Some weird things happening on my forum...

[Veee]

Hello,

It came to my attention recently that some members of my forum are getting a notification of new PMs. When they go to check there's nothing new.

There's also something odd happening. This one happened to me as well. When I login and check the frontpage of my forum, instead of seeing my name, avatar and my info, I get the info of another user. Just a few minutes ago this happened again. When I check my profile I am myself again, or even if I refresh the page it goes back to my account as admin.

Someone else also reported that when they check the "topics with new replies" page, they see topics with new replies and when they go check, there's nothing new.

Our host recently switched us to a new server, could that be it? What can we do to fix these things? They only started happening after our host moved us to the new server.

Please hope someone can help us out. Thank you!

[Illori]

ask your host to disable varnish cache.

[Veee]

ask your host to disable varnish cache.

Thank you. I'll ask them about that.   

[Veee]

Update:

Contacted my host and they told me they cannot disable varnish cache because they don't have it on their server.

What else could all this mean?

[Veee]

now one of the members got "my profile" when refreshing the forum and he was able to click on the "admin" panel. He just didn't access it because it thankfully has that step to ask for the password again.

I really am at a loss for why this started happening now. Other than the varsnish cache is there anything else making this happen?

[Illori]

not that we know of.

[Veee]

Thank you.

I think I'll switch to a different host and see if this stops happening. It only started happening after we moved... I didn't do any changes nor did I install any new mods...

[lurkalot]

now one of the members got "my profile" when refreshing the forum and he was able to click on the "admin" panel. He just didn't access it because it thankfully has that step to ask for the password again.

I really am at a loss for why this started happening now. Other than the varsnish cache is there anything else making this happen?

Certainly sounds like a varnish, or similar issue.  You sure they're not telling you pork pies?  Try putting your web address into something like this, and see if it's running. https://isvarnishworking.uk/

[Veee]

now one of the members got "my profile" when refreshing the forum and he was able to click on the "admin" panel. He just didn't access it because it thankfully has that step to ask for the password again.

I really am at a loss for why this started happening now. Other than the varsnish cache is there anything else making this happen?

Certainly sounds like a varnish, or similar issue.  You sure they're not telling you pork pies?  Try putting your web address into something like this, and see if it's running. https://isvarnishworking.uk/

If only.. I really wanted it to be something you all knew about so I could fix this.

I just tried that website and it gives me "Fail! Varnish is not running on that domain."     

So now another member got one of the mods profiles and was able to see the quick moderation options where they can quickly select topics. I wonder if they are able to do something, because when they refresh the page it usually goes back to their own profile. Though sometimes they get to see the same things as staff, even areas that only staff can see. Right now I have my forum in maintenance mode because I am starting to freak out a little bit.

Will it help if I do a fresh install of the files? Can someone point me to the steps for doing one? I've done one once but somehow the list with the old mods was still showing. They weren't installed but they were listed in the packages and mods page. I don't know if I did something wrong. 

[Kindred]

The only thing we have ever seen that acts like this is a server side caching system, like varnish... so, maybe the host is not actually running varnish, specifically...  but I bet you theyvare running some caching system on the server level

[Veee]

The only thing we have ever seen that acts like this is a server side caching system, like varnish... so, maybe the host is not actually running varnish, specifically...  but I bet you theyvare running some caching system on the server level

It sure seems it's a cache issue. They told me they cleaned the server cache in general. It didn't help. It still happens. I am sadly going to switch to a different hosting service in the morning and hope this doesn't happen again.

It only started happening once they moved to a new server so it has to be because of that.

Thank you so much to all that tried to help, it's really appreciated. 

[Veee]

Hi,

so.. this started happening again...
I moved to a different host and did a fresh install of files, just in case, and everything was fixed. For a while. I don't believe they did anything on  this server I am now but I'll ask. It's been three months and it happened again on a different place. Do you think it can be related to a mod or the theme I am using?

What if I move again, everything seems fine and then after a few months this starts happening again?

[Steve]

Please list your mods after you talk to your host.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Who is your host?