Amazon Flex drivers have recently been reporting an increase in the appearance of the dreaded “Too Many Requests” error. This error causes the user to no longer see available offers on the screen, or the offers will flash sporadically. Making it so drivers can no longer accept the blocks that they want.
What Causes It?
While the exact cause is unknown among Flex drivers, we can speculate. In our experience the appearance of the error occurs after extended and rapid tapping of the Refresh button. We speculate; that Amazon is keeping track of how many Refreshes (request for offers) a user makes within the hour. If a driver exceeds the limit, they’ll then be shown the error.
How to get rid of it?
Once a driver has received the error the only way to get rid of it is to wait. The exact time to wait is unknown, and may vary. In our experience waiting about 10 minutes, with no tapping at all, will clear the error and the Flex app will be back to normal.
In many cases users will not wait long enough. The error will be gone from the screen, and with a few more taps it will return. We recommend you close the app completely, remove the notification from the top, and wait a good 10 or more minutes before you proceed to tap.
How to avoid it?
In order to avoid the error completely you’ll need to take breaks while tapping. There’s no exact formula that we know of. Just take a couple minutes break during your tapping every now and then. If you continuously tap and spam the server for an extended period of time, you’re sure to receive the error. The simple solution is to stop tapping for a bit, then proceed.
What’s it’s purpose?
Apparently the error is a measure by Amazon to prevent bots and auto-tappers. They claim it will “improve the experience”. When in reality it has only hurt us honest drivers. We appreciate that Amazon is taking these measures, but vague error messages help no one and have caused a lot of confusion and frustration among drivers. As usual it’s up to us to speculate and find the solution on our own since Amazon has no communication or transparency with their contractors.
