Topic: "Session verification failed" message on Merge Topics (SMF 1.11)

[philhyde]

After moving our forum to a new hosting site a few months ago, I now receive this messages when trying to merge topics:

"Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again. "

I've tried the various cookie related settings tricks, as well as restoring the default theme.  Nothing works.  Forum has database sessions enabled.

Thanks in advance!
Phil
www.houstonspotters.net

[Kays]

Hi, sorry for the slow response.
 
Something to check/set are all the settings in the Admin CP> Server Settings > Feature Configuration:

Enable local storage of cookies - unchecked
Use subdomain independent cookies - checked
Use database driven sessions - checked

If that doesn't help, try changing the cookie name.
 

[philhyde]

Thanks for the response!

I looked at all of those settings - just as you indicate they should be.

When trying to change (save) the cookie name, I receive the same error message! 

[Kays]

Have you tried another browser?

After you moved your site, did you run repair_settings.php? (What is repair_settings.php?)

[philhyde]

Tried other browsers and computers.

Did not run repair settings.

[Kays]

Do run repair_settings.php and make any recommended changes. That will reset the paths in the database.

After that go into the theme settings and correct the paths of any secondary themes.

[philhyde]

Where do I find that file?

[Kays]

All information should be on this page: What is repair_settings.php?

[philhyde]

OK sorry, didn't catch on that the file name was link to download. 

[philhyde]

Running repair_settings.php did not resolve my issue.  I was able to change the Cookie name, but that didn't help.

Paths of all themes are correct.

Incidentally, this error happens when using the default theme.

[Allusion]

Merging topics is a multi-page operation. Which page/URL produces the error message? Post the URL starting from the index.php part (no need to post the base forum URL); if there is a ;sesc= alphanumeric string at the end of the URL, replace it with something else before posting, for security reasons.

[philhyde]

index.php?action=mergetopics;sa=options;board=14.0;from=6386;to=6385;sesc=xxxxx

[Allusion]

Okay, how are you trying to merge topics? Do you start by clicking Merge Topics in topic display, or are you merging them from the topic list?

Example of merging from topic display:
index.php?topic=6386
Then click the Merge Topics button/link, which sends you to:
index.php?action=mergetopics;board=14.0;from=6386
Here you should see the list of topics to merge with, with a button next to each of them.

Look at the bottom of your browser window when you hover your mouse over the button; does the URL for this button contain the ;sesc=xxxx part at the end?

Do you get the error message when you click this button, or when you click the Merge Topics button in the next page (index.php?action=mergetopics;sa=options;board=14.0;from=6386;to=6385;sesc=xxxxx)?

Have you installed any mods that work on topics and posts?

[philhyde]

I click Merge Topics in the topic display.

This is the browser url when I hover over the -><- button

index.php?action=mergetopics;sa=options;board=14.0;from=6386;to=6385;sesc=xxx  (xxx was replaced, for security reasons.)

I get the error when I click Merge Topics on the following page.

To my knowledge, there aren't any mods like you describe.

[Allusion]

Does one of these topics (or both) have a poll, a calendar event or anything else that makes it/them different?

Do you get the error message when trying to merge any topics (create a few new topics to test), or just with these two?

[philhyde]

I was using two "test" topics.  Nothing special about them.

[Allusion]

Are there any errors in the SMF error log? If not, verify that the error log is enabled.

Can you attach Sources/SplitTopics.php and Themes/default/SplitTopics.template.php?

[philhyde]

No errors.

[Allusion]

I just compared your files with the same files from the SMF 1.1.11 Install package.

You're using an old version of SplitTopics.template.php. The up-to-date one is marked version 1.1.11 (in a comment at the top of the file) and contains the necessary session ID. There are no other differences, so you can go ahead and replace it with the one from the SMF 1.1.11 Install or Large Upgrade package and the error should go away.

It seems you missed this change when you updated your forum (manually, I guess?)

As a side note, versions of SMF files are updated only when the files themselves are updated, not every time there's a new SMF version. So the SplitTopics.template.php you have is marked version 1.1 in all SMF versions from 1.1 (Final) to 1.1.10. The file was updated for SMF 1.1.11, so the file version was bumped to 1.1.11.

This is something to keep in mind when you check the core SMF files on your forum against current versions. You can do this from Admin > Forum Maintenance > "Check all files against current versions." Out-of-date files will be shown with version numbers marked in red.

If any of the shown categories (Sources, Default Templates, Languages Files) is shown in red, clicking on the category name will expand it to show all files under that category.

The Sources category lists all core SMF files in the Sources directory. Default Templates are located in Themes/default/. You can find Language Files in Themes/default/languages/. Just so you know where to look.

[philhyde]

Thanks for that!  I will give it a try.

As for upgrading, I did it through the forum links.