Zerodha Kite charts TradingView ChartIQ chart preference limit CDN error Kite error messages

Kite chart errors: preference limit, CDN failure, and not-logged-in

From WebNotes, a public knowledge base. Last updated . Reading time ~13 min.

Kite chart errors are the messages Zerodha’s Kite platform shows when its charting engine cannot save a layout, cannot reach the chart servers, or has lost the authenticated session that charts run on. The three most common are “Chart preference limit reached”, which means your cloud storage for saved TradingView layouts is full; “Failed to connect to CDN”, which is a network or DNS fault reaching Zerodha’s Cloudflare delivery network; and a chart-level “not logged in” prompt, which means the chart session has lapsed and needs a fresh login. Each has a different cause and a different fix.

Kite runs two charting engines side by side, ChartIQ and TradingView, and a trader can switch between them per chart. That split matters because one of these errors, the preference limit, is specific to how TradingView stores saved work in the cloud, while the CDN and session errors apply to charts whichever engine renders them. This article takes each error in its own section: what the exact on-screen message says, why it appears at the technical level, and the precise steps Zerodha documents to clear it. A short section at the end explains where charts live in Kite so you can tell which engine you are looking at.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure. This guide is published by the WebNotes Editorial Team for informational purposes and is written independently. WebNotes operates a Zerodha account-opening referral programme, disclosed on the pages that carry the referral link; this guide does not carry it and earns no referral commission from the procedure described here.

Where charts live in Kite: ChartIQ and TradingView

Kite ships two charting engines, and the error you hit depends partly on which one is active. ChartIQ is the original engine built into Kite from its early versions. TradingView is the second engine, added later, which a trader selects per chart from the chart settings. On Kite web you switch by opening a chart and choosing the TradingView option; on the mobile app the toggle sits in the chart’s settings menu.

The practical difference between the two, for the purpose of these errors, is storage. TradingView saves your chart layouts, indicator templates and drawings to Kite cloud storage, keyed to your login ID, so the same layout follows you across devices when you log in with the same ID. ChartIQ handles saved settings differently and does not raise the same cloud-storage cap. So the “Chart preference limit reached” message is a TradingView message: it is telling you the cloud bucket that holds your TradingView layouts and drawings is full. The CDN error and the session error are engine-agnostic, because both engines load their assets and data from the same Zerodha servers behind the same content delivery network.

Knowing which engine is on screen saves time. If you see a preference-limit error, you are on TradingView, and the fix is storage cleanup. If a chart simply will not draw at all and throws a connection error, the engine is irrelevant; the problem is the pipe to Zerodha, not the chart. For a fuller treatment of the charting tools themselves, indicators, drawing tools and timeframes, see Kite charts .

“Chart preference limit reached”

The full message reads: “Chart preference limit reached. Try removing any existing template/drawings to save new preference.” It appears on a TradingView chart at the moment you try to save a new layout, indicator template or set of drawings. It is not a bug and not a platform fault. It is a quota message.

Why it appears

When you save settings on a TradingView chart in Kite, those settings go to cloud storage rather than staying on your device, which is why they reappear when you log in on another machine. Zerodha allots each login ID a fixed amount of that cloud storage. The allowance is generous; Zerodha’s support note states the provided storage is sufficient to save many studies and strategies. But it is finite. Once you have accumulated enough saved templates, layouts and drawings to fill the bucket, the next save has nowhere to go, and Kite returns the preference-limit error instead of silently dropping your work.

The cause is therefore always the same: accumulated saved preferences, not a transient glitch. Refreshing the page or reinstalling the app will not clear it, because the data sits in the cloud, not in a local cache. The only way to make room is to delete preferences you no longer use.

How to clear it

Zerodha’s documented fix is to delete unused templates and drawings from a TradingView chart. The steps on Kite are:

  1. Open a TradingView chart and click the search icon.
  2. Search for “Manage layouts and drawings”.
  3. Use the delete icon to remove the layouts and drawings you no longer need.

Each deletion frees a slice of cloud storage. After removing a few unused items, retry the save that failed, and it will go through. There is no setting that raises the cap; the cap is fixed, and management means pruning.

One warning sits alongside this fix, because it can destroy work you meant to keep. TradingView drawings are tied to a login ID. Logging in to Kite with a different login ID in the same browser deletes the drawings saved under the previous login ID. If you share a machine, or you run more than one Zerodha account from the same browser, save or export any drawings you care about before you switch login IDs, because the switch itself can wipe the earlier ID’s drawings rather than just hiding them.

“Failed to connect to CDN”

This error, often paired with “Error syncing exchange instruments”, appears while the Kite mobile app is opening. The app cannot load because it cannot reach the servers that deliver its assets and its instrument master.

Why it appears

Zerodha serves Kite, Coin, Console and its other products through Cloudflare, a content delivery network that sits between your device and Zerodha’s origin servers. Your device first has to resolve Cloudflare’s domain names through your internet provider’s DNS server, the directory that turns a domain into an address. If your provider’s DNS server fails to support or resolve domains hosted on Cloudflare, your device never reaches the CDN, and Kite throws “Failed to connect to CDN”. The “Error syncing exchange instruments” half of the message is the downstream effect: with no CDN connection, the app cannot pull the daily instrument file that lists tradeable symbols.

So this is a network and DNS fault on the path between your device and Cloudflare, not a fault inside Kite. It often shows up on one network, a particular home broadband line or office Wi-Fi, while the same phone works fine on mobile data, because the two connections use different DNS servers.

How to clear it

Zerodha’s documented sequence, in order:

  1. Reinstall the Kite app. A reinstall clears all app data and cache, which is the more thorough reset than clearing cache alone.
  2. If the problem survives a reinstall, switch to an alternate internet connection, for example mobile data instead of Wi-Fi, or another network entirely.
  3. Change your device’s DNS server to Google’s public DNS. Set the DNS to 8.8.8.8 (and 8.8.4.4 as the secondary) on the phone or computer, which bypasses an ISP DNS server that cannot resolve Cloudflare.
  4. If it still fails after these steps, raise a ticket with Zerodha support so they can check for an account or device specific cause.

Two device-floor notes matter here as well. The Kite app runs only on Android 6 and above and on iOS 11 and above. A phone on Android 5 or older, or iOS 10 or older, cannot run the app at all and should use the browser version at kite.zerodha.com instead. If charts or the app fail on an old device, the version floor, not the CDN, may be the real cause.

The browser fallback is also the fastest workaround during market hours. If the app will not connect and you have a position to manage, open kite.zerodha.com in a mobile browser rather than fighting the app, then sort out DNS afterwards. This matters around the 9:15 a.m. open, when a square-off cannot wait on a reinstall.

“Not logged in” while opening a chart

The chart shows: “It seems you’re not logged in. Please login to continue using charts.” The rest of Kite may still look logged in, the order book, the holdings, the funds, while the chart alone refuses to draw and shows this prompt.

Why it appears

Charts on Kite run against Zerodha’s chart service through their own authenticated session, separate from the page you are looking at. That session can lapse independently of the main Kite session for a few reasons. Zerodha forcibly logs every client out at the end of each trading day, a practice the regulator requires, so a chart left open overnight wakes up unauthenticated. A session can also expire naturally, or be invalidated when you log in to Kite from a second device or browser, which knocks out the earlier session. When the chart’s session is gone but the page has not yet noticed, the chart-level “not logged in” message is what you see.

This is the chart equivalent of the token expiry that affects the rest of Kite and the Kite Connect API , where an authenticated session ends at a fixed daily reset and every component has to re-authenticate. The chart is simply the part that surfaces it as its own message.

How to clear it

Re-login. Log out of Kite fully and log back in with your user ID, password and second factor; the Kite app code or your external authenticator’s code, depending on which you use. A fresh login re-establishes the chart’s session along with the rest of Kite, and the chart draws again. If only the chart is stuck while the rest of the app works, a full page refresh after logging in again is usually enough; the chart re-authenticates on reload.

If the prompt returns within the same session, repeatedly, suspect a second active login elsewhere knocking out the session each time you re-authenticate. Find and close the other Kite session, on a second browser, a phone, or an API app you authorised and forgot, then log in once cleanly. For the wider question of which logins and third-party apps hold access to your account, see how to secure your trading account .

Telling these three errors apart

A quick decision tree separates them. If the message names a “preference” or a saved layout, it is the TradingView storage cap; delete drawings and templates. If the chart, or the whole app, will not load and the message names a CDN or a connection, it is a network or DNS fault; switch networks or set DNS to 8.8.8.8. If the rest of Kite works but the chart alone says you are not logged in, the chart session has lapsed; log in again.

The three rarely overlap, because their causes are unrelated: one is a full cloud bucket, one is a broken path to Cloudflare, one is an expired authenticated session. Matching the message to the cause is most of the fix.

See also

External references

References

  1. Zerodha support, “Why is the error ‘Chart preference limit reached’ displayed while I try to save the settings on the TradingView charts?” (as of 21 June 2026).
  2. Zerodha support, “What do the errors ‘Failed to Connect to CDN’ and ‘Error syncing exchange instruments’ while opening the Kite mobile application mean?” (as of 21 June 2026).
  3. Zerodha support, “It seems you’re not logged in. Please login to continue using charts” (Kite error messages listing, as of 21 June 2026).
  4. SEBI circular SEBI/HO/MIRSD/DOP/CIR/P/2018/147, dated 3 December 2018, on two-factor authentication for login to online trading accounts (basis for the daily forced logout that lapses chart sessions).

Related articles

Frequently asked questions

What does 'Chart preference limit reached' mean on Kite?
It means the cloud storage Kite gives you for saved TradingView chart layouts, templates and drawings is full. Kite cannot save a new preference until you delete some you no longer use. The full message asks you to remove an existing template or drawing to save a new one.
How do I fix the chart preference limit error on Kite?
On a TradingView chart, click the search icon, search for ‘Manage layouts and drawings’, and use the delete icon to remove templates and drawings you no longer need. Each deletion frees cloud storage, so the next save succeeds.
Why does Kite show 'Failed to connect to CDN'?
Zerodha serves Kite through Cloudflare’s content delivery network. If your internet provider’s DNS cannot resolve Cloudflare domains, Kite cannot load and shows this error. Reinstalling the app, switching to another network, or setting your DNS to Google’s 8.8.8.8 resolves it.
Why does a Kite chart say I am not logged in?
The chart runs its own authenticated session against Zerodha’s chart service. If that session lapses, through a daily logout, a token expiry or a second login elsewhere, the chart shows ‘It seems you’re not logged in. Please login to continue using charts’. Logging in again on Kite restores it.
Does Kite use ChartIQ or TradingView for charts?
Both. ChartIQ is the original charting engine on Kite. TradingView is the second engine you can switch to per chart. TradingView stores layouts and drawings in the cloud against your login ID, while ChartIQ behaves differently and the preference-limit error is specific to TradingView.
Will my saved chart drawings disappear if I log in with another ID?
Yes, on the same browser. TradingView drawings are tied to a login ID, so logging in to Kite with a different login ID in the same browser deletes the drawings saved under the previous ID. Save important drawings before switching login IDs.

Reviewed and published by

WebNotes Editorial Team

The WebNotes Editorial Team covers Indian capital markets, payments infrastructure and retail investor procedures. Every article is fact-checked against primary sources, principally SEBI circulars and master directions, NPCI specifications and the official support documentation published by the intermediary in question. Drafts go through a second-pair-of-eyes review and a separate compliance read before publication, and revisions are tracked against the SEBI and NPCI rule changes referenced in the methodology section.

Last reviewed
Conflicts of interest
WebNotes is independent. No relationship with any broker, registrar or bank named in this article.