Reviewed 30 September 2026 · quarterly cycle
Why does a link work in the browser but fail when I copy it into an order form?
Because a browser follows redirects and an order form usually does not. The address that works on screen is frequently not the address the form needs.
The evidence
When you open a shared address in a browser, the browser resolves any redirect and settles on a final address. What you see in the address bar after that is the resolved form, which is what an order form needs. What you copied from the chat message before opening it is the unresolved form, which is a redirect token.
The distinction explains a failure that looks inconsistent. The same link opens perfectly when clicked and fails when pasted, and the reason is not that the link is broken. It is that two different strings are involved and only one of them carries an item identifier.
The check takes a few seconds and does not require understanding the address structure. Paste the link into a browser first, let the page load completely, then copy from the address bar rather than from the message. If the resulting address is longer and contains an obvious identifier, it is the form the order form wants. Our link anatomy block breaks the four parts out for anyone who wants to see them rather than take this on trust.
When this does not apply
Some order forms resolve short addresses on their own, in which case the unresolved form works and the extra step is unnecessary. The way to tell is whether the form displays the item title after you paste; if it does, resolution succeeded and you can skip the browser step.