Major cache, cookie or session issue after upgrade to 5.1.5

[DisasterDotCom]

So I posted all of these issues over at vBulletin.com, and I also opened up tickets. The response from support (after 24 hours) was "Clear your system cache and local browser cache". This was the first thing we tried before we even opened up tickets, and I'm not getting love over there so I thought I'd ask for suggestions here as to how to track these gremlins down. I'm so close to switching to Xenforo (found someone who will custom move our site to Xenforo for under $200, including users, threads and ensuring our URLs all match). Anyway...

We "upgraded" from 5.1.4 to 5.1.5. We immediately started having the following issues:

1. If someone posts a reply to a thread and then goes back to the main forum page, the new reply doesn't show up as the latest (the topic still shows 0 replies). If they then go back into the thread, the reply doesn't show up until they refresh the page. Obviously a browser cache issue somewhere, but it's happening consistently across our user base and can be consistently reproduced.
2. When people delete notifications, they aren't actually deleting. The number at the top of the page decrements, but when you click on a new page it goes back up and the notification you deleted reappears.
3. When people click on certain links within the forums (local internal links) they are logged out (cookie issue? We tried deleting ALL cookies for the domain and still have the same issues)
4. When we go to /forums, the sub-headings of the menu (i.e. Today's Posts, Who's Online, etc.) don't show up, but they do when you go any other page (such as /forums/forum)
5. Using the search in the upper right corner of AdminCP logs the admin/mod out

These issues all seem to be related to a caching or cookie issue, or maybe a session issue somewhere. They are causing MASSIVE usability issues across our forums. Please help!

[ForceHSS]

Many reasons I am with vb4. Would your host not move you for free or would you not think of using vb4 it would mean a fresh install

[DisasterDotCom]

If I leave vb5, I want to move to a platform that's modern and under development. vb4 has lots of plugins and features, but it is no longer under active development. Mobile access is VERY important, and Xenforo beats out vb4 on this. But.. I would prefer if this thread focuses on the issue at hand as opposed to switching platforms (I shouldn't have mentioned that in my original post). Also, we're self-hosted on a distributed server system, so it's up to us (me) to do whatever is needed.

[ForceHSS]

If you go to Cookies and HTTP Header Options and enable "Add No-Cache HTTP Headers does it work

[DisasterDotCom]

Sorry... updated the vbulletin.com thread with this info but not this one...

I did that a couple of hours ago. I'm having a hard time telling if it worked or not. I enabled it then cleared the system cache, and now I see sporadic results. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In every case, I've verified that no-cache, no-store, max-age=0, must-revalidate are in the header.

[Lynne]

What are your Cookie Domain and Cookie Path in AdminCP > Settings > Options > Cookie Settings?

Did you make sure your cookie prefix is set to the same thing in both the root config.php file and the /core/includes/config.php file?

Did you add anything to the default 5.1.5 .htaccess file?

[DisasterDotCom]

So... the root config had an empty cookie prefix, and the core/includes config had "bb" as the cookie prefix. These files have not changed since prior to the upgrade, but I set the root config to also be "bb". I then turned off the no-cache, cleared the system cache, and the problem is still there.

The cookie path is /. The .htaccess file has not changed since August. The only difference between my .htaccess and the one that shipped with 5.1.5 is the rewritebase (my file - /forums/, stock file is just /).

I thought it might also be a memcached thing so I turned off memcache (I assume VB falls back to file based storage then?) but that didn't make a difference either.

The whole thing where refreshing the pages makes the new stuff appear.. has to be a browser caching issue somewhere, but with it being userbase-wide it has to be coming from the server side somewhere.

P.S. There were definitely some changes made to the software that didn't make it into the release notes. I also noticed that the manual sitemap generation required me to put in a new full path to the sitemap location before it would work. There's nothing in the release notes about this change.

[ozzy47]

IMO, I would restore your 5.1.4 backup you took before upgrading, then mirror your live site on a test site. Then upgrade the test site to 5.1.5 and see if you can work out the issues on the test site.

[helenblog]

lol vb5 still have more problems, it maybe reason why i'm not ready go with vb5, still using vb4 and feeling good with it.

I think somone should consider and studying before installing a vb version, sure it is suitable for your requirement and your web host.

[ozzy47]

Lets stick with the original post, and not turn this into a version discussion, stick with trying to help the OP.