Forum login failures
David Pitt (3386) 1248 posts |
Some of us have had a problem logging in to this forum. The login, from the login page, is confirmed but on moving to a forum page the login has been lost. This was first raised in passing in another thread, Wanted – small capacity micro SD cards As this is turning out to be a more general problem this new, more appropriately titled, topic has been opened. We have got as far as discovering that the login failure is associated with cookies and that deleting |
Clive Kenneth Semmens (2335) 9 posts |
I’m pretty sure (but not absolutely certain) that it arises independently of cookies, but then preserves itself in a cookie: when it first happened to me yesterday, I tried another browser on the same machine (cookies are associated with browsers, I think, anyone confirm or deny?) and had the same effect. Somewhat later I tried on a different machine and got in successfully, then went back to the first machine and still had the problem until I deleted the ROOL cookies. (Incidentally, I don’t really only have 5 posts! I’ve got a couple of thousand iirc. Under my name without the Kenneth in the middle, which will probably disappear again at some point – either tomorrow, or when I next delete cookies. Logging out and in again didn’t remove it after I removed it in my account. I made the change to check that I really had remained logged in until I went to the Forum. When the problem arises, you can visit Home, News, or Contact Us and remain logged in, but as soon as you visit Downloads, Bugs, Bounties, Documents, Photos or the Forum – BANG! you’re logged out. That was my experience, anyway.) |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2100 posts |
I had to delete cookies earlier today. I just came back and found the problem happening again, and deleting cookies a second time did not fix it. Not until I deleted them a third time was I able to post. Also, a couple of hours ago I couldn’t even connect to the site; Safari on Mac gave a message to the effect of “could not establish secure connection”. I’ve never seen that particular one before. |
Clive Kenneth Semmens (2335) 9 posts |
I get “could not establish secure connection” quite frequently, at about 05:30 local time (UK) – which is about the time I get logged out every day. Is that a time you’re not often on, Chris? |
David Pitt (3386) 1248 posts |
So far I have had to delete cookies again today on the Mac’s Firefox and Edge on the windows laptop!
A bit of downtime at that sort of time is quite normal. The iPad told me it was because it was not connected to the internet! |
Clive Kenneth Semmens (2335) 9 posts |
That’s what I assumed, and never worried about it because it’s always (…) up again by about 06:00, and I just log in again. |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2100 posts |
Probably not; on a weekday I’d be on my way home from work. It seems that it’s normal so I won’t clutter up the thread any further with that red herring :) |
David Pitt (3386) 1248 posts |
I was just about to say that the early morning downtime might be relevant in that we know how to duck the issue temporarily but not when it re-occurs. As I had to reset here after the downtime then maybe that could have been a component of the issue, only to discover that Edge had to have its cookies deleted for a second time today. |
Rick Murray (539) 13406 posts |
I see that when I’m up early (remember I’m an hour ahead). I guess the server has some downtime for backup, snapshot, or some other management task…
Your user number is 2335, linking to account 5552. Maybe if you email the admins and ask really nicely, they could fix it. But, it’s worth noting that should one change anything, the forum will sulk. |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
This does seem to be a recurring problem – with the latest version of Firefox on Windows, I had to delete my cookies yesterday, and then again today. |
David Pitt (3386) 1248 posts |
Quitting and restarting the browser seems hazardous. |
Grahame Parish (436) 469 posts |
I had the problem all day yesterday until early evening with Firefox in W10 initially. My first thought at the time was to delete the ROOL cookies but it made no difference. I had the same problem from MS Edge and Chrome that I don’t use for this site and therefore didn’t have any ROOL cookies. I raised the issue on csa.misc. Later in the evening I read the forums after seeing a mention in csa.misc that it had been discussed here, so I tried deleting the cookies again and it worked properly straight away. Dave (Triffid) mentioned that he was using the same set up as me without problems yesterday, although I use W10Pro, not the Home version that most use, but I don’t expect that to be relevant. Having been auto-logged off by the site overnight, I’ve logged in again successfully this morning without any problems so far… |
Clive Kenneth Semmens (2335) 9 posts |
Here I am on my wife’s Mac, using Safari (but an old operating system) and no problems, but the problem has recurred on my own machine & has survived cookie removal. |
Rick Murray (539) 13406 posts |
Still happening (Firefox 60 something on Android). Cookie fiddling cures it until the IP address changes. There are three cookies: hubapp_shared_id, hubapp_session, and beastapp_session_id. |
Clive Kenneth Semmens (2335) 9 posts |
I’m stilll having no bother on my wife’s laptop (High Sierra) but last time I tried on my own Mac (Mojave) even deleting cookies didn’t let me in. Well, let me in as usual, but logged me out as soon as I tried to go to the Forum. |
Clive Semmens (2335) 3130 posts |
Deleting cookies just now has let me in. I wonder how long for… |
Rick Murray (539) 13406 posts |
Same on the browser of my Pocketbook Aqua ebook reader. Thankfullyoption to clear cookies worked. |
Stuart Painting (5389) 680 posts |
I ran into difficulties a month or two back (Firefox ESR, macOS Mojave). I was able to stay logged in by: Since then, I routinely stay logged-out while browsing the site, only logging-in when I want to post something. |
Clive Semmens (2335) 3130 posts |
Interesting. I do use “Open link in new tab” a lot – but not either to the Forum, or away from it, likewise the browser back button. As for how people behave on mobiles, that’s a completely closed book for me. Don’t use one. I normally stay logged in all day, going hours at a time without even having a tab for ROOL, but clicking on the bookmark to open the forum, where I’m usually still logged in. |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2100 posts |
My behaviour hasn’t changed; I normally use both of these and haven’t traditionally run into problems.
Conversely I’m on a static IP and have had to clear cookies four times since this issue began. |
Frederick Bambrough (1372) 817 posts |
Ghostery browser on Android, same problem as everyone else. Haven’t been able to maintain login all day. No facility for deleting individual cookies. Safari on macOS High Sierra, no problem. |
Rick Murray (539) 13406 posts |
This time no shared ID cookie, there was one from institikiapp (or something like that). Still had to nuke the cookies… :-/ Ghostery has no way of deleting individual cookies? That seems an odd omission in a browser concerned with privacy. |
Clive Semmens (2335) 3130 posts |
As far as I can see, Firefox (on Mojave at least) only allows you to delete “all cookies belonging to a particular website,” not individual cookies – nor does it allow you to inspect the cookies, without which deleting individual cookies would be tricky anyway. But at least it allows us to delete all the cookies belonging to riscosopen.org without having to delete everyone else’s as well! |
David Pitt (3386) 1248 posts |
Cookies can be inspected within Firefox. Open a tab containing the ROOL forum. From the Tools menu, select Web Developer, then Storage Inspector. A window opens at the bottom with Cookies as an entry on the left. That ends any semblance of expertise here! |
Clive Semmens (2335) 3130 posts |
Cheers, David! That’s more expertise than I had! 8~) |