How To Resolve The “reCAPTCHA V1 IS SHUTDOWN” Message

Does your website use reCaptcha for its inquiry forms security and is it showing the dreaded “reCAPTCHA V1 IS SHUTDOWN” message? We discuss the reason for this message and how to resolve it yourself, or with our help.

Google Retires reCaptcha v1

Starting back in November 2017, Google began to phase out the well known reCaptcha version 1, commonly found on websites below inquiry forms that asked you to type in the numbers you see in the photos. This resulted in any websites using it to begin randomly showing a message indicating that it would be retired by 3/31/18. Google states on the reCaptchat website:

“If your site still uses reCAPTCHA v1, please upgrade to reCAPTCHA v2 immediately. We no longer support reCAPTCHA v1. Any calls to the v1 API will not work after March 31, 2018.”

Even though Google did announce this back in 2017 on their developers website, they did not send out email notifications informing the website owners or their developers of this in most cases. This blind sided many website owners who may have only discovered this was an issue after getting reports from customers that their website inquiry form was not working, or they could not register on their website.

Does This Effect Me?

If you have a website with inquiry forms, registration forms, or login forms using reCaptcha, then you can find out in two easy steps.

STEP 1 – Visit Your Website

Go to your website via your local computer is the best method for this test.

STEP 2 – View Form Pages

Click onto your pages that contain the following:
a. Your contact inquiry form.
b. Your registration / login page.
c. Your checkout page (if applicable).

Do you see an image similar to this below any of the above forms?

If so, then you need to upgrade recaptcha immediately. Without upgrading this means any website form you have with reCaptcha cannot be submitted; no inquiries, no logins, no registration. Basically you are loosing customers or viewers.

What reCaptcha Versions Are Available?

There are currently two stable releases that are available, which you have likely seen over the past year. Click on a link below for more details and examples of each.

reCAPTCHA v2 – “I’m not a robot”

Google describes this as “reCAPTCHA v2 requires the user to click a checkbox indicating the user is not a robot. This will either pass the user immediately (with No CAPTCHA) or challenge them to validate whether or not they are human. This is the simplest option to integrate with and only requires two lines of HTML to render the checkbox.” This is the version you have likely seen the most over the past year.

reCAPTCHA v2 – Invisible reCAPTCHA

Google describes this as “The second option ‘Invisible reCAPTCHA’ does not require the user to click on a checkbox, instead it is invoked directly when the user clicks on an existing button on your site or can be invoked via a JavaScript API call. The integration requires a JavaScript callback when reCAPTCHA verification is complete. By default only the most suspicious traffic will be prompted to solve a captcha. To alter this behavior edit your site security preference under advanced settings.” This is the version we use on our website, which can be seen if you click on the “contact us” page, then look for the icon in the bottom left.

There is also reCaptcha v3 for websites, but it is still currently in BETA testing stages.

How Do I Upgrade reCaptcha?

If you have confirmed that you need an upgrade and would like our assistance, please click the button below.

If you have some HTML and javascript coding experience, or have a web developer, then we advise that you read through the reCaptcha developer documentation and get this upgrade done as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading!