Pi-hole Troubleshooting

A collection of common Pi-hole problems and practical fixes.

❌ No Internet After Setup

Symptoms:

• Devices cannot browse
• DNS fails

Checks:

• Is the Pi powered on?
• Is the IP address correct in router DNS?

Fix:

• Set a secondary DNS temporarily (e.g. 8.8.8.8)
• Confirm Pi IP hasn’t changed (use static IP)

🌐 Admin Page Not Loading

Try:

http://<pi-ip>/admin

If not working:

pihole status

Restart services:

pihole restartdns

🐌 Internet Slow

Possible causes:

• Weak Pi hardware (older models)
• Poor SD card
• Network issues

Fix:

• Use wired Ethernet
• Upgrade SD card
• Reboot Pi

🚫 Sites Not Working

Some sites break due to blocking.

Fix:

• Go to Admin → Query Log
• Find blocked domain
• Add to whitelist

🔌 Pi Reboots / Drops Out

Check:

• Power supply (very common issue)

Fix:

• Use proper Raspberry Pi power adapter

🔄 Update Pi-hole

pihole -up

💡 JACSoft Notes

• 90% of issues are DNS or IP related
• Always start with:
  • “Is the Pi on?”
  • “Is DNS pointing to it?”

Simple, but it saves hours.