XF 1.3 New posts don't clear after reading/Problems accessing ACP

[XBones]

Having some strange behavior just starting this morning.

Couple of things...

1. When I try and log into the ACP is brings me right back to the login screen. If I clear the cache it then lets me log in. I quit the browser and restarted the computer. Same issues after a short time.
2. If I click the new posts button it shows new posts. I read the thread and hit new posts again and the thread I just read is still showing as new posts being there.
3. Issues logging out and back in...kind of the same issue. I logged out and logged in with as another user and then logged out. When I logged back in as admin and hit the new post button new posts were shown and it reverted to the other user I had logged in as.

Other users are reporting similar problems. How do I go about trouble shooting this? Is this a server issue? Kinda seems like it might be but I don't know what to tell the hosting company. Nothing has changed with the XF software. This just started happening this morning out of the blue

Any help or advice is appreciated.

 

[Paul B]

The description of the issues indicates possible server issues.
If there was a problem with an add-on it would have been evident from the start rather than just starting randomly with no changes being made.

You may want to contact your host and ask them if any changes have been made and to check out the server.

Do you have any form of caching enabled on the server?
Are you using Cloudflare?
Anything unusual in the setup?

 

[XBones]

The description of the issues indicates possible server issues.
If there was a problem with an add-on it would have been evident from the start rather than just starting randomly with no changes being made.

You may want to contact your host and ask them if any changes have been made and to check out the server.

Do you have any form of caching enabled on the server?
Are you using Cloudflare?
Anything unusual in the setup?

Thanks @Brogan.

My install is stock. Nothing added or changed. So I assume it's a server issue.

I'll contact them and see what they say. Kind of hard to explain the issues to them but I'll try.

 

[XBones]

Very strange. The hosting company "cleared the caching service and restarted Apache" but the problems persist.

I have cleared my browser cache, cleared browser history, quit and restarted the browser and even restarted the computer. Same problems. Really nothing to do with my computer/browser as other users are reporting the same issues.

It's like the cookie system isn't remembering what's going on. For example I logged out and logged in with a test user and when I click the new posts button it still thinks I'm logged in with the first log in credential. I mark all forums "read" and then see that the same threads are present with unread posts. When I experience the problem logging into the ACP it returns me to the login screen.. If I then clear my cache it wil l og me into the ACP.

What could be the issue? Any ideas?

 

[TPerry]

What could be the issue? Any ideas?

Are you buy chance bouncing between www and non-www on your site. If so, that's the problem.

 

[XBones]

Are you buy chance bouncing between www and non-www on your site. If so, that's the problem.

Nope. Always goes to www.

Just now I went to the site and clicked the new post button. One thread with a new post. I went to the first unread post, read it and then hit the new posts button and the same thread showed up. Then I left the site to write this post and went back and the new post was gone. It's never acted like this before ever.

Tried to log into ACP and it bounced me right back to the login screen. I "Empty Caches" out in my PW again and it logs me into the ACP.

 

[TPerry]

What hosting company? Shared, VPS or dedi? Is APC/xCAche or similar caching mechanism being used?
If managed hosting (shared, VPS or dedi) have they performed any recent updates to the server?

 

[XBones]

What hosting company?

A Small Orange. Switched over to them about two/three months ago and they have been great os far. Now this.

Shared, VPS or dedi? Is APC/xCAche or similar caching mechanism being used?
If managed hosting (shared, VPS or dedi) have they performed any recent updates to the server?

Yes it's a shared server but like i said it's been great. I don't know what they are using a far as caching is concerned. All I do know is up until today never had thisd problem and I knowq we have done nothing to the site for months. It's a stock install and been running fine. It's some sort of caching issue but I'm clueless (as usual).

 

[XBones]

Well another guy here is having the same problem with the same hosting company. Sure seems to be a server related issue. Think this needsto be elevated to a higher tech level? The guy helping me has tried hard but something is wrong we're not seeing.

Once again, here is what the support team last wrote me...

Thank you for the IP. Unfortunately it didn't lead to any answers. I've completely reset the caching service on this servers.

I found your ongoing support thread with Xenforo Here is the answer to a few of their questions.

We are not using APC/xCAche We have Nginx installed as a reverse proxy for Apache. You can bypass all the server side caching by appending the URL with ?nocache=1

for example
http://www.blackreign.net/raidernation/index.php?find-new/posts/?nocache=1

However this has not changed the behavior. I even disabled all server side caching all together and was receiving the same issue. This is because the 'New Posts' status is being cached by the browser. If you open the site using 'Private' or 'Incognito' mode you should notice that this issue is not happening at all. We have not made any recent changes or upgrades to the server recently that would effect this.

Could you provide this information to the Xenforo support and see what they have to say on the subject and see if they have any suggestions.

@Brogan @Tracy Perry

 

[TPerry]

Without being able to see exactly what they are doing on the back end (highly unlikely) I'm not even going to hazard a guess.... but if it just started happening recently, it's happening to more than 2 sites and there have been no new add-ons placed on those sites it's a pretty good indicator it's something that they have done.

 

[XBones]

Without being able to see exactly what they are doing on the back end (highly unlikely) I'm not even going to hazard a guess.... but if it just started happening recently, it's happening to more than 2 sites and there have been no new add-ons placed on those sites it's a pretty good indicator it's something that they have done.

Yep!

We'll see where this goes but I assume they wil elevate this to a higher level and figure it out. Thanks Tracy!

 

[RustyDogma]

I got final response and my site is fixed.. posting it here in case anyone ever has the same problem, they see our solution.

We had adjusted some settings regarding the way that data is cached on the browser side. I noticed that when I logged in, the login page just reloaded, but I was actually logged in (and likewise, clicking logout while logged in caused me to still be on the admin area page) - clearing my browser cache and then reloading would load the admin area. Then I went over the changes related to browser side caching in yesterday's update and found that we were essentially instructing the browser (via http headers) to cache data too heavily in such a way that caused this issue. We've rolled back that part of the configuration, so this should be all set for you, and for everyone, over the course of the next 24 hours.

 

[TPerry]

Had a feeling it was a change that they had made... sometimes it's the little stuff that can cause problems.

 

[XBones]

Yahooooo...mine fixed too!

 

[Paul B]

Good to hear.
I was fairly sure it was something like that, hence my first post.