Find the declaration that generated the missing request. Reuploading a font will not fix CSS that resolves to the wrong path.
Capture the failing face and URL
Inspect the missing font request and its initiator. Record the stylesheet URL, requested font URL, family, weight and style. Check whether only one weight fails. A browser may use a neighboring face or fallback, making the defect subtle. Keep a screenshot of the affected heading and a known working face so the correction can be evaluated visually as well as by status.
Follow the stylesheet’s location
A relative font URL is interpreted in the context of its stylesheet. Moving generated CSS into another directory can therefore change the resolved request. Compare the original declaration with the optimized or combined stylesheet. Identify which tool created that output. Do not patch a generated file manually if the next cache rebuild will replace it; correct the source or generation configuration.
Verify file presence and case
Check the actual uploaded filename, directory and extension using the project’s file-management tools. Hosting environments may expose case mistakes that a local machine did not reveal. Compare the URL encoding for spaces or non-ASCII names. If the file is present but the response remains missing, inspect rewrite and storage rules before renaming a whole library.
Check deployment and stale references
A new stylesheet can refer to a font that was omitted from deployment, while an old stylesheet can reference a removed filename. Keep asset publishing coordinated and retain prior versioned files long enough for supported cached pages. After the source is corrected, invalidate the relevant generated CSS through supported tooling. Do not solve stale references by purging every cache on each request.
Verify the exact face is used
Load from a fresh session and confirm successful requests without a policy error. Inspect that the intended weight and style render, then test bold, italic and language-specific text used by the site. Rebuild the generated stylesheet once more to confirm persistence. Preserve the earlier source revision until the paths remain correct after regeneration.
Symptom-to-cause worksheet
| What you observe | What to investigate | Next check |
|---|---|---|
| Only optimized CSS fails | Relative path changed during generation | Compare declaration and stylesheet location |
| One weight missing | Single source file or face mapping issue | Inspect that face independently |
| Fix disappears after rebuild | Generated output edited instead of source | Correct owning configuration |
Worked investigation scenario
This is an illustrative case, not a measured Velonic result. Suppose generated CSS moves from a theme directory to an optimization directory while keeping a relative font path. The browser now requests a nonexistent neighbor of the generated file. Compare the resolved URLs and correct the generation rule, not the temporary output. Rebuild twice and test again. If the second rebuild recreates the bad path, the source-level issue remains even though the first manually patched response worked.
Put it into practice
- Trace the font request to its stylesheet.
- Check actual filename case and deployment presence.
- Verify the correction survives asset regeneration.
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