I’m having trouble with my personal portfolio website that I deployed on GitHub Pages. The HTML and CSS are working fine, but none of my JavaScript files seem to be loading or executing properly. I’ve checked the file paths multiple times and they look correct to me.
The site displays the basic layout and styling, but all the interactive features that depend on JavaScript are completely broken. I’m not getting any obvious error messages in the browser console either.
Has anyone run into similar issues when hosting static sites on GitHub Pages? I’m wondering if there’s something specific about how JavaScript files need to be referenced or organized in the repository structure.
Any suggestions on what might be causing this problem would be really helpful!
One common reason JavaScript files fail to load on GitHub Pages is case sensitivity. Unlike Windows, the Linux server that hosts GitHub Pages differentiates between “script.js” and “Script.js”. Ensure you are using the exact file names in your HTML. Additionally, check whether your JavaScript files were pushed to the repository; sometimes, .gitignore may unintentionally exclude them. You can also use the browser’s Developer Tools (F12) and review the Network tab for any 404 errors related to your JavaScript files.
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Had the same problem last year with my React portfolio. Turned out to be absolute paths in my script tags. GitHub Pages serves from subdirectories, so /js/main.js breaks because it’s actually /your-repo-name/js/main.js. Use relative paths instead - ./js/main.js or just js/main.js if your HTML’s in the root. Also check for ES6 modules without CORS headers since GitHub Pages is picky about cross-origin stuff. Quick test: try accessing your JS files directly in the browser with the full URL to see if they’re even loading.
Had this same problem with my first JavaScript project on GitHub Pages. The issue was my script tags using type="module" - these need a proper web server for CORS, but GitHub Pages just serves static files without the right headers for ES6 modules. I fixed it by either bundling everything into one file or ditching the module syntax completely. Also watch out for mixed content warnings. If your page loads over HTTPS but your JavaScript calls any HTTP resources, browsers will silently block them. Make sure all your API calls and resource links use HTTPS or relative paths.
check your browser cache first - github pages can be slow to update and cached versions cause problems. try a hard refresh (ctrl+f5) or incognito mode. make sure you actually committed your js files to the repo - ive forgotten to push changes tons of times. also, external cdn links might get blocked by https requirements on github pages.