Cookie issues

InsideInsurance

I generally access MSE forums off of one of two computer and both are having separate issues but are both fixed by clearing cookies

On my Mac OS X machine with Chrome as the browser periodically the forum will stop registering which threads I have read and havent. This is fixed by clearing the cookies of which there is normally 16 or so. It will then work fine again for a couple of days and then start doing the same again.

On my XP machine with Chrome Portable occasionally when I post a comment to a thread I only get a white page appear (comment doesnt actually post). From that point on all pages on MSE Forums only appear as white pages until I clear all the cookies (of which there is normally around 21) at which point it all works again. Again this happens every couple of days.

Mac is using v33 of Chrome and the XP has v32 but both have been doing similar for some time, at least a few months including several upgrades to Chrome.

InsideInsurance

Just to add to the above, our other Mac running Chrome v31 has now also started not showing which posts have been read.

esuhl

That sounds like it might be a problem with the cache not refreshing, rather than cookies.

If you want to check that you're looking at the most up-to-date list of threads, try hitting CTRL+R (or CTRL-F5 depending on OS). That should reload the page from MSE, rather than showing you the old cached copy on your PC.

Hope that helps...

InsideInsurance

esuhl wrote: »

That sounds like it might be a problem with the cache not refreshing, rather than cookies.

If you want to check that you're looking at the most up-to-date list of threads, try hitting CTRL+R (or CTRL-F5 depending on OS). That should reload the page from MSE, rather than showing you the old cached copy on your PC.

Hope that helps...

I believe it is cookies as simply clearing all cookies set by forums.moneysavingexpert.com fixes both the issues.

Refreshing the page doesnt solve it, it still shows all pages as not being read since last visit. Likewise doesnt help the log in problem

esuhl

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I believe it is cookies as simply clearing all cookies set by forums.moneysavingexpert.com fixes both the issues.

Ah, okay... Hmmm... Do you have any Chrome extensions installed? If so, you could try disabling them all and restarting the browser to see if one of them is causing the problem...

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Refreshing the page doesnt solve it, it still shows all pages as not being read since last visit. Likewise doesnt help the log in problem

What's the log in problem?

fermi

InsideInsurance wrote: »

On my Mac OS X machine with Chrome as the browser periodically the forum will stop registering which threads I have read and havent. This is fixed by clearing the cookies of which there is normally 16 or so. It will then work fine again for a couple of days and then start doing the same again.

Cookie name responsible for storing that is bbthread_lastview

So you may be able to get away with deleting just that one rather than the whole lot.

The whole marking things as read and storing it in a cookie is notoriously unreliable with vBulletin boards. It;s nit a great way to do it, but the alternative of storing read/unread status in the forum database would not be practical on a forum of this size due to the amount of extra data it would burned the servers with.

InsideInsurance

esuhl wrote: »

What's the log in problem?

Ok, probably not a log in issue but it has only ever happened when logged in and most commonly when trying to make a post.

Upon doing the page refresh (either due to POST or clicking a link) the page renders as just white with no HTML in the view source. From then on any page I go to on the forum dues the same (either by using the back button, going to a page from history or googling and clicking through to the forum) until cookies are cleared at which point everything works again (and in the cases where it was triggered by trying to post something, the post wont have been made)


This isnt the only vbulletin powered forum that I use but it is the only one where I am suffering both these problems.

On the XP machine there is no extensions installed. On the two macs there is only one installed on each machine but they are different (screenshot software on one and HTTP header inspector on the other). On the basis of differing/ no extensions I dont believe they are to blame.

Mandelbrot

fermi wrote: »

Cookie name responsible for storing that is bbthread_lastview

So you may be able to get away with deleting just that one rather than the whole lot.

I have had a problem with that particular cookie for years. It never seems to reset itself properly, so gets all confused and I have to go in and delete it manually.

Of course, it can't help that I regularly have more than one window open for MSE - one for each board I am interested in.

InsideInsurance

Interestingly found that on the XP machine, which gives me the Page Cannot be Loaded. If I wait a few minutes (seems to require 5 or so) then refreshing the page gets it to load but as soon as I click the next one it also comes up with the white page/ page cannot be loaded. If I clear the cookies then it works fine for another day or so

InsideInsurance

Now the issue on XP is happening every hour or so rather than every couple of days.

Guess MSE are clueless to the problems and/or don't care. Soon be time to move forums again I guess

fermi

Tried for a while last week using XP and chrome and couldn't replicate any errors like that here. Occasionally things like browser addons, toolbars, security software like a web shield etc can interfere with the forum functionality here. So may be worth seeing if trying with a clean browser profile, or temporarily turning off anything non standard.

Just for example, Kaspersky web shield on Android messes up the forums here for me, making many links break and not allowing some cookies to set.