Problem with deleting vBlite.. UPDATE I thought it was fixed, problem is still there

[giper]

Hi guys...

I am brand new to vBulletin software so please take it easy on me.

I recently installed a vBulletin forum on my website, version 3.6.8. patch 2. Today I decided to install the vBLITE style that I found here.

Once I installed it and and chose it to be my new style (user override, not default style) I realized that it did not give me the option to change back to the default style. Not a big deal right? Except now I had no way of accessing the admin link!! Long story short.... I over reacted!!! I decided the only way to delete that style was to access "phpMyAdmin" which controls the MySQL database on my server and delete it from the database.

My problem:

My forum is acting very strange now. When someone tries to login it says "Thank you for loging in, "XXXX" but when it goes back to the main page it still shows that person as being logged out. And if that person tries to post a reply or start a new thread it prompts them to log in again and the process starts all over again.

Edit: It also appears that once I am logged in, it wont let me log out. It says "All cookies have been cleared" but it still shows me as logged in.

I'm able to sign into the site on 2 of my 4 computers. And it doesn't seem to matter which browser I use, I still get the same result. I've tried clearing cookies several times and that doesn't seem to make a difference.

I'm thinking that some of the code got left behind because of the way I deleted the style. I even tried......

Repair / Optimize Tables
Update Counters
Diagnostics

Under the maintenance tab in the AdminCP with no luck.

If anyone has any suggestion where to look for a possible fix it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Brian.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

If you can still access the AdminCP, then you should be able to resolve this by adding a new style (no parent set). Once the new style is created all caches (datastore etc..) should have been updated and you should not have any more problems.

PS Unless advised by vB Support, it is not good practise to manually edit things in the database.

[C.ooder]

updated the forum

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Originally Posted by C.ooder

updated the forum

Can you please explain what you mean with this reply?

[giper]

Update:

After having my hosting company roll back my site twice the problem was still there. I then completely deleted my forum folder and database. I created a new forum folder, created a new database then reinstalled the forum from scratch. I tested the forum before importing my old PHPBB2 database when the only registered user was "Administrator" and the problem WAS STILL THERE!!!

(I even used different database and folder names so there was no chance of confusing new files with previous files)

I talked to the hosting company several times and they had no clue what was wrong. Finally they changed a few things on my account (I don't know what they did) and I deleted the redirect I had in place and now everything works fine again. I had a redirect from the old forum folder to the new forum....

http://www.myurl.com/forum -----> redirected to -----> http://www.myurl.com/forums (notice the "s" on the end)

I cant see how this would "confuse" a computer but it might have been my problem. I now renamed my old form folder to "oldforum" and named my new forum to the original "forum" so I no longer need a redirect.


Long story short...... I don't think deleting the style from the database had anything to do with my original problem. It was just a coincidence that I noticed the problem at that time.


Who knows..... It works now!!

Thank you to everyone who replied in this thread.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

What was the exact original redirect you had? I can imagine that if coded wrong the redirect would loop:

Got to
- .../forum <-- matches rule, redirecting to ./forums
- .../forums <-- might match the same rule and redirects again
- ...and again....

[giper]

I spoke too soon!!!

Now everything seems to work fine when I'm using firefox. Unfortunately, some people still insist on using Internet Explorer. I've tested my forum using IE and I'm still having the same problems as before. What could this be???? When you log in it says.... "thanks for loging in XXX", then the redirect page brings you back to the main page and shows me a still being logged out. So I try it again.... same result. and again, and again, and again....... (I tested it with IE version #6)

Then I click on a thread and it suddenly shows me as being logged in!!! what??? Then once it finally shows me as being logged in it wont let me log back out Again and again....... I also noticed the time on the bottom of my forum page is not always up-to-the-minute. I can click refresh several times in a row and never get the same time twice. It might be 15 minutes ago, 4 minutes ago, 8 minures ago..... other times it's dead on accurate???

I have the simplest of forums on my site but I keep having problems that stump even the people from vBulletin. I don't get it! The only changes I've made were the logo at the top of the page. Added a few links to the nav bar, removed one word from the confirmation email and edited the "first read" message. (the message members or guests see before they are logged in) I don't think any of those changes could have caused this problem. The forum was just freshly installed a few days ago.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the cookie system. (which I don't know much about) I have my forum cookie path set to "/" which was the default setting and my cookie domain is set to "(Blank)" also the default setting. Do I need to change these?

Does anyone have any ideas for me?



UPDATE: I've just installed IE7 on my computer and updated my Java to the latest version and I'm still having the same problem with IE. I hate computers.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

To troubleshoot this, please remove any hacks and disable your plugins, then see if you still have this problem.
Note: To temporarily disable the plugin system, edit config.php and add this line right under <?php

define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);

If so, reupload all the original vB non-image files (except install.php). Make sure you upload these in ASCII format and overwrite the ones on the server.

If your problem still exists, please create a new Style with no Parent set. Now browse the forum using this new style, do you still have the same problems? If you are troubleshooting login or guest issues, you will need to set this style as board default in the vBulletin Options.

[giper]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

To troubleshoot this, please remove any hacks and disable your plugins, then see if you still have this problem.
Note: To temporarily disable the plugin system, edit config.php and add this line right under <?php

define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);

Thank you for your reply.

As noted in my first post, I'm pretty new to vBulletin so please go easy on me.

Your reply is a bit over my head. When you say "please remove any hacks and disable your plugins"..... I'm not really sure what this means. I don't think I've installed any plugins..... I'm using the whatever was downloaded from vBulletin 3.6.8 patch2. I have not installed any other plugins that I know of. Unless the "Impex" is considered a plugin? Also what is considered a "hack"?

Sorry for the dumb questions but I honestly don't know.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me with my problem.