Server issue iPad posting problem

[Bryan]

Affected version

2.0.1

I am not able to replicate or test this as I do not have an iPad to hand but I have had 4 different members from 3 different sites (all XF2) claiming that they cannot post to the forum on their iPads. Emptying the browser cache seems to make it work temporarily for some but the problem persists when they next launch the browser.

I am aware of a problem between iPads and Apaches keepalive setting so I'm not sure if that is at play here (keep alive is on) but none of them experienced this with xf1.

The problem they report is that they cannot get the keyboard to open when trying to post.

 

[Bryan]

Thought I'd better add that this happens on the default themes and with no unofficial addons.

 

[Chris D]

We're going to need some more detailed information to progress this unfortunately. That will include the iOS version, browsers being used and specific iPad model.

 

[Bryan]

Ok, I have sent out messages for more information.

Here's a little of what I've put together so far:

It happens on safari
It happens on Chrome
Firefox works ok

They can input the title but the message box does not open the keyboard.

I will update with versions as I receive them.

 

[Bryan]

Member 1:
iOS: 9.3.5 using mobile safari that is part of iOS (version unknown)
Chrome: 63.0.3239.73

Member 2:
iOS: 10.3.3 using safari (10.0)
Chrome: 63.0.3239.73

Awaiting others...

 

[Bryan]

Member 3:
iOS: 10.3.1 using safari (10.0)

Member 4:
iOS: 9.3.3 using safari (9.0)

 

[Bryan]

All have tried Firefox now and all say problem does not exist in Firefox.

 

[Chris D]

I've just registered on one of your sites and I cannot reproduce the issue, though I guess it's possible I've gone on one of the sites that isn't affected.

 

[Bryan]

Hi Chris,

Yes that site has a member who reported the problem (you can see it in the recent profile posts widget).

I don't have an iPad to test this myself, I would normally put an isolated incident down to user error but after 4 complaints I can only relay the info onto yourselves.

What versions were you using to test with?

 

[Chris D]

At this moment in time the iOS Simulator running as an iPad 2 and iOS 9.3.5. The simulator pretty much 90% of time usually has the same bugs evident as there are on a real device.

I actually have a real iPad Mini somewhere which my daughter uses and that should be running iOS 9.3.5 too. She doesn't currently know where it is Once I've located it, I'll do some more testing.

 

[Bryan]

If she's anything like my daughter it's probably out on the patio with a weeks rain on it

 

[KawaiiHannah]

If you want to give me a link I'll try on my iPad pro

 

[Bryan]

Hannah has tested it on an iPad Pro 10.5 on iOS 11 with no issues.

 

[Chris D]

Good news (sort of). I can reproduce it on a real iPad:


What's not such good news, however, is that the particular error message is somewhat confusing:

[Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) (attachment_manager-compiled.js, line 0)
[Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) (token_input-compiled.js, line 0)
[Error] Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) (editor-compiled.js, line 0)

Of course there's not actually any issue with accessing those files on other devices, they are indeed on the server.

Intermittently, some random files will not be found:



There are problems loading both the attachment manager and token input (for prefixes) on this page load, although the editor has loaded fine, but indeed sometimes the editor-compiled.js file doesn't load either.

I'm not immediately sure what is causing this, though the random nature of it, and not being able to reproduce it anywhere else, is making me suspect that it could be a server issue.

 

[Bryan]

Hi Chris, thanks for looking into this further.

I've just had a trawl through the logs for the last 24 hours and can indeed see you were getting 404's. However, you are the only person in the whole log to get 404s which would lead me to think it's more leaning towards a device issue, I can see many desktop and android users in the logs with no errors.

Before I made the original post I did some checking and iOS since version 8 has had a problem with NSURLSession and http keep alive, do you think this could be related as the server does indeed have keep alive enabled.

 

[Chris D]

It's possible it could be related to that. Apparently it's possible to target it off specifically for iOS devices using the following directive in your Apache server config:

BrowserMatch "iPhone|iPad|iPod" nokeepalive #All iPhones, iPads and iPods

 

[Bryan]

Interesting, I have added that and restarted Apache.

Of course now I have no way to test it. *cough* hint hint *cough*

 

[Bryan]

One of the members I reported above also claims that updating to the latest iOS fixed his issue, I've not been able to get the version he upgraded to out of him yet though as he's away.

 

[Chris D]

Upgrading to iOS 11 at least will fix it as I can't reproduce it there. I'm not actually certain it's specific to iPad but all our iPhones are iOS 11 already so can't test that.

However, testing on the iOS 9 iPad, It does indeed seem to be resolved now.

I can see the response headers containing Connection close now rather than Connection Keep-Alive and I can't get it to fall over so far.

Interestingly the first few refreshes did seem to lose the editor so might be worth getting them to empty their browser caches and try again, but I've done plenty now without any 404s.

 

[Bryan]

A keep-alive setting of enabled is the default for most servers, would a check in the xenforo requirements script be worth adding, your fix could be recommended if it is found to be on?

Just a thought.

Very glad we got to the bottom of it though, thank you for your help with it.