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Fix 'Connection to Twitter failed' when tweeting from OS X

Receiving an error message when attempting to tweet a URL using OS X's built-in Twitter integration? Here's how to fix it.

Jason Cipriani Contributing Writer, ZDNet
Jason Cipriani is based out of beautiful Colorado and has been covering mobile technology news and reviewing the latest gadgets for the last six years. His work can also be found on sister site CNET in the How To section, as well as across several more online publications.
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Jason Cipriani

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A while back Twitter announced that any URLs being shortened by its t.co service were going to cost users two extra characters. When you only have a 140 characters to begin with, the extra characters could be disastrous when trying to get your point across in a tweet.

It seems Apple didn't take the change into account with its integration of Twitter in OS X Mountain Lion. I discovered this when attempting to tweet a link from Safari. According to the tweet sheet, I had composed a perfect tweet, using up my entire 140-character allotment.

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

But every time I clicked send, I'd get the above message. I knew Twitter wasn't down, as I was able to access it just fine via Tweetbot. So I copied the text of the tweet from Safari into Tweetbot and manually entered the URL. It was then that I realized the problem; according to Tweetbot I was two characters over the limit.

On the left, the same text and URL are entered on Twitter.com, showing the tweet is two-characters over the limit. On the right, OS X's tweet sheet shows identical text being exactly at the 140-character limit. Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

I went back to Safari, composed the same tweet, save for the last two characters and the tweet sent without issue. So if you find yourself tweeting a link from OS X, be it from Safari or Notification Center, and keep receiving an error message, try deleting a few characters from the tweet and sending it again. Hopefully Apple fixes this minor -- yet annoying -- bug in the near future.