How do I troubleshoot problems with my Pi-hole?

You may be able to figure out what is wrong with your install simply by reading the debug log file located at /var/log/pihole_debug.log after running pihole -d.

You can, of course, always reach out to us for assistance, but we are continually improving the log file so it's easier for user to help themselves. We have several great Superusers here on discourse.pi-hole.net who are very capable of helping answer any questions.

It's also very likely that your question has already been answered here, on Reddit, or on GitHub.

Keep in mind a few things that are critical for Pi-hole to function properly:

  • All of Pi-hole's dependencies need to be installed (make sure apt is up-to-date`)
  • The DNS server needs to be running
  • Your Pi-hole needs to be able to reach the Internet via a gateway (typically your router)
  • Your client devices must be using Pi-hole as their DNS server
  • The Web interface (if installed) needs to be running to access the dashboard
  • The FTL engine needs to be running to properly display the statistics