Caching/Refreshing Issue

[ziycon]

I have a fresh install of 2.0.17 no mods and maybe 2 or 3 settings changed from the default install.

When I visit any page I have to do a CTRL + R to load the page correctly, another example is when I click logout nothing happens, I click logout a second time and I get a session error but the user is now logged out.

It's been awhile since I've used SMF so go easy on me 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Do you have an .htaccess?  What's in it?  Link to forum?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

So what is wrong on the first page load, before you do a hard refresh?
What settings have you for caching in the admin panel?
Who are you hosted with, and do you know if the host has some caching at play as well?

I just recently saw something very similar on GoDaddy, when GoDaddy's firewall and cache was at fault.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

GoDaddy.   That must be a new one, none of my GD guys have reported it.  All their servers are different, so it's always a pia to determine what's going on with them.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Yeah, never was a fan.

[ziycon]

Code Select Expand

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/$ /?ac=$1 [L]

This is all that is in the htaccess file. It's a site running on a local server as the website/forum is still in development.

The caching level is defaulted to level one.

Running on Apache 2.4.46 and PHP 7.3.26.

[GigaWatt]

Disable caching all together, see if that fixes the problem .

[ziycon]

Disable caching all together, see if that fixes the problem .

Tried that already, didn't make any difference.

[shawnb61]

Is your site using https?   Are all your settings visible in Settings.php & repair_settings.php https or are they still http?

A difference between your settings & https usage can cause flakiness.

[ziycon]

Is your site using https?   Are all your settings visible in Settings.php & repair_settings.php https or are they still http?

A difference between your settings & https usage can cause flakiness.

All settings on Settings.php & repair_settings.php are using HTTPS, Ive also confirmed that 'Force cookies to be secure' is enabled.

Still seeing the issue.

[GigaWatt]

This is all that is in the htaccess file. It's a site running on a local server as the website/forum is still in development.

I seriously doubt you've got Varnish running on that, but, just in case, let's disable it. Add this to .htaccess.

Code Select Expand

Header add "disablevcache" "true"

[ziycon]

This is all that is in the htaccess file. It's a site running on a local server as the website/forum is still in development.

I seriously doubt you've got Varnish running on that, but, just in case, let's disable it. Add this to .htaccess.

Code Select Expand

Header add "disablevcache" "true"

100% no Varnish running, vanilla Apache and PHP installed with mySQL module.

[GigaWatt]

All settings on Settings.php & repair_settings.php are using HTTPS, Ive also confirmed that 'Force cookies to be secure' is enabled.

What about database driven sessions. Is that enabled or disabled? If it's enabled, disable it, see if it solves the problem... and vice versa , if it's disabled, enable it .

And keep caching completely disabled while we're troubleshooting .

[ziycon]

Further information, I've tried the two themes that come with a vanilla install and the issues occurs on both.

Now I've found that the issue is only occurring on Firefox, it doesn't occur on Chrome or Edge/Internet Explorer.

Firefox addons:

• Cookie Manager - Cookie Editor

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

That would lead me to believe it could be something in the browser itself, perhaps preloading or some such playing pranks. Browsers have been experimenting with stuff recently quite a bit.

[ziycon]

That would lead me to believe it could be something in the browser itself, perhaps preloading or some such playing pranks. Browsers have been experimenting with stuff recently quite a bit.

I can confirm this, looks to be Firefox, since release 79 there are new caching features.

To test this I disabled caching by opening Firefox, going to 'Web Developer' then select the 'Network' tab and on ticking the 'Disable Cache' tickbox.

Forum works fine after disabling the caching in Firefox, need to see if I can find a way to get around this as anyone using Firefox will potentially be affected.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

I disabled caching by opening Firefox, going to 'Web Developer' then select the 'Network' tab and on ticking the 'Disable Cache' tickbox.

Forum works fine after disabling the caching in Firefox

Thanks for this! Sounds like something we should keep in mind as well should this start to be a recurring issue on the boards.

[ziycon]

I'd be very surprised if I'm the first or only person experiencing this, no other reports of issues with users using Firefox and SMF?

[Kindred]

I have not encountered this on any of my SMF sites.... but I definitely did see this sort of problem on a wordpress site that I was trying to update the theme for.  Had to do exactly as listed -- go to the network console and tell it to disable caching entirely.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Haven't seen this behavior on any forums I've been working, on various hosts.  Running FF 81.0.2.  Can we have a link to forum?