Remote Workspaces
Remote Workspaces – Troubleshooting
Diagnose and resolve common problems when creating, connecting to, or working inside a remote workspace
Even the smoothest remote workspace can hit a snag. This guide walks you through the quickest fixes for the most common remote workspace issues.
Quick Reference
| Category | Typical Symptoms |
|---|---|
| Workspace Creation | “Provisioning” forever, cloning errors, devcontainer upload fails |
| Connection | Can’t attach from session, pairing spinner never stops, “Machine unavailable” |
| Performance | Slow rebuilds, high latency in terminal, laggy editor |
| Devcontainer | Build errors, “command not found”, ports not reachable |
| General Usage | Git asks for credentials, disk full, permission denied |
1. Workspace Creation Issues
2. Connection Problems
1
Check Machine Selector
In your session, click the CPU icon → ensure Cloud Machine is selected.
If it shows Local Machine, switch to Cloud Machine and pick the workspace.
2
Browser & Network
- Use Chrome or Edge (other browsers may block WebSocket upgrades).
- Disable VPN/proxy to rule out WebSocket filtering.
- Reload the session tab (⌘R / Ctrl-R).
3. Performance & Speed
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Rebuild takes > 5 min | • Add .dockerignore for node_modules, *.pyc, build outputs• Use a lighter base image (e.g., alpine) |
| Terminal latency | • Close unused browser tabs with heavy JS• Check local bandwidth (>5 Mbps recommended)• Pause real-time spell-checker extensions |
| Editor lag | • Disable file watchers in dev tools (nodemon, webpack --watch) unless needed• Use auto-save only when collaborating |
4. Devcontainer Configuration Errors
5. General Usage Troubles
| Issue | Resolution |
|---|---|
| Git prompts for credentials | Make sure the repo integration is connected; remote workspace injects HTTPS tokens automatically. |
| Disk quota exceeded | Clear package caches (npm cache clean --force, pip cache purge), remove large build artifacts, or rebuild workspace. |
| Permission denied on file save | File is outside the repo workspace; save inside /workspaces/<repo>/. |
| Cannot install global packages | Use npm install -g or pip install --user. If still blocked, add commands to postCreateCommand. |
| History lost after rebuild | Anything outside /workspaces is cleared during rebuild. Commit important scripts or store them inside the repo. |
Need More Help?
- Docs – Review Configure Your Devcontainer
- Best Practices – Optimize performance with the Remote Workspace Best Practices guide
- Support – Reach out in your Factory support channel with workspace ID and error message
A quick rebuild fixes 80 % of issues—don’t hesitate to click Rebuild when in doubt.