XF 2.1 Member always has two specific forums showing as read and not getting notifications when watches

[Stuart Wright]

There is a very experienced member of AVForums (an admin, actually) who has reported that two specific forums (and no others he knows about)

• always show as fully read (all the threads and posts)
• therefore never open at the first unread post in a thread
• don't trigger notifications when watched

It happens on different browsers on different devices.
He has logged out and back in.
He has tried watching and then unwatching the specific forums in question.
How can I diagnose the problem?

 

[Xon]

This sounds like the thread read date is forcing a thread to be considered as "unread", while the UI is showing it as "read". Visiting the last page of each thread which isn't trigger should reset things.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Thanks, but how can I work out which are "thread which isn't trigger"? I have been seeing this for many months - since way back into our XF1 days (but I don't know precisely when) and it will be a long slow job to visit each and every thread in the two forums.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Is there maybe an sql query I can run to wipe the last read date for a particular member?

 

[AndyB]

Has he tried using the link "Mark forums read" ?

 

[Harpers Tate]

Yes, I have. On the affected forums. I have not used Mark All read.

 

[Harpers Tate]

I have tried opening the last page of several threads in the two affected forums, both recent (new) and very old. No effect.
I have several other user accounts - regular members, Moderators etc., (that I use for testing). They don't have the same symptom.

So it's presumably peculiar to my main account.

 

[Lukas W.]

Have you checked if any add-on is interfering with that behavior? It may potentially also be a display issue by your style, even though very unlikely. Try if it is a problem with the default style with all add-ons disabled (temporarily ofc).

If that doesn't make it go away and you feel comfortable running SQL queries on your server, you can try purging your last read data from the database directly with the following queries:

DELETE FROM
    xf_forum_read
WHERE
    user_id = YOUR_USER_ID;

DELETE FROM
    xf_thread_read
WHERE
    user_id = YOUR_USER_ID;

Double-check that you're using the right ID, otherwise you'll end up deleting data of a different user.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Thanks. I doubt it's a display issue - at least, not simply cosmetic - because (I'm guessing here) a link to "last unread" would presumably work even if the unread "bold" indication were missing. And it doesn't. For all practical purposes, all posts in all threads in (only) the two affected forums (nodes and their children) are functionally "read" always.
@Stuart Wright Care to try that SQL in the xf2 Sandbox first?

 

[Harpers Tate]

@Lukas W.
Thanks. Job done successfully.

 

[Lukas W.]

If this becomes an issue again, then there's a piece of code that sets your forum read date to a date in the future.

 

[Stuart Wright]

If this becomes an issue again, then there's a piece of code that sets your forum read date to a date in the future.

In an addon?

 

[Lukas W.]

That'd be my guess.

 

[Xon]

If this becomes an issue again, then there's a piece of code that sets your forum read date to a date in the future.

Lack of NTP on the server could always been an issue. The resulting in a time skew from a wandering clock could punt the read date a little into the future.