XF 1.3 Spam Cleaner Not Doing Anything When Attempting To Delete All User Activity

The Grand Potentate

Well-known member
So I ran into this problem today where the spam cleaner doesn't seem to be doing anything. I had a user ask me to delete his user name and all of his posts. I figured the easiest way was to use the cleaner. I set the maximum options at 10,000 for all three options, and then went in and clicked on spam in one of his posts. All boxes present are checked. I hit 'clean up', the progress bar runs, and then it just stops and nothing changes. No activity is present in the log. I've tried this now in two separate browsers and I can't get it to work. Suggestions?

Also, as a related question, how can I get the cleaner to work on posts of this user that have been quoted?
 
Witch Version of XF are you running tho?

Please note that the spamcleaner might be a bit buggy when you are using XF 1.1.*

I saw that the "Delete posts" addon also didn't work for you. If you are using any outdated version of XF, please considder updating to atleast 1.2.* :D
 
You can also take a try using the unbuild health checker tools.. These are located in the "Tools" Section of the AdminCP

If you are using a CDN like CloudFlare you might want to change the caching level. CDN's caching sometimes ****s with "Floating" menu's and other "non-static" content
 
So I ran into this problem today where the spam cleaner doesn't seem to be doing anything. I had a user ask me to delete his user name and all of his posts. I figured the easiest way was to use the cleaner. I set the maximum options at 10,000 for all three options, and then went in and clicked on spam in one of his posts. All boxes present are checked. I hit 'clean up', the progress bar runs, and then it just stops and nothing changes. No activity is present in the log. I've tried this now in two separate browsers and I can't get it to work. Suggestions?

Also, as a related question, how can I get the cleaner to work on posts of this user that have been quoted?
How many posts does he have?

If he has a lot of content it's very possible that you are hitting various server limits, such as max_execution_time when processing him. Maybe there are some PHP or Apache logs that may have logged more information assuming nothing is being logged in the XF Server Error log?

Spam cleaner isn't purpose built for clearing thousand of messages. Typically a spammer would be cleaned after tens of messages rather than hundreds or thousands.

One option would be to change his name to something like "Deleted User" and then delete him from the Admin CP. All of his content will now have the name "Deleted User" but the content will still exist.

Another option would be to delete his posts using a database query.

To answer your final question, there is no way to delete content where he has been quoted.
 
How many posts does he have?

If he has a lot of content it's very possible that you are hitting various server limits, such as max_execution_time when processing him. Maybe there are some PHP or Apache logs that may have logged more information assuming nothing is being logged in the XF Server Error log?

Spam cleaner isn't purpose built for clearing thousand of messages. Typically a spammer would be cleaned after tens of messages rather than hundreds or thousands.

One option would be to change his name to something like "Deleted User" and then delete him from the Admin CP. All of his content will now have the name "Deleted User" but the content will still exist.

Another option would be to delete his posts using a database query.

To answer your final question, there is no way to delete content where he has been quoted.
About 4,600. No server error logs. Not sure how to check the php/ apache logs.

It's weird the way the cleaner runs. It just sort of gives up mid attempt.

Unfortunately, the reason he wants to be deleted is privacy related so deleting the content of the posts is essential to the process.

Oddly, I tried Andy's delete posts addon and it brought backs errors as well. Kind of wonder if there's a larger issue at play.

I'd be willing to give the database query a go but have absolutely no idea how to do that.
 
So I ran into this problem today where the spam cleaner doesn't seem to be doing anything. I had a user ask me to delete his user name and all of his posts. I figured the easiest way was to use the cleaner. I set the maximum options at 10,000 for all three options, and then went in and clicked on spam in one of his posts. All boxes present are checked. I hit 'clean up', the progress bar runs, and then it just stops and nothing changes. No activity is present in the log. I've tried this now in two separate browsers and I can't get it to work. Suggestions?

Also, as a related question, how can I get the cleaner to work on posts of this user that have been quoted?
I experience this lately and it's server resource related.
You current server can't handle that transaction, 10K of post to delete?
 
Are you sure your webserver meets the (additional) system requerements for XenForo

Please check the php information of your webserver
Database server
  • Server: Localhost via UNIX socket
  • Server type: MySQL
  • Server version: 5.5.34-cll-lve - MySQL Community Server (GPL)
  • Protocol version: 10
  • User: dressedw@localhost
  • Server charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)
Web server
  • cpsrvd 11.42.1.12
  • Database client version: libmysql - 5.0.96
  • PHP extension: mysqli

My current version of pHp listed in cPanel is 5.3
 
Well, that should work by base..

Since when is this problem occuring? If it never worked before you might want to contact your Webhost for possible error logs or weard perfomence peaks during the cleaning progress. If the Spamcleaner does randomly stop without a error you might got a chance that your webhost can help you further (Normaly this kind of behaviour should give errors, possible not logged but it should atleast being displayed)
 
You can also check a detailed server information (php + extensions) using a php info code

to do so please follow these steps:

1. Create a php file in the domains root directory called "phpinfo.php"
2. Edit the file and add the following line to it
PHP:
<? phpinfo(); ?>

3. Browse to <yourdomain>/phpinfo.php and see the results.

If you are not acquainted to the requerements of XF you can also send me a link of the phpinfo file :D
 
It's really not going to be a requirements issue.

XenForo can't expect every server to be able to handle the mass deletion of thousands of records in one transaction.

That would struggle on even the most advanced server configurations.
 
You can also check a detailed server information (php + extensions) using a php info code

to do so please follow these steps:

1. Create a php file in the domains root directory called "phpinfo.php"
2. Edit the file and add the following line to it
PHP:
<? phpinfo(); ?>

3. Browse to <yourdomain>/phpinfo.php and see the results.

If you are not acquainted to the requerements of XF you can also send me a link of the phpinfo file :D
Is there a specific bit of info you're looking for there? The whole PHP output is pretty long.

It's really not going to be a requirements issue.

XenForo can't expect every server to be able to handle the mass deletion of thousands of records in one transaction.

That would struggle on even the most advanced server configurations.
Ok, how about deleting them in small batches then?
 
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