Fix Overpass API 406 Not Acceptable Error — Working Mirror Endpoints for QGIS and Python [2026]
A watershed analyst in Oregon runs QuickOSM’s “hospitals in the state boundary” query on a Monday morning and gets Download Failed: HTTP 406 Not Acceptable. The query worked on Friday. She re-runs it, gets the same error. Switches to QGIS’s native “Download OpenStreetMap data” tool — same error, slightly different wording. Twitter says other people are seeing it too. The r/QGIS thread has six comments and no consensus. The 406 response from overpass-api.de is not a timeout, not a rate limit, not your query, and not a QGIS bug. It’s the Overpass server telling you something specific about your request that most documentation glosses over. The fix is a one-line configuration change, but only if you know which line. ...