. If it is a work computer and you aren't sure whether a proxy is set, ask whoever configured it.
Why the web version asks you to log in again after clearing the cache
In the open code of Web K you can see that it keeps your login right in the browser, in the data of the site web.telegram.org. Chrome's help also warns that after deleting a site's cookies you may be signed out of it. So the advice "clear the cache and cookies" almost certainly means logging out of the web version in that browser, which the search results usually don't mention.
If clearing is still needed (say Incognito helped and the extensions are innocent), delete the data of web.telegram.org only, not the whole browsing history. In Chrome, open Settings, then Privacy and security, then Third-party cookies, then See all site data and permissions. Search for web.telegram.org and delete just that entry. After that you can reload the page. In other browsers the items are named differently, but they are usually easy to find.
Sometimes the web version asks you to log in every single time, even with no clearing at all. In Incognito that is expected, since site data lives there only until all Incognito windows are closed. The same happens in Chrome if the On-device site data setting is set to delete data when you close all windows, and if you don't allow sites to save data at all, the web version may not work at all. In Web A there is also a "Keep me signed in" checkbox when you log in by phone number. It is on by default, but if you uncheck it, your login won't be kept in that browser.
The easiest way back is the QR code. On the "Log in by QR Code" screen the web version asks you to open Telegram on your phone and says to go to Settings > Devices > Add Device. Then you point your phone's camera at the computer screen, and that's it. If you don't have your phone at hand, there is a "Log in by phone number" button below, and the code may then arrive not by SMS but in Telegram on another device where you are already logged in. If the code doesn't arrive at all, look at the breakdown of why the Telegram code doesn't arrive. And if you have a passkey set up, a "Log in by passkey" button may appear too (in Web K).
The Telegram program on a computer that won't open works differently, and it deserves its own conversation.
Two Telegram tabs switch each other off
Web K and Web A notice each other in neighbouring tabs, and one of them then shuts itself down. Web K shows "App is inactive..." and "Another app is running", while Web A says there are too many sessions or tabs open and offers a button to reload the page. So Telegram is jealous of itself, and there is nothing to fix.
In some browsers Web K doesn't get along even with itself: after 30 seconds the extra tab shows "Too many tabs...". And if another tab is running a newer build, you will see "WebK has updated...", and it is enough to reload that tab. I would keep one version in one tab and not open K and A at the same time.
Can you turn on a proxy in the web version?
People ask search engines this, and the honest answer is no. The web version has neither a proxy setting nor handling of proxy links. I checked that in the code of both versions, and our own site also says outright that Telegram Web doesn't support proxies. The WEB proxy type in Telegram Desktop has nothing to do with the browser, despite the similar name, and I explained what it is in the article on the WEB proxy.
Telegram itself treats the web version as a helper: its main apps are for phones and computers, and Telegram Web "can also help to quickly do something on the go". Sometimes it can't open a video or a message and offers the desktop app itself. The official addresses are web.telegram.org/k/ and web.telegram.org/a/, and the apps page on telegram.org leads to them. "Mirrors" on other domains and "Telegram" extensions from browser stores have nothing to do with it, so I would enter your account details only on web.telegram.org.
And now what I promised about us. A caveat first: we sell a proxy, so I have a stake here, keep that in mind. FreeGate gives you a personal proxy for Telegram, and it works in the official Telegram apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux. It won't help in the browser, because it acts only inside Telegram, while the browser and everything else go online directly.
Each device has its own link, and if someone else has seen it, you can change it in your account with one tap. You connect it with the "Connect in Telegram" button or by QR code, then Telegram itself asks about the proxy and offers "Connect Proxy"; no separate program is needed. We can't read your chats, because Telegram encrypts messages itself and the proxy passes on data that is already encrypted. Signing up takes only an email, and there is a free trial day; after the trial nothing is charged automatically. After that, on freegate.app it is $1 for 30 days or $2.50 for 90 days, per device, so a phone and a computer count as two.
And if the web version has already started working for you, you don't need us for now, which is also a good outcome.